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Collection: Books and Periodicals > Mining & Scientific Press

Volume 24 (1872) (424 pages)

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SCIENTIFIC PRESS. (January 6, 1872. (GoRRESPONDENCE. RESOURCES OF MONTANA. [By Our Own TRAVELER.] During a recent visit to Virginia City, the capital of Montana. I found it iua flourishing condition. The Daily Montanian, the officiel paper of the Territory, is printed by steam, and has the second steam press introduced into Montana. It contains all the late telegraphie dispatches and the current news of the day. One hanking house in Virginia City received $90,000 in currency this fall, and paid the same out to miners in 90 days. Mr. D. W. White, traveling agent for the Giant Powder Company of your city, made some experiments during my stay at this place, which resulted satisfactorily to all who witnessed them, and demonstrated its peculiar adaptihility for hlasting purposes. In November the wholesale rates of produce were as follows: Flour, XXX, $7.50 per sack; XX, $7.00; X; $6.50. Retailing from 50 cents to $1,00 higher. Wheat, 3% cents per pound; oats, 2%4 cents per pound; potatoes, 2 cents per pound; butter, 45 cents per pound; eggs, 65 cents per dozen; cabbage, 3 cents per pound; onions, 1234 cents per pound; dressed hogs, $18 per hundred pounds; chickens, $9 to $10 per dozen; hoef, 8 cents on foot. Placer Mining in Alder Gutch J. M. Knight & Co. have a large mining claim near the city, in this gulch, and have 4,000 feet of fluming, 22 inches wide inside, and employ 10 miners. The mining season is from April to November. They own 9,000 feet of ground up aud down the gulch, which has averaged $400 per day. The gold is very fine fore fino). The gulch is 12 miles long. Atthe upper end I noticed very fine washed boulders. There are 12 flumes in the gulch, and each company employs ahout 12 men; and it is said that at the present rate it will be 12 years hefore the ground is worked out. The next claim visited was that of the Cork Mining Company, situated a short distance from Knight & Co’s claim. Duriug the week, thiscompany, with five men, extracted $1,260, or $50 dollars a day to the hand. German Bar Fluming Company, Owned by Sedman & McGregory, has 5,000 feet of ground, and employs seven men. Thisis oue of the most valuable claims in the gulch, and yields, on an average, $400 aweek. The hanks are 22 feet deep to the bed-rock. By means of a very ingeniously constructed revolving wheel, invented hy Mr. Sedman. the large rocks are caught and elevated, while the smaller ones drop throngh, and pass on down the gulch. Wright, Pope & Lee have 1,000 feet of ground, and employ six men, and are taking out $50 a day totheman. John Donegan owns 5,000 feet of mining property, employs six men and has taken out upwards $4,000 this season. He has an underground water drain 200 feet longand 20 feet deep. He has also a water wheel. used for hoisting, snd so constructed with a clutch, to throw it in and out of gear, that after the load of dirt is hoisted up on a platform, the water is turned off the wheel, and used for sluicing purposes. McKee’s Bar. Mr. Daniel Emory has a claim on this bar, with a shaft 20 feet, and is drifting in gravel. The timhers used are uine by three and one-half feet, and $30 are extracted to each set of timhers. Pine Grove Fluming Co., Is composed of Rohert McAdams and others, who employ four men, and elevate the larger boulders to the surface hy means of derricks. The fall of their flume is nine inches in twelve feet. This claim is paying handsomely. Summit Mining District Is situated at the head of Alder Gulch, 8 miles from Virginia City. The Keystone lode averages 2 {eet in width, has 3 shafts, one 80 feet deep, one 125 and the other 170 feet deep. About $25,000 have heen extracted from this lode. It has a good foot wall of limestono, and a hanging wall of granitc, and hids fair to become one of the prominent ledges of the district. It is owned by E. B. Coverly & Bro. Mining ae made in San Francisco hy Mr. right, have heen introduced [into this district and the miners assure me they give entire satisfaction, and they are well pleased with them. There is in this district one 15-stamp quartz mill, with two arastras and one Wheeler’s pan, reducing ores from the Oro Cache and How lodes. These lodes belong to the owners of the mill, who occasionally crush custom ores from the Keystoue. Oro Cache has two tunnels, one 550 feet long, running in to a depth of 200 feet from the surfuce; the other is three hundred feet long and strikes the ledge 500 feet from the surface. The upper tunnel has had about 200 feet of paying quartz, varying from $15 to $60 per ton. About 35 tons per week are now taken out, averaging $18 per ton. The Keystone is being worked by Coverly Brothers, and they are taking out quartz for crushing at the How mill. The John How lode is also taking out quartz which is being crushed at the mill. This lode is opened by four shafts and a tunnel, which is 700 feet loug and strikes the ledge 450 feet from the suriace. It has widened from 2 2-inch crevice to 7 feet, and the ore is estimated at $10 per ton. Peyton & Co. are at work on the Success lode, Aces on the Emma, and Masters on the Horn, aud from appearances I judge this is a very prosperous mining camp. Brown's Gulch Is located a few miles from Virginia City. The True silver ledge, situated in this gulch, is the property of Mr. Poznainsky, and is now being worked hy him. He has a tunnel run in on the vein about 175 feet, which shows 2 ledge about eight feet in width, filled with splendid silver sulphuret that will yield from $100 to $200 per ton. The bullion is worth $3 per ounce. The Pacific True, and Black silver ledges have lately been examined hy parties sent here from Salt Lake for that purpose, who expressed themselves highly pleased with their appearance. The Union Pacific Railroad mine assays $125 per ton, and ore has heen sold on thedump at $65 per ton. The next district I visited was The Meadow Creek Mining District, Situated some 20 miles from Virgiuia City. The Mother Hendrix mine is located here, and is owned by F. R. Merk, Esq. It has three shafts, 60, 100 and 140 feet deep, respectively. The lode averages 20 inches in width, and contains good gold-hearing quartz, with free gold and 2 small quantity of sulphurets. Some 24 miners are employed. Mr. M. has invested considerable money in developing this property, which will no doubt yield him handsome returns. He has erected a10-stamp quartz mill with a 20-foot water wheel, and has introduced Stevenson’s patent mould-board amalgamatiug pan, which holds 5,000 pouuds to a charge. Its operations have heen entirely satisfactory. Mr. M. was induced to try this pan, from having seen an illustration of itin the Screntrric Press. He claims that its grinding qualities are superior to those of any pan in use in the Territory. The mil] has a California hattery, and a bar of gold is shipped to New York every week. Want of Reduction Works. The great need in mining in Montana is proper reduction works, facilities for working ores, and machinery such as is used for reducing like ores in other States and Territories. The machinery necessary is Stetefeldt furnaces, stamp mills for dry crushing, and pans for amalgamation. Provide the quartz miners with works at which they can get their ore reduced, and in another year the country will present a different appearance from the present. Ww. H. M. Columbia District, U. T. Eps. Press:—Having heen a constant reader of your valuable paper for some years, and seeing so many districts represented, and the good results therefrom, I take the liherty of addressing myself to you, and if you think it worthy of publication please give it room in the columns of your paper. Location, Columbia is situated 35 miles southwest from East Caiion, 20 miles west from East Tintic, almost due north of West Tintic,
and is that section of country that is known as West Mountain, commencing at the head of Rush Valley, and running theuce to Point Look Out on the old Overland mail route. The District was discovered last Septemher, hui the first locators were not overanxious to advertise the district till they had received titles to their mines. This haying been done, winter closed in upon us and prospecting ceased for a time but work is heing pushed vigorously upon six different mines, and will continue all winter. There are at present writing 104 locations on the records. Formation and Class of Ores. The mineral belt as far as prospected is 2% miles wide, and 4 or 5in length. The country rock or formation, is porphry, quartzite, and slate. Nothing of any great importance has yet been found inthe slate, but the largest and best defincd ledges follow tho quartzite principally. The ledges crop out boldly and in nearly every instance, where much work has been done, argentiferous galena and grey carbonatas have heen exposed; assaying from $25 to $125 silver, and lead enough for practical and profitahle working—some of the ore carrying as high as 80 per cent. lead. Smelters are greatly needed for the reduction of these ores. There is wood and water convenieut, and every furnace facilities requisite for cheap and _ profitable works. The ore in this camp is self-fluxing, and the expense of fluxing material will he dispensed with rendering smelting cheap and profitable. I have never seen a mining district possessing so many rare advantages as does Columbia. The Washington, On Liheral Hill, is heing worked with good reeults. The lodge is nearly five feet in width, the foot-wall pitching to the south on an incline of 40 degrees. The mine is easily worked, being decomposed oxide of lead—soft carbonates—and intermixed with small hunches of galena assaying all the way from 48 to 75 per cent. lead, and from $30 to $86 in silver. This mine will be sunk to a depth of £00 feetin the discovery shaft this winter, which will pretty thoroughly prospect the mine. The Gold Eagle Mine on Liberty Hill is being worked vigorously and will commence shipping ore to Ophir City this month. The ledge is three feet wido, pitching to the west, and is well defined by two smooth walls. The ore isof carhonate and galeua improving in quality and quantity asthe work progresses. Chimney Corner Mine, situated on Montezuma Hill, is down twenty-five feet on an incline, dipping to the south, showing good ore from the surface to the bottom of incline, and a ledge two feet and a half wide, improving as it goes down. We have experienced hut very little winter yet, and do not anticipate much snow. The miners are all comfortably situated iu good log and rock houses, and eomo of them being 49ers, wo manage to pass a pleasant and profitable wiuter, and will show up a district next spring second to none in Utah. Miner. Toole, Utah, Dec. 20, 1871. Volunteer “Squibs.” Pustic Benrracrors.—Under this head an appreciative correspondent referring to the stiff-bonnd monthly and quarterly editions of the Press, placed for free reading on the ferries, steamers, sleeping cars, in depots, etc., throughout this coast, writes as follows :— ‘It has been my good fortune to travel much in California and Orcgon, and generally by public conveyance, stopping oftcn at the traveler’s home (the hotel), and no one thiug has impressed itself so favorably upou my attention, as a source of pastime and pleasure, as well as having a saving influeuce from smoking, drinking and gambling, as good, selected, short articles of varied kinds of reading matter. Men become restless and nncasy very quick when the mind is unocenpied, and without thought or intention of doing wrong, fall into various Vices to ‘‘ kill time.’ _As diamonds are valuable from their superlative brilliancy, so your bound quarterlies become valuable from being generally the only fresh and really valuable reading matter given to the traveling public. While they ornament the tables of the steamers and hotels, their pages are ladened with descriptions of mountains of treasure, valleys of marrow, and markets filled with fruit and fattened upon the dew drops of Heaven. They make us anxious to save time and save money, and aid in spreading your valnable papers before the public. Yours is an expeusive and a noble work, and a generous public will not fail to reward yon well for your efforts to fnrnish the Pacific Coast with two snech valuable journals as the Screntrric and Pacrrie Rorau Press. E.P. H. Tue twelve principal private picture galleries in New York are computed as being worth over $1,000,000, Hybrid Animals. It is.interesting to note how facts crowd iu on us of a nature so curious that a few years ago they would not have-received the slightest credence, but which are now placed beyond all dispute. Itis not so very long since that hybrids were considered absolutely sterile. The mule was taken as a type of all this class. Now itis pretty certain that, if not the only exceptiou in sterility, it is nearly so, and even mules have been known to produce offspriug. In other auimals mules are getting a varied existence. Recently, at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, a bird was exhibited which was a hybrid between a Brahmahen and a Guinea fowl. It was a very unique aud pretty bird, pure white, with more of the graceful in its outline than either of its parents. The American Naturalist, always careful of its facts, not long ago gave some authentic details of hybrids between the common house cat aud the raccoon of the Southern States. All these undouhted cases prepare us for admitting the following from the Poultry Bulletin, as being within the bounds of prohahbility. In this Mr. E. H. Rogers, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., sends a description of an interesting hyhrid produccd by mating a turkey cock to a common hen. He writes: ‘I have twenty-one fowls, the result of this union. At hatching, they resemhled the chickens in their form and their chirping, though eomewhat larger. After feathering, they assumed the color of the turkey, and the tails, instead of heing like that of tho maternal parent, were square, resembling that of the turkey. The bill resembles that of a chicken and a turkey. Some of them have combs very prominent at hatching, resembling much those of the common cock, though turued a littlo to one side. The others huve no combs at all on that part of the head where the comh grows. There is a smooth place at the upper end of which is a little projection resembling that of the turkey gobbler. They are now about three months old; they have changed hui little, and are as tall as common hens. I expect to show them in different States this year atthe Fairs, and I am in hopes you will see them. Isend you a feather from the wing of a three months’ old fowl, that you may see its character for yourself.” The greatest interest to poultry-raisers is to know whether these hybrids can be perpetuated. We have already said that progeny from hybrids is getling to he the rule rather than the exception. It was at one timo supposed that the buffalo and domestic cow produced together a sterile progeuy, hui this is now kuown not to he true. Almost all persons who believe in the sterility of hybrids try nofurther after producing them; and we offer these suggestions to encourage those who have heen fortunate in producing them to continue on in their experimeuts, — Philadelphia Press. The World’s Fair of 1873. Americans should remember that Vienna is to have a world’s fair in 1878. At the Paris exhihition of 1867 nearly everything eent from this country took a prize, and there is no reasou why the same thing should not be repeated at Vienna in 1873. The exhihition will undoubtedly he the largest that has ever yet beeu seen. The park set apart for the exhibition containe four times as mauy square yards as has ever been similarly occupied, aud the principal building alone will have a length of 4,650 feet. The committee having the matter in charge wish to havo full display of the raw materials and manufactured articles of each natiou, with statistical -information iu reference to the amount produced and the trade therein. Special efforts will be made to have the art collections as complete as possiblo, and it is proposed to havea loan collection from all the German museums, similar to the celehrated one at Kensington. Another speciality will hea collection of articles used by differeut nations in their domestic affairs, kitchen uteusils, furniture, dress, ornamental objects, in fact everything used about a house. As the Austrian nation has never had an exhibition of this character, they will undoubtedly work hard to make it a success. The opportunity ought not to be neglected by the manufacturers of this country.—N. Y. Post. Cycnoxnzs.—Mr. Meldrum gives reasons for believing that the East India cyclones are produced hy the meeting of the northern and southern trade winds.