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Show WESTERS MINING GAZETTEER. 3! IXEll Ah VEl'.X- S- now THEY WE11E we have every reason to believe LEADVILLE OUTPUT that all the strata more recent than the sedimentary FILLED. Lau-renlia- n Wc have examples that seem to settle the question in favor of chemical precipitation from ascending hot water and steam. In the Steamboat Springs of Western Nevada, for example, we in fact catch mineral veins in the process of formation. These springs issue from extensive fissures which have been or are filling with silicious veinstone that carries, according- tcr'M. Laur, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese, sulphide of iron, sulphide of copper, and metallic gold, and exhibits the banded structure so frequently observed in mineral veins. In regard to the precise chemical reactions which take place in the disposition of ores in veins, there is much yet to be learned, and this constitutes an interesting subject for original investigation, which I earnestly commend to those who are so situated that they can pursue it. It may be noticed, however, that the thermal springs which are now forming deposits like contain alkaline carbothose in fissure-veins- , nates and sulphides, and we have every reason to believe that highly carbonate alkaline waters containing sulphurated hydrogen under varying conditions of temperature and pressure are capable of taking into solution and depositing all the metals and minerals with which we meet in mineral veins. To these necessarily brief notes on the filling of mineral veins should be added some interesting examples of the mechanical tilling ol fissures which have recently been brought to light in western mining. These are furnished by the remarkable deposits of gold and silver ore in the Hassick and Hull Domingo, near Rosita, Colorado, and the Carbonate Mine at Frisco, Utah. All these are apparently true fissure veins, filled to as great a depth as they have yet been penetrated, by well rounded pebbles which have fallen or been washed in from above. The porous mass thus formed has been subsequently saturated with a hot ascending mineral solution, which has cemented the pebbles and bowlders together into a conglomerate ore. In the Hassick this ore consists of rich telluride of silver and gold, freed gold, and the argentiferous sulphides of lead, zinc, copper ami iron. In the Hull Domingo and Carbonate mines the cementing matter is argentiferous galena. That the pebbles and bjwlders have come from above is distinctly shown by the variety in their composition and the organic matter associated with them. In Hull Domingo and the Hassick the pebbles consist of various kinds of igneous rock, mingled with which in the latter are masses of silicilied wood and charcoal; wdiile in the Carbonate Mine the pebbles are mainly trachyte; hut with these are others of limestone and quartzite. Fossils and other foreign bodies have before this been found in mineral veins, and Von Cotta mentions the occurrence of quartz pebbles extending to the depth of loo fathoms in the CSruor Lode at Schcmniiz, Saxony; but no conglomerate veins like those mentioned above are known to exist elsewhere, and thevi constitute another of the manv new' forms of ore deposit which exploration of the rich and varied mineral resources of the United Suites has brought to light. In regard to the ultimate source of the metallic matters which give value to our ore deposits but little can he said with certainty. The oldest rocks of which we have any knowledge, the Luurontian, contain gold and copper, which are indigenous, hence as old as the rocks that contain them, and have been simply oiuvnt rated and made conspicuous in the pro cess oftheir metamorphism. These rocks are 'ill sedemonts and the ruins of continents, Jv their erosion they have in him furnished gold, copper, iron, etc., to later pediments bv mechanical dispersion ami chemical solution. We now lind gold evervwhere in the drift from the Canadian Highlands, and pre-existi- ng A careful investigation shows that the mines have acquired a slight impregnation of several metals irom them in addition to are producing nearly 1,000 tons of oro every hours. Fryer llill, with its eight what they have obtained from other sources, twenty-fou- r and we may conclude that the distribution of working mines, produces every week 2,300 many of the metals is almost universal. Sea tons of ore, divided between the mines as folwater has been proved to contain gold, silver, lows; Chrysolite, 350 tons; Little Chief, 100 tons ; Little Pittsburg, 125 tons ; Robert E. Lee, 700 tons; Arnic, 050 tons; Hunkin, 125 tons; Matchless, 175 tons; Hibernia, 75 tons; Total, 2,300 tons. Carbonate Hill has ten producing mines and ships weekly 1,732 tons as follows: Morning Star, 700 tons; Evening Star, 450 , tons Catalpa, 105 tons; 72 tons. Crescent-- 0 tons ; Henrietta, 90 tons; Waterloo, GO tons ; Little Giant, 50 tons ; Yankee Doodle, GO tons ; Carbonate, 45 tons. Total, 1,732 tons. Iron Hill and California Gulch ship 1,900 tons of smelting oro per week, as follows: Iron group of Mines, 1,200 tons; Silver Wave, 285 tons; Silver Cord, 90 tons ; OroLa Plata, ISO tons; Argentine. 90 tons. Total L900 tons. In additition to this list, Hrcece, Yankee and Printer hoy Hills, Hall Mountain and Little Frying Pan Gulch produce 778 tons: Little Ellen Hill mines, 70 tons; Dryer, 24 tons ; Long & Derry, 30 tons , Florence, 45 tons, Littlo Johnnie, GO tons; Venture, 30 tons; Welsh, 30 tons; Green Mountain, 30 tons ; Reveille, 30 tons ; Colorado Prince, GO tons , Double Decker, 30 tons ; Brian Roru, 45 Total number of Total, 77S tons. unusual concentration of metallic matter, and tons. none of the piecious metals has ever been de- mines producing at present, 37. Total oro tected in them. produot of the camp per week, G,710. The metallic solutions which have formed our are deposits have been ascribed to two sources. THOSE PALMY DAYS, (ne theory supposes that they have leached California will never see the like of those diffused metals through rocks of different kinds comparatively near the surface. The palmy days when her rich mines were being latter view' is the one that commends itself to opened and Nevada silver mining was in its the writer. However probable such a tiling youth, observed a gray beaded broker yesseems, no evidence of the existence of distinct terday. Were vou out there? metallic or metalliferous zones in the interior I was. I was a clerk in a dry goods store of the earth lias been gathered. On the contrary, volcanic emissions, which may be sup- during most of the ciuze. All! tho.su were inposed to draw from a lower level than water citing times. I was keeping company with a could reach, arc not especially rich in metallic seamstress, One Wednesday night I put my matter, and the thermal waters which have arm around her and asked her to marry me. by their deposits filled our mineral veins must She almost fainted with joy. The next day I have 'derived their metallic salts from a zone called around to see if her cold in the head not many feet, from the surface. The mineral was better and she had gone. Unbeknown to springs, which are now doing a similar work, me she had saved a little money, bought Dead are but part of a round of circulation of sur- Horse when it was down to six, and in one day face water, which, falling from the clouds, pene- it jumped to 570 and put 825,000 in her pocktrates the earth to a point where the temperature et. She came out in a 500 wardrobe the is such as to drive it hack in steam. ThD, next Sunday, and when I edged up t her she with iluid water under pressure and highly jlnokid me square in the face and said young heated, possessing great solvent power, may he man, if you dont slop following me I shall call forced through vast beds of rock, and these bo die police!1 It was the cold shake with a toil effectually leached by the process. Should of ice added. And didnt you speculate? such rocks contain the minutest imaginary Dont, ask mi. It makes me sad to think quantity of the metals, these must inevitably be taken into solution, and thus How toward of it. Youve heard of the Comstock? Yes. or to the surface to be deposited when, by Well, a chap came along one day who owndiminished temperature and pressure, the solvent power of the menstruum is diminished. ed the whole of it. He was clear discouraged It is evident- from these facts that we cannot and wanted to sell out, for he hadnt even trace the historv of the metals back bevond struck color yet. He offered me the mine for the Laurcntian age. And since we find them 10 but I declined. He kept dropping and diffused in greater or less quantity through the dropping, and fi nail v said he'd sell out fora sedimentary rocks of nil ages, and also lind ielean white shirt. He hadnt had one on in !six years, and he thought it might change his processes in action which are removing and reI had an extra one, but when ho came depositing them in the form of the ore deposits luck. we mine, it is not necessary to look further to see it he hacked out. The Haps were gone. How?' than this for a sufficient theory of their formaWhy, I had cut cm off for handkerchiefs, tion. Prof. J. S. Xwhirry. same us wc nil used to do in those daws. He was a man who preferred shirt-tailto handSixcK the recent reduction at Tombstone. 1 offered to throw in a kerchiefs, and, though Arizona, of the price of reducing ore from 2o lot of hair oil to time him for funerals, he up to 15 per ton, several of the smaller claim went, away and traded his mine for a new pair owners around the earn) are making arrange- of Ah me! lets suspenders and a red neck-tie- . ments to work their own mines, and at the I the subject. always think what a same lime develop them. Tombstone has change fool 1 was to pay so much attention to my nose accomplished marvels when the age of the in those days. Two shirt-flahnnkcrehicfs camp is considered. heat me out of millions of dollars. Wall Stri ct The mincial belt which passes through Dally Xcu'x. Tombstone is said to be 100 miles long and The Anna mine, Yankee Fork distiict, has from one to two miles wide, and perlectlv copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel, iron, manganese, and arsenic; and there is little doubt that all the other metals would bo found thero if the search were sufficiently thorough. Hence sedimentary rocks of every age must huvo received from the ocean in which they were deposited some portion of all the metals, and for the formation of metalliferous deposits some method of concentrating these would alone be required. A pretty theory to explain such concentration through the agency of marine plants and animals has been suggested by some German mineralogists, and amplified by Professors Pumpelly and T. S. Hunt. Plants have been credited with the most active agency in this concentration; but evidence is still wanting that either plants or animals have played any important part in the formation o our mineral deposits. The remains of sea weeds are found in the greatest abundance in a number of our Palaeozoic rocks, and it is almost certain that the carbonaceous ingredient in our great beds of bituminous shale has been derived from this source, net we find there no Glass-Pendry- , ! i j j I s p straight from the Iluacliucj mountains to been sold for Stein's Peak. per month. 20,001); in installments of 5,01)0 |