Volume 24 (1872) (424 pages)

386 SCIENTIFIC PRESS. {June 22, 1872. (GoRRESPONDENCE. Mines of Humboldt County, Nevada. [Written for the Sorenririo Press.) Wrecks Everywhere—Renewing the Struggle. In no part of Nevada, perhaps, has the business of mining experienced such vicissitides as here in the Humboldt country, passing during its hrief period that has elapsed since its inauguration twelve years ago,from the most active and hopeful to the most abject condition; which point it reached some seven or eight years ago. Remaining at this low ehh for several years, things took a turn, and have since been slowly hut steadily mending. First and last, there have heen put up within the -limits of this county not less than eighteen or twenty mills, of one kind and another. Of this number six or seven have heen destroyed or removed elsewhere; abont an equal number ie standing idle and the balance are now ruuning, with one, the Genaca, at Winnemucea, nearly ready for operations. This isa poor record of Humboldt milliug and miuiug industry, though not worse than that of such minor callings as happened meantime to engage a portion of her population. Every class and pursuit suffered alike; her towns as wellas her mills haye gone to decay or been swept wholly out of existence; go where you will and you see deserted villages and cabins, as well as dilapidated mills and half completed shafts and tunnele, alltelling of the blight and decay that fell with such terrible effect upou this unfortunate section of country. In passing, however, through the principal mining districts here, one sees now many signs of returning vitality and hears again the note of preparation to renew the struggle, so long since nearly suspended. Here and there small parties are at work, some getting out such small quantities of high grade ore as can be most easily reached, and a few engaged in work looking to a thorough opening up of their claims, a number of which have already been} developed into productive and valuable mines or are rapidly being brought to that condition. In this category we have, near here, the Arizona and Sheba, with the Lang Syne and Tallulah, over in Dun Glen, and the Winnemucca Chief, and the Pride of the Mountain, lying uear the railroad in the Wiunemucca range of mountains. On the Arizona a large force of men are at present employed, the quantity of ore daily extracted amounting to sixty or seveuty tons. From the Henning, eituate near the Ari zona, and from the Peru onc milesouth of the town, considerable quantities of high grade ore are being constantly takeu, both mines beiug in the moautime thoroughly explored. The Sheba, at Star City, is yielding its usual complement of shipping ores, the value of which ranges from thrce to eight hundred dollars per ton. On the West Side of the Humboldt Range There is more animation than iu this immediate neighborhood, The new mill at Ryo Patch, and tho smelting works at Oreana are at work, and, accordiug to report, doing well. Arrangements have also been mado for starting up the mill on the Humboldt Slough, which for a long time has been etanding idle. From the Alpha, Starlight, and other mines on that slope of the range we have cheerful reports, and there is little doubt butthe balance, which has hitherto beon on the debit, will before the year ends he ehifted to the credit side of the ledger with the most of these companies. From Battle Mountain, Golconda, Dun Glen, Central and Sierra Districts Equally encouraging accounts come to hand, there being more men now at work in these several localities than for seven or eight years before; and there isno queetion but they will turn out this season twice the amount of bullion ever sent from there any preceding year; and this with very little increaee of milling capacity, or aid from capitalists abroad. Neither has there been much addition to the population of these dietricts of late, the results having been mostly achieved by the old residents who have stuck by the country through its long season of decadence and inaction. : ~ Winnemucca District Having enjoyed the-advantage of liheral pecuniary assistance, lately supplied hy San Francisco capitalists, ie now in a fair way to advauce rapidly, and it is generally thought wiil soou eclipse every other section of Humholdt county. The mines there, or at least a portion of them, are in themseves .very fine. The Winnemucca Chief und the Pride of the Mountain have always enjoyed a high local reputation and even .attained some distinction abroad. From the first they have taken precedence of all other claims in the district, and always been recognized hy mining experts ag standard properties. Having recently passed into the hands of moneyed men, these miues are to hethoroughly exploited; prelimiuary labors looking to that end having already been entered upon. Having passed through them a few.days since I was surprised, not more at the. amount of exploratory work done, than to see such remarkable bodies of ore as have here heen developed in their lower levels. In the Pride of the Mountain the lode at a depth of 200 feet stands full 30 inches hetween its walls, every pound of the veinmatter being high grade milling ore. same lode, carrying its full strength, passes into the Winnemucca Chief,, which, though less opened up, showe the same evidences of large and permanent wealth. The work heretofore done on these mines was mostly carried on iu an irregular and desultory way. Sincechanging owuership they are to be opeued up with system and energy, a large workiug shaft being now in course of excavation on each. Assoon as these are’ sunk to the proper depth the business of raising ore will be commeuced, which will be in the course of the next 80.days, by which time the new mill, now being orected uear hy to run on these ores, will ho completed aud ready for operations. This ore it is expected will mill, taken en masse, at the rate of $100 per ton, about a thousand tons of it already disposed of having averaged over $200 por ton. I consider those two of the most valuable mines in this part of the State; the manner in which they are held aud the fine administration under which they have heen placed, adding greatly to their intrinsic merit. Refore the seasou is ended they will increase in a marked manner. The Bullion Product of Humboldt County. Which competent authorities set down at $200,000 for the current year, of this sum the Arizona and Sheba mines alone will turu out nearly one-half, and there is no question but the balauce of the county will make up the other, and perhape do a great deal more. Henry Decroor. Unionville, Humboldt Co., Ney., June Sth, 1872. [Written forthe Press.} Mismanagement in Milling. That many Eastern and English capitalists are shy of investing in our mines, is by no means surprising, wheu the manner in which numbers of these are managed is considered. Some weeks ago a trenchant article by a practical millman and chemist, appeared in the Inyo Independent on the absurdity of superiutendents and others undertaking to conduct a business of which they were wholly ignorant. In fact, it would appear that sometimes adecided preference is given to men of little, or no knowledge of the reduction of oros. The notion seems to have obtained in somo quartors, that any fool can run a mill, and that a superintendent’e position is an excelleut method of providing for some relative, or impecnuious friend, whose brains have hitherto been insufficient wherewith to earn his salt at anything else. It is not strange that ina mill under such amanagement that most of the preoious metals obtained is extracted from the pockets of the shareholders, and not’ from the ore which may be worked, or rathor which they have vainly attemped to work. Nevertholess, such men frequently hold their posts for a considerable time, for the most of them haye a Cacoethes loquendi (freely translated by Mr. Sam Weller iuto “the gift of gab—wery galloping,” which enables them to talk directors into the belief that no one else could have done better than they. The writer has met a London stock broker, and a New York bootmaker, afterwards an insolvent grocer, each placed in the responsible position of superintendent, The . when neither of them had ever seen a mill, or reduction works before his appointment. Men of this stamp, as the assay proves the value of the ore, blame the mechinery, the management of which they do not understand, or which their own stupidity has imperfectly arranged, forthe uusatisfactory results which they ohtain. Such men are alike prejudicial to the mine, to the engineer who constructs, or to the inventor who may perfect any valuahle improvements. ° Numerous instances might be mentioned whieh would prove this, bnt one may snffice. There is a mill, nota hundred miles from Monitor, Alpine County, which has probahly cost from 70 to’ 100 thousand dollars in construction. A revolving furnace lias recently been erected there and putin operation. The patentee guaranteed it to roast and chloridize a ton of crushed ore per hour, and during three days that he was there it performed the duty required of it, the furnace being properly fed and attended to by himself. A eample of the chloridized ore he gave to the assistant superintendent and a similar sample he had assayed for his own satisfaction, and it proved that 78% per cent. of the eilver was chloridized, As it was a low grade ore, this is better than the operation of any other furnace. Now comes the assietent superintendent into court and says:— "We cauuot get over 50 per cent. of the guaranteed results.” Very probably not, ths only wonder‘is that they got so much, but haying got it, they naturally want to get more and the putentee is written to, to know if he can ‘‘remedy” matters, The remedy lies in their owu hands. They have not worked the furnace properly. It appears that in the plentitude of their wisdom they failed to supply salt to their ore wherewith toobtain the chloridizing element—and likewise cut off the water from the cooler by which the fine and the richer particles, which might utherwise escape, are precipitated, and saved. What other neglect in feeding, or in permitting frer quent stoppages, eto., they may have been guilty of—or what new thcories their muddled brains may have developed it is hard to say; but the simple advice that should be givon to them isto have qualified practical men, not tyros to manage the reductiou works, see that everything is in proper order, and that every employee attends faithfully to the details committod to his charge, and they will fiud that tho revolving furnace, will work as porfectly with them, as it has done with others, aud will fully establish the undouhted merits and euperiority of the invention. METALLURGIST. A Surface View. We yestorday took,a stroll aloug the liue of the Comstock so far as that great lead is enveloped within the limits of Virginia. Where we fouud tho foreman at the works, we obtained all the information in regard to their respective mines that we asked, and where we did not we merely looked about, as the workmen do not much like being questioned about the affairs of the mine in which they are working; besides, we we did uot eet out with the intention of prying into the underground mysteries of any mine. We first visited the Gould and Curry. We found the brick walls of the additiou latoly erected for the receptiou of their large, new hoisting engine up, but the roof has uot yet been put on, nor is any of the wood work completed. This delay is occasioned, we believe, by the difficulty experienced in getting timber. The new engine isin place and ready to run as soon as the building shall have been completed. Meantime they are hoisting from theincline to the perpendicular shaft hy hand. In the hoisting compartments of the shaft they run douhle or, twostory cages. The pump was not going at the time of our visit, the wrist-piu having broken—a break which would be very socouménded. We arrived at The Savage At the time they were changing the tenhour shifts (1 o’clock), and remained to see the men brought up and sent down. The men who are on ten-hour shifts are those who work in the npper levels and dry and comfortable parts of the mine, whilo those who have oight-hour shifts are thoso who work down about the 1,500-foot level, where it poure water from every seam in the rock, and where it is hot as —well never mind. Both classes receive the same wages, but those who have hard places have ehorter hours as a compensation. There are at present over 300 men at work in the Savage, 50 of whom are up at the old mine. Counting the wages of these men at $4 per day, it amounts to $1,200, or the snug snm of $8,400 per week; hut many of them, as engineers and others, get $5 and $6 per day. By figuring up the wages item fora month, and then for a year, some slight idea will be ohtained of what it costs torunamine. As we said above, we remained ahile to see them. Hoisting the Men. At the Savage the cages nsed are larger than-in most of our mines, as their shalt is a very large one, and in asingle car they are ahle to hoist 2,200 pounds of ore, about as much as they can hoist in two cars on their double cages, and cau also hoist as many men; for twelve men can safely stand on the platform of one cage. The men take their places in three rows, four in a row, packed like sardines in a box, the signal is given and down they drop. Ohserving the exact manner in which the meu were packed upon the cage, we asked the foreman what he would do in case he hada few miners of the size of Beany Irwin, K. B. Brown or Billy Shephard. He smiled and said: *“That would rather spoil the arrangement.” An official, who fills the same place that is filled by a conductor on a traiu of cars goes np and down with the men when shifts are being changed. This is the station tender. It is his duty to ring the signal bells when the cage is to stop or start. The foreman explained to us that, but for this, there would be always be some heedless fellow takingitupon _ himself to ring signals, and death and destruction would he the result. ‘All business,” said he, “is conducted as strictly as on board of a man-of-war.” A lantern is hung in the top of the cage when men are being lowered and hoisted. The reason for this, the foreman said was that in case of any accident the men would not hecomo frightened—an accident in the dark always demoralized tho men, and made matters ten times worse than they would otherwise have been. Their pump was not running at the time of our visit. They only run six hours out of the tweuty-four. They have four lifts, and have some waer to pump from the bottom of tho incline, most of which is from leakage above, however. The Hale and Norcross Afforded ue but few items. There are abcut 150 men at work at the mine at present, as they have been discharging a great many of late. They are not trouhled with water, and pump vuly occasionally. We observed here the curious fact that, instead of there being hot air or steam arising from the mouth of the shaft, there is a strong downward draught. This is accounted for by the fact that the Savage shaft is considerably higher than the Norcross, and there being a connection hetween the two, the draught is uaturally through the former. This is good for the Norcross folks, but bad for the Savageites, though not so bad as it would be without the circulation of air meutioned, The Chollar Folks are having a good time just now at cleaning out oue of the compartmeuts of their shaft, which was filled iu with waste at the time their former hoisting works were destroyed by fire. This is at a depth of 500 feet below the surface, and the waste dirt extends down about 200 feet to where there isa platform. <A platform was put in and this dirt thrown down to save the shaft, as there is fora certain space, aepecies of clay liable to swell and crush in the timbers. This waste now comes out in the shape of slum, and as thcy cannot load a car in this blackened compartment, they send the cage down the adjoining compartment, cut holes through the partition and let the slum run out into the car. Itisa very nasty job, but one necessary to be done. We ohserved nothing else worthy of noto, and asked no questions in regard to the lower regions, further than to learn that all was goiug on about as usual. The Ophir Is pumpiug, hoisting and drifting as usual. There ie but little water, and nothing to preveut the vigorous prosecution of work in all parts of the mine. They are well supplied with wood aud stores of all kinds. We saw nothing further worthy of mentiou, and will here conclude our survey, — Virginia Enterprise, June 7. Sreamsure Busivess Av PANAMA,—Six regular steamship lines from Europe and the Uuited States run vessels to Aspinwall every month, while fourteen steamships ruu cvery month to Panama on the Pacific sids, exclusive of the casual and coastwiss trade.

386 SCIENTIFIC PRESS. {June 22, 1872. (GoRRESPONDENCE. Mines of Humboldt County, Nevada. [Written for the Sorenririo Press.) Wrecks Everywhere—Renewing the Struggle. In no part of Nevada, perhaps, has the business of mining experienced such vicissitides as here in the Humboldt country, passing during its hrief period that has elapsed since its inauguration twelve years ago,from the most active and hopeful to the most abject condition; which point it reached some seven or eight years ago. Remaining at this low ehh for several years, things took a turn, and have since been slowly hut steadily mending. First and last, there have heen put up within the -limits of this county not less than eighteen or twenty mills, of one kind and another. Of this number six or seven have heen destroyed or removed elsewhere; abont an equal number ie standing idle and the balance are now ruuning, with one, the Genaca, at Winnemucea, nearly ready for operations. This isa poor record of Humboldt milliug and miuiug industry, though not worse than that of such minor callings as happened meantime to engage a portion of her population. Every class and pursuit suffered alike; her towns as wellas her mills haye gone to decay or been swept wholly out of existence; go where you will and you see deserted villages and cabins, as well as dilapidated mills and half completed shafts and tunnele, alltelling of the blight and decay that fell with such terrible effect upou this unfortunate section of country. In passing, however, through the principal mining districts here, one sees now many signs of returning vitality and hears again the note of preparation to renew the struggle, so long since nearly suspended. Here and there small parties are at work, some getting out such small quantities of high grade ore as can be most easily reached, and a few engaged in work looking to a thorough opening up of their claims, a number of which have already been} developed into productive and valuable mines or are rapidly being brought to that condition. In this category we have, near here, the Arizona and Sheba, with the Lang Syne and Tallulah, over in Dun Glen, and the Winnemucca Chief, and the Pride of the Mountain, lying uear the railroad in the Wiunemucca range of mountains. On the Arizona a large force of men are at present employed, the quantity of ore daily extracted amounting to sixty or seveuty tons. From the Henning, eituate near the Ari zona, and from the Peru onc milesouth of the town, considerable quantities of high grade ore are being constantly takeu, both mines beiug in the moautime thoroughly explored. The Sheba, at Star City, is yielding its usual complement of shipping ores, the value of which ranges from thrce to eight hundred dollars per ton. On the West Side of the Humboldt Range There is more animation than iu this immediate neighborhood, The new mill at Ryo Patch, and tho smelting works at Oreana are at work, and, accordiug to report, doing well. Arrangements have also been mado for starting up the mill on the Humboldt Slough, which for a long time has been etanding idle. From the Alpha, Starlight, and other mines on that slope of the range we have cheerful reports, and there is little doubt butthe balance, which has hitherto beon on the debit, will before the year ends he ehifted to the credit side of the ledger with the most of these companies. From Battle Mountain, Golconda, Dun Glen, Central and Sierra Districts Equally encouraging accounts come to hand, there being more men now at work in these several localities than for seven or eight years before; and there isno queetion but they will turn out this season twice the amount of bullion ever sent from there any preceding year; and this with very little increaee of milling capacity, or aid from capitalists abroad. Neither has there been much addition to the population of these dietricts of late, the results having been mostly achieved by the old residents who have stuck by the country through its long season of decadence and inaction. : ~ Winnemucca District Having enjoyed the-advantage of liheral pecuniary assistance, lately supplied hy San Francisco capitalists, ie now in a fair way to advauce rapidly, and it is generally thought wiil soou eclipse every other section of Humholdt county. The mines there, or at least a portion of them, are in themseves .very fine. The Winnemucca Chief und the Pride of the Mountain have always enjoyed a high local reputation and even .attained some distinction abroad. From the first they have taken precedence of all other claims in the district, and always been recognized hy mining experts ag standard properties. Having recently passed into the hands of moneyed men, these miues are to hethoroughly exploited; prelimiuary labors looking to that end having already been entered upon. Having passed through them a few.days since I was surprised, not more at the. amount of exploratory work done, than to see such remarkable bodies of ore as have here heen developed in their lower levels. In the Pride of the Mountain the lode at a depth of 200 feet stands full 30 inches hetween its walls, every pound of the veinmatter being high grade milling ore. same lode, carrying its full strength, passes into the Winnemucca Chief,, which, though less opened up, showe the same evidences of large and permanent wealth. The work heretofore done on these mines was mostly carried on iu an irregular and desultory way. Sincechanging owuership they are to be opeued up with system and energy, a large workiug shaft being now in course of excavation on each. Assoon as these are’ sunk to the proper depth the business of raising ore will be commeuced, which will be in the course of the next 80.days, by which time the new mill, now being orected uear hy to run on these ores, will ho completed aud ready for operations. This ore it is expected will mill, taken en masse, at the rate of $100 per ton, about a thousand tons of it already disposed of having averaged over $200 por ton. I consider those two of the most valuable mines in this part of the State; the manner in which they are held aud the fine administration under which they have heen placed, adding greatly to their intrinsic merit. Refore the seasou is ended they will increase in a marked manner. The Bullion Product of Humboldt County. Which competent authorities set down at $200,000 for the current year, of this sum the Arizona and Sheba mines alone will turu out nearly one-half, and there is no question but the balauce of the county will make up the other, and perhape do a great deal more. Henry Decroor. Unionville, Humboldt Co., Ney., June Sth, 1872. [Written forthe Press.} Mismanagement in Milling. That many Eastern and English capitalists are shy of investing in our mines, is by no means surprising, wheu the manner in which numbers of these are managed is considered. Some weeks ago a trenchant article by a practical millman and chemist, appeared in the Inyo Independent on the absurdity of superiutendents and others undertaking to conduct a business of which they were wholly ignorant. In fact, it would appear that sometimes adecided preference is given to men of little, or no knowledge of the reduction of oros. The notion seems to have obtained in somo quartors, that any fool can run a mill, and that a superintendent’e position is an excelleut method of providing for some relative, or impecnuious friend, whose brains have hitherto been insufficient wherewith to earn his salt at anything else. It is not strange that ina mill under such amanagement that most of the preoious metals obtained is extracted from the pockets of the shareholders, and not’ from the ore which may be worked, or rathor which they have vainly attemped to work. Nevertholess, such men frequently hold their posts for a considerable time, for the most of them haye a Cacoethes loquendi (freely translated by Mr. Sam Weller iuto “the gift of gab—wery galloping,” which enables them to talk directors into the belief that no one else could have done better than they. The writer has met a London stock broker, and a New York bootmaker, afterwards an insolvent grocer, each placed in the responsible position of superintendent, The . when neither of them had ever seen a mill, or reduction works before his appointment. Men of this stamp, as the assay proves the value of the ore, blame the mechinery, the management of which they do not understand, or which their own stupidity has imperfectly arranged, forthe uusatisfactory

results which they ohtain. Such men are alike prejudicial to the mine, to the engineer who constructs, or to the inventor who may perfect any valuahle improvements. ° Numerous instances might be mentioned whieh would prove this, bnt one may snffice. There is a mill, nota hundred miles from Monitor, Alpine County, which has probahly cost from 70 to’ 100 thousand dollars in construction. A revolving furnace lias recently been erected there and putin operation. The patentee guaranteed it to roast and chloridize a ton of crushed ore per hour, and during three days that he was there it performed the duty required of it, the furnace being properly fed and attended to by himself. A eample of the chloridized ore he gave to the assistant superintendent and a similar sample he had assayed for his own satisfaction, and it proved that 78% per cent. of the eilver was chloridized, As it was a low grade ore, this is better than the operation of any other furnace. Now comes the assietent superintendent into court and says:— "We cauuot get over 50 per cent. of the guaranteed results.” Very probably not, ths only wonder‘is that they got so much, but haying got it, they naturally want to get more and the putentee is written to, to know if he can ‘‘remedy” matters, The remedy lies in their owu hands. They have not worked the furnace properly. It appears that in the plentitude of their wisdom they failed to supply salt to their ore wherewith toobtain the chloridizing element—and likewise cut off the water from the cooler by which the fine and the richer particles, which might utherwise escape, are precipitated, and saved. What other neglect in feeding, or in permitting frer quent stoppages, eto., they may have been guilty of—or what new thcories their muddled brains may have developed it is hard to say; but the simple advice that should be givon to them isto have qualified practical men, not tyros to manage the reductiou works, see that everything is in proper order, and that every employee attends faithfully to the details committod to his charge, and they will fiud that tho revolving furnace, will work as porfectly with them, as it has done with others, aud will fully establish the undouhted merits and euperiority of the invention. METALLURGIST. A Surface View. We yestorday took,a stroll aloug the liue of the Comstock so far as that great lead is enveloped within the limits of Virginia. Where we fouud tho foreman at the works, we obtained all the information in regard to their respective mines that we asked, and where we did not we merely looked about, as the workmen do not much like being questioned about the affairs of the mine in which they are working; besides, we we did uot eet out with the intention of prying into the underground mysteries of any mine. We first visited the Gould and Curry. We found the brick walls of the additiou latoly erected for the receptiou of their large, new hoisting engine up, but the roof has uot yet been put on, nor is any of the wood work completed. This delay is occasioned, we believe, by the difficulty experienced in getting timber. The new engine isin place and ready to run as soon as the building shall have been completed. Meantime they are hoisting from theincline to the perpendicular shaft hy hand. In the hoisting compartments of the shaft they run douhle or, twostory cages. The pump was not going at the time of our visit, the wrist-piu having broken—a break which would be very socouménded. We arrived at The Savage At the time they were changing the tenhour shifts (1 o’clock), and remained to see the men brought up and sent down. The men who are on ten-hour shifts are those who work in the npper levels and dry and comfortable parts of the mine, whilo those who have oight-hour shifts are thoso who work down about the 1,500-foot level, where it poure water from every seam in the rock, and where it is hot as —well never mind. Both classes receive the same wages, but those who have hard places have ehorter hours as a compensation. There are at present over 300 men at work in the Savage, 50 of whom are up at the old mine. Counting the wages of these men at $4 per day, it amounts to $1,200, or the snug snm of $8,400 per week; hut many of them, as engineers and others, get $5 and $6 per day. By figuring up the wages item fora month, and then for a year, some slight idea will be ohtained of what it costs torunamine. As we said above, we remained ahile to see them. Hoisting the Men. At the Savage the cages nsed are larger than-in most of our mines, as their shalt is a very large one, and in asingle car they are ahle to hoist 2,200 pounds of ore, about as much as they can hoist in two cars on their double cages, and cau also hoist as many men; for twelve men can safely stand on the platform of one cage. The men take their places in three rows, four in a row, packed like sardines in a box, the signal is given and down they drop. Ohserving the exact manner in which the meu were packed upon the cage, we asked the foreman what he would do in case he hada few miners of the size of Beany Irwin, K. B. Brown or Billy Shephard. He smiled and said: *“That would rather spoil the arrangement.” An official, who fills the same place that is filled by a conductor on a traiu of cars goes np and down with the men when shifts are being changed. This is the station tender. It is his duty to ring the signal bells when the cage is to stop or start. The foreman explained to us that, but for this, there would be always be some heedless fellow takingitupon _ himself to ring signals, and death and destruction would he the result. ‘All business,” said he, “is conducted as strictly as on board of a man-of-war.” A lantern is hung in the top of the cage when men are being lowered and hoisted. The reason for this, the foreman said was that in case of any accident the men would not hecomo frightened—an accident in the dark always demoralized tho men, and made matters ten times worse than they would otherwise have been. Their pump was not running at the time of our visit. They only run six hours out of the tweuty-four. They have four lifts, and have some waer to pump from the bottom of tho incline, most of which is from leakage above, however. The Hale and Norcross Afforded ue but few items. There are abcut 150 men at work at the mine at present, as they have been discharging a great many of late. They are not trouhled with water, and pump vuly occasionally. We observed here the curious fact that, instead of there being hot air or steam arising from the mouth of the shaft, there is a strong downward draught. This is accounted for by the fact that the Savage shaft is considerably higher than the Norcross, and there being a connection hetween the two, the draught is uaturally through the former. This is good for the Norcross folks, but bad for the Savageites, though not so bad as it would be without the circulation of air meutioned, The Chollar Folks are having a good time just now at cleaning out oue of the compartmeuts of their shaft, which was filled iu with waste at the time their former hoisting works were destroyed by fire. This is at a depth of 500 feet below the surface, and the waste dirt extends down about 200 feet to where there isa platform. <A platform was put in and this dirt thrown down to save the shaft, as there is fora certain space, aepecies of clay liable to swell and crush in the timbers. This waste now comes out in the shape of slum, and as thcy cannot load a car in this blackened compartment, they send the cage down the adjoining compartment, cut holes through the partition and let the slum run out into the car. Itisa very nasty job, but one necessary to be done. We ohserved nothing else worthy of noto, and asked no questions in regard to the lower regions, further than to learn that all was goiug on about as usual. The Ophir Is pumpiug, hoisting and drifting as usual. There ie but little water, and nothing to preveut the vigorous prosecution of work in all parts of the mine. They are well supplied with wood aud stores of all kinds. We saw nothing further worthy of mentiou, and will here conclude our survey, — Virginia Enterprise, June 7. Sreamsure Busivess Av PANAMA,—Six regular steamship lines from Europe and the Uuited States run vessels to Aspinwall every month, while fourteen steamships ruu cvery month to Panama on the Pacific sids, exclusive of the casual and coastwiss trade.