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Show INTER-MOUNTAI- boon cemented together since it was formed. There is a theory that the gold was precipitated from the waters of Great Salt Lake, but the waters of that lake, at their highest (the Bonneville period) did not come even within 1000 feet of the lowest mine in camp, while at that time they were fresh and carried no gold. The latest, the most absurd, and the one most commonly accepted theory is that the gold was precipitated from an ancient sea when the strata were laid down, because the gold lies along the bedding and often among the fossils. The fossils show that the beds belong to the carboniferous age, and were laid down in the ocean which then extended over nearly all the world. Why these rocks should be so rich in a little area only a few miles square and be wholly lacking elsewhere in mineral, why they should have such an abundance of fossils and at the same time carry enough arsenic to kill all the animals many times over has not been explained. However wild these theories, their authors have not been selfish, for as yet they have located only a small part of the ancient carboniferous sea. They have staked out only all the mountains in the Camp Floyd district, most of Rush valley for fifteen miles westward, though bedrock is not less than 5000 feet below the surface in the center of the valley, but they have considerately left open for location small portions of Cedar valley and large portions of Utah valley, while a beginning has not yet been made on- the Wasatch mountains, Colorado, Iowa, or even Pennsylvania, which were all under the same sea at the same time as Mercur. - MINERALIZATION. I believe that the silver vein was mineralized by acid solutions, carrying large quantities of silica and minute quantities of silver in solution, flowing along the bedding of the strata through loose or broken rock, which strata dipped gently from near Ophir to beyond Sunshine, where they were lost in the valley. The strata seem to have dipped more to the eastward than to the westward, and were therefore more heavily mineralized. I believe that the source of this infiltrating solution which dissolved the lime of the strata and replaced it with silica was the eruptive rocks of the Ophir district, beyond the divide. I believe that all the gold veins were mineralized at the same time and that that time was long after the Ophir mineralization, probably, in which the silver vein was made. I believe that the mineralization was accomplished by a solution of sulphuric acid carrying iron with the possible addition of a very limited amount of other acid; that it flowed, as in the case of the silver vein, along the bedding, and coming from the birdseye porhyry or similar eruptive rock connected with it, wrhich broke through the lime strata, allow- ing the heated solutions that came up through or along the porphyry to flow out along the bedding as before. This porphyry is heavily charged with such minerals as would cause the ore bodies' if it were leached out by acids in the usual way. These wraters were doubt MINING REVIEW. N hot when they left the porphyry, but they soon cooled without seeming to have lost their load of precious met- NEWS less als. They flowed along the bedding for miles and slowly lost their metals by crystallization resulting from the decomposition of the sulphuric acid, the metals being left behind in the form of arsenical pyrite carrying gold and mixed with a small portion of mercury. At some later time, as the canyons were being cut dowm by erosion, these gold veins were drained of their water and the arsenical pyrite at once began to rust, or oxidize, as wre call it, gradually falling to pieces and leaving the gold as an incrustation on the rocks in the form of a sulphide, with about 25 per cent of native gold, while the arsenic and mercury or most of them, with some of the gold, flow'ed along the bedding to the bottom of the canyon and thence out Into the streams, or wTas left in the veins at or near the w'ater level as orpiment and realgar, cinnaber, etc. This only can explain the richness of the Golden Gate and Sunshine mines and the leanness of the claims above the Sunshine and of those on the top of the range and along the drained slopes. It will also be seen that this theory requires larger ore bodies as you sink on the dip and get out of the drained area, especially in the region above the Sunshine mine. There is also more likelihood of finding paying ores where the strata sink into the valley on the west than at any other place that It is also probable that all the ore bodies will eventually thin out on the dip as they get far below the water level, for the acid solutions would not go far below the permanent on side. CLEAN-U- P. There are 5000 locations in the Camp Floyd district. The Steen stamp mill is now' in oper- ation at Boise. There are 1200 mineral collectors in the United States. Mercur will vote on the question of incorporating on April 21st. The Idaho Mining Exchange has nearly three hundred members. A Denver mining paper locates the Geyser mine and mill at Park City. Spokane papers figure that 500 miners will enter the Colville reservation this summer. for Hailey, Ida., was three days last week, no trains arriving during that time. The Gold Dust mine, near Leesburg, Ida., show's 22 feet of pay ore, and the vein is 75 feet wide. e A ton lot of ore from the Fool mine at De Lamar, Nev., April snow-boun-d fifty-thre- sampled $213 per ton. The Anaconda company has purchased another duplex Reidler pump from Fraser & Chalmers. Two Cripple Creek brokers have each received an order from Eastern capitalists to buy a mine for a million dollars. The placers near Rico, Colo., will be worked on an extensive scale this season. Nuggets worth $3 to $8 have been panned. Fraser & Chalmers are erecting a combination mill on the propof the Florida Mining company, erty at Silver City, Ida. A fifty ton lot of Golden Gate arsenical ore has been sent to the Hanauer smelter for the purpose of making roasting experiments. 20-sta- mp Every northbound steamer carries miners to Alaska. It is thought over 2000 men will go to the Yukon and Cook's Inlet this season. The Golden Fleece, Colorado, has declared its usual monthly dividend of wrater level, if they percolated dowTn 3 cents per share. This is the twenty-nint- h consecutive dividend. from above, as I believe they did. Asbestos is found in great quantities LITIGATION. on the strip of land in northwestern to be annexed to It has been assumed that the apex Arizona proposed in other minerals. is rich also Utah. It theory must hold at Mercur as in other A great deal of prospecting and deplaces. I was harassed by the same velopment work is reported in Farmthought at first, but now I think I see ington, and several companies have a better and wiser way. This theory been incorporated to operate properties requires that the claims highest up in that vicinity. The United States Lithographic Stone must take all those on the dip, but as company will erect a mill at Clear the strike also has a dip or pitch, and Creek for the purpose of polishing their as claims have been located on it, their product, considerable quantities of dip will be the same as the strike of which are now shipped east. The Four Aces company will be the other claims and wTill result in endless the Tin-ti- c entanglements that no court can un- first to use aitgasoline hoist in an order having placed ravel. In addition there will be a new writhdistrict, & a Chalmers for Fraser point of law, as to wrhether a vein can power plant of this character. have more than one apex, for there are A Johannesberg, South Africa, editor, several apexes on the same vein in this commenting upon the bullion producof the United States, says that camp, and as to what will be the legal tion steps are being taken to revive interof so claims The affected. standing est in the mines of Philadelphia and common sense way out of Chicago. simple and The New' York stockholders of the all these difficulties is to limit all claims Sutro propose to bring by their end and side lines, vertically suit Tunnel companySutro for the reagainst Adolph extended; that is, to call them flat veins covery of four or five million dollars in spite of the dip of fifteen to thirty and half a million shares of stock. The officers of the Portland company, degrees. This view is also greatly operating in Cripple Creek, paid themstrengthened by the fact that nearly selves $56,000 for their services last throughout the camp the slope of the year, and passed the March dividend. hill wrhere a claim is located is iden- The stockholders are making a roar. tical with the dip of the vein, and A new' strike is reported on the eighth In addition the veins are bedded veins level of the Yosemite No. 1 at Bingham, the ore being of such value as and not fissures. $15 to $20 per ton. The mill, Whether my views given above are will net destroyed fire, will be reby recently the correct ones the future alone can built at once. decide, but as you have requested my High-grad- e ore, carrying 120 to 300 ounces silver, has been encountered on opinion, you have it now. the 800 level of the Dalton & Lark at This is said to be the richest Mining stock often goes up at the Bingham. ore yet uncovered in that great propsame speed at which the shaft goes erty. down. 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