Volume 39 (1879) (446 pages)

MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [August 9, 1879. W. B. EWER.. 0000000 Seeghacncondes SENIOR Epiror. DEWEY & CO., Publishers, A. T, DEWEY. W. B. EWER. Office, 202 Sansome St., N. E. Corner Pine St Subscription and Advertising Rates: Apvertising Rates. lweek. 1 month. 3 mos, 12mos Per lin. .6eseceee 26 80 $ 2.00 $ 5.00 Half inch (1 square). $1.00 33.00 7.50 24.00 One inch...+ 4.50 4.00 12.00 40.00 SusscrivTions $4a year in advance. Large advertisements at favorable rates. Special or reading notices, legal advertisememts, notices appearing in extraordinary type or in particular parts of the paper at special rates. Four insertiond are rated in a month. Our latest forms go to press on Thursday evening The Scientific Press Patent Agency DEWEY & CO,, Patent Solicitors. A. T. DEWEY. W. B, EWER. G. H, STRONG. SAN FRANCISCO: Saturday Morning, August 9, 1879. TABLE OF CONTENTS. EDITORIALS.—Preacott, Arizona; Bucket Shops; The Sun ss an Electric Focus, 81. The Week; A Generation of Active Mining; Collecting Sutphurets in Seam Diggings; ColoradoExaggerations, 89. Hydraulic Tailings; A Mammoth Grain Depot, 89. Opening Exerciseg of the Fourteenth Industrial Exhihition, 92. . ILLUSTRATIONS.—Prescott, the Capital of Arizona, $1. Miasion Rock Grain Warehouse, 89. . CORRESPONDENCH.— Ascent of Mt. Shasta; Mining Along the Humboldt, 82. Oe P MECHANICAL PROGRESS.—Electric Blowpipe; Thimble Manufacture; Barrel Cleaning Machine; Antwerp Exhihition; The Werdermann Electric Light; Electric Motor; Automatic Speed Regulator; New Reverging Key; Sailing on the Raila, 83. SOIENTIFIC PROGRESS.—Iron into Fine Steel without Fusion; Playing Balls; Siliciuretof Iron; Drawing in Schools; Utilization of Exhaust Steam; Spontaneoug Generation; Artificial Fuel; Deyolopment of Mining Industry in Spain, 83. MINING STOCK MAREKET.—Ssles at the S.n Francisco, California and Pacific Stock Boards. Noticea of Assessments, Meetings and Dividends, 84, MICELLANEOUS —Deep Mining on the Comstock; Miners’ Law; Gold in South America, 86-'7. " USSFULINFORMATION.—Embellishing Metallic Plates; Dyeing; Stop-Cock of Easy Construction; Prering Metal Sheets and Wire for Coating; Sulphate of ta, 87. @o0D HEALTH —The Treatment of Neuralgia; Recreation; New Diseases; Blackberry Root for Summer Complaint; Carholic Acid Inhalation, 8'7. MINING SUMMARY from the various countles of Qalifornia, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Uteh, 85-92. NEWS IN BRIEF on page 92 and other pages. Business Announcements. Rock Drills, Address, P. O. Box 1078, 8. F. Annual Meeting—Mono & Cross Con, Mining Compauy. Assessment Notice—Gover Mining and Milling Company. The Week, Mining in the field, witbout startling devel. opments or ntber cause of excitement, is every: where making good, and in eome localities very rapid progress, In some portions of TransSierra California there is an unusual activity. The mineral helt, reacbing from tbe bead waters of Walker river soutb for a bundred miles or more, including the Bodie, Dunderberg, Esme” ralda, Alpine, Lake, and other districts, is becoming a very attractive and lively mining region, the importance of whicb seems to grow witb tbe explorations made along it; while tbe fine gold-bearing ores and tbe bullion product of the Bodie district have earned for it a well-de_ served notoriety. There are otber mining centers along this belt that promise to develop, under active exploitation, a wealth nearly as large and quite as permanent as Bodie, On the upper confluents of the main Walker, some rich gold veins are heing opened. The Dunderberg mine, lying near the West Fork of that river, is a property of immense value, idle now by reason of the financial troubles of the principal owner. In the big prospecting shaft being sunk at Aurora, encouraging prospects are being nbtained; while the Mammotb mine, in the Lake district, thougb yet comparatively young, is making large sbipments of bullion. Looking nearer home, there is observable mucb activity in our drift and hydraulic mines, more especially in Trinity, Sierra and Nevada counties, Along and near the mother lode of California, quartz mining is undergoing a marked revival—this industry being particularly lively in Mariposa, Tuolumne and Amador counties—where many of the older mines sbow great improvement, and new ore-finds of importanoe are being made. From that section of the eat Veta Madre reaching from Jacksonville to Plyitouth, including the Keystone, tbe Oneida, the Amador, Potosi, Phenix and other bistoric properties, the most encouraging reporte come to hand,Tbe Fourteenth Induetrial exhibition of tbe Mecbanics’ fair opened in thie city on tbe 5th inst., under auspices promieing a creditable and suooessful display of our industrial, inventive and art productions, A Generation of Active Mining. It is 30 years the present summer sincs the gold seeking population began to arrive fresly in California, Tbe Marshall-Wimmer discovsry occurred 16 months hefore; hut for a year or more following that event the only accessions made to the population previously in the country came from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, the sea-hoard towns of Central and South America, and from northwestern Mexico. On tbe 28tb day of Fehruary ’49, the steamship California entered the harhor of San Francisco, hringing the first lot of immigrants that reached here from the Atlantic side of the continent, no sailing vessels having as yet come out around Cape Horn, nor had any immigrants arrived across the plains. Along in the spring a few sailing vessels from Eastern ports hegan to putin an appearance at San Francisco, these arrivals increasing rapidly as the eummer advanced. As the most of their passengere made their way at once to the diggings, the earlicr settled camps hegan then to fill up rapidly, and soon over-flowed with population. In the mouth of July the advance of the overland immigration hegan to arrive in the minee, qnite a large number of these hardy pioneers having reached Hangtown, Coloma and other camps near the terminus of the main route, hy the end of August. Meantime, the arrivals hy sea and nverland from Oregon and Mexico had rapidly increased, aud, pouring into the mines, the new industrial era witb its tumult and bustle, its excitements and its excesses, was duly inaugurated. In all that was least commendahle and most characteristic that era has ended. It brougbt with it mucb of evil and inuch of good, the latter having heen perhaps a little under estimated. The period of active mining in California having been so rounded into a full generation, its history invites retrospection, there being much in it with which the on-coming age is not very familiar. Upon the newe ot the discovery of gold spreading abroad, there at ouce ensued such an emigration movement as the world never before saw, and ag it will probahly never see again. This movement extended to all the people in Christendom, and to some outside, All came; the Kanake, the Fiji and the Mongolian—the Mahomedan, the Pagan and the Christian. It was anew crusade, the masses being now impelled by a lust for gold, and not as aforetime by a spirit of chivalry or a pious deeire to wrest the Holy Sepulcher from the hand of the unbeliever. And so a stream of immigration sets toward this coast from all lands, the adventurers coming by every available means of conveyance; not afew who had essayed to make iu wagons the journey overland being compelled to finish it on foot. Many perished on the way; some hy dlisease, some overcome by exposure aud toil, and some by the merciless hand of the savage. But these were so comparatively few that they were not missed, save perhaps in the hearts and tbe homes that their loss may have made desolate. Their goal of promise reached, the eager thousands rushed to the mines, and swarming through the gulebes of the foothills awakened there for the first time the roar of a great industry. And,theu for seven or eigbt years the work of gold seeking and gold gathering went on ac. tively and prosperously, some meeting with a great, some with a moderate, and some with hut an indifferent success. The majority of tbe fortunate nnes taking their easily acquired gains, left and came not back again. Some of the peculiarly unfortunate, disheartened and bomesick, left also and never more, or but rarely, revisited California. Those that remained aud made permancnt homes bere, consisted mainly of euch as bad earned enougb to encourage tbem to hold on, and yet not enongh to satisfy their desires and induce them to return to their old bomes. Hence happens it that of tbe Argonauts who bave staid witb us the most have heen those who prospered but moderately at first, and so were here detained till they got well weaned from their old bomes and partially reconciled tothe new. Staying on, these pioneers, to adopt the foreign view of their case, hecame at last so demoralized that they lost all zest for civilization, and may now he considered hopelessly attached to California, At the end of these seven or eigbt yeare, the more superficial places baving been pretty well dug out, gold mining began to wane, and many of tbe miners leaving, the interior towns went to decay; trade diminished and.all other branches of husiness suffered a corresponding depression. As before etated, but few of the Argonauts proper came here to stay. Their sole purpose was to gather all the gold they could witbin a limited epace of time and leave. If they staid longer than tbe period proposed it was, asa general thing, because they could not belp it. Hence they took little interest at first in the advancement of the country socially or materially. Most of the improvements undertaken Were made in a rude and hasty manner. And, although the mines were opened and worked with a determination and energy never surpassed, it was an abnormal energy, alike unnatural and unhealthy. With the subsidence of mining, therefore, improvements halted, and everything tended to relapse into its primeval condition; hullion production having shrunken the while to a third of its once large proportions. For tbe next 10 or 12 years gold mining made hnt little progress in this State, the Frazier river, the Washoe, and other diversions of population having occurred msantime. At the end of this period the business here hegan to revive, and has since been improving, latterly at a very lively rate; the hydraulic gravel, the deep-lying drift deposits, and the auriferous quartz veins constituting the sites of this greater activity. In these several departments our resources are likely to prove extensive and permanent, yielding large and steady profits for along time to come, Our stores of mineral wealth surpass, in fact, the most sanguine bopes of the early goldeeekers, though more lahor and skill is now required to make them practically availahle. To mining in the past, or rather to the men who carried it on, we of to-day owe a great deal. They were guilty of some excesses and fell into some errors, hut these were due in good part to their surrouudings, and the inherent difficulties of the husiness, which contained much that could he found out only by costly experiments and crucial trials, During these daye of learning and testing they made sacrifices for which they will never he paid. But no generation works for itself alone, nor can any great industry he advanced to a high perfection without losses and failures. They who come after these pioneers will profit largely hy their unrewarded lahors—profit almost ae much hy their mistakee as by their improvements; they will leave to their successore a noble heritage in their experience alone. Collecting Sulphurets in Seam Diggings. From W. H. Howland, a practical miner of long experieuce, we ohtaiu the following informatiou in regard to the husiness of collecting tbe auriferous sulphurets from the hydraulic tailings and other containing matter, now heginning to be prosecuted by new methode and on quite an extended scale. Mr. Howland, who is an inventor as well as miner, conceived the idea not long siuce of passing tbat class of these tailiugs that have accumulated in the seam diggings through an ordinary rockbreaker, reducing them to about the size of peas or emaller, and thereby releasing the sulphurets, which they carry in great abundance. What are known as seam diggings consist of very thiu veins of partially decomposed goldheariug quartz, runuing, generally in great numhers, through the slate or other formation, the principal site of these deposits hciug the northerly parts of El Dorado county. ‘These small veins having in times past hcen quite largely worked, considerable quantities of tailings have gathered at points where this class of operations was carried on. ‘These veins were washed down hy the bydraulic method, being brokeu up witb picks or shattered with powder when too hard to be torn to pieces with the force of water, as always happened when followed much helow the surface. These tailings are composed of fragments of quartz, slate, porphyry and gravel mixed with a little mud and sand. This mass of stuff, being shoveled or run into the sluice, is carried down and discharged into the rock-breaker placed at its lower end, and, passing through, is by it crushed to the fineness ahove mentioned. After passing through the rock-hreaker the whole mass is run through another string of eluices provided witb euitahle appliances for concentrating tbe eulphurets and saving the free gold, quicksilver and amalgam, which these tailings carry in greater or less quantity. The locality selected by Mr. Howland for his first experiment with this waste, and as heretofore supposed worthless material, ie what was formerly known ae the French mine, eituated at Greenwood, an old camp on the Georgetown divide, and at a point ahout balf way between the South and the Middle Fork of the American river. This place was chosen, not that the tailings were here richer than elsewhere, but because there were enough of them and the facilities for conducting the proposed experiment were good. As the result of a first trial Mr. Howland finds these sulphurets to be more ahundant and of hetter quality than was expected. T'be tailings also carry more free gold, quicksilver and amalgam than was at first counted upon. One lot of sulphurets hrought to this city was found to assay at the rate of $1,300 per ton, another lot, more carefully concentrated, having assayed as much as $5,308 per ton. These concentrations are being treated at the Deetkiu works by the chlorination process, under a guarantee to return 90% of their assay value, the price charged for working them being $35 per ton. Mr. Howland has invented and has now in use a patent riffle especially suited for rewasbing this class of tailings, the sulphurets being concentrated and all their other valuahle contents saved hy it with great closeness. This ingenious and useful contrivance will be more fully described in our next issue. On looking around our informant observed considerahle quantities of tailings on the old dump piles in the neighborhood where he is operating, and some of whicb are prohably as good as those he has been handling. They run uneven, bowever, wherever the mines themselves have been rich this refuse heing found of corresponding grade, There are left here, too, still in place, many of these thin eeams of quartz that appear to be full of sulphurete, and moat likely contain also some free gold. They invite attention as presenting fair chances for profitable mining on a small scale, Colorado Exaggerations, There is no question that great wealth exists in the ground in Colorado, hut the eass with which the pracious minerals are reduced, coupled with the money that has heen made on small investments, has blinded the eyes, and hronght about fabulous statements, which demonstrate ‘that human nature is the same all the world over, We are, in fact, children of greater growth, and our imaginations continually mislead us, particularly when glittering gold and cilver is the ohject in the mind’e eye. The Leadville fever which eeized upon the mining communities of Colorado, and the heretofore cool way of talking ahout millions, or hundrede of thousands of dollars, has heen enougb to turn the brain of every man who has not goue there fully determined to preserve his equanimity. The annual ontput of Leadville alone, has heen estimated at one hundred millions of dollars, a few tens of millions more or less, with millions in sight is of no consequence. These reports of the carhonate helt are freely circulated, and accredited as trne, yet they are not hased upon accurate information. The managere of the largest mines and the superinteudents of the smelting works could not have given such information, hecause they could not have stopped to reckon up the output of the principal mines, the product of which is only approximately known. Nearly all the ore produced in this cainp is smelted in and ahout Leadville. A few amall mines, producing ore of exceptionally higb grade, ship it to Omaha or Chicago to he separated and refined, hut the amount thus disposed of, when compared with tbe entire output of the camp, is very small, There are now in operation in Leadville eigbt smelting establisbments, with 15 furnaces, producing, when run to their full capacity, 400 tons of ore per day. A liheral estimate per ton is an average of 100 ounces of silver, and if all these emelters had run to their full capacity durin the last five mouths, they would have turne out ahout $6,000,000 of bullion, but so far from this probahle amount heing turned out, there was only about $2,000,000 of bullion. Eight more smelting furnaces are being pnt in ruuning, an aggregate of 12 fnrnaces, with reducing capacity of 400 tons of ore. All of these will make the smelting capacity of the whole camp for the last six months of the year, $14,400,000. That is, if the ore supply equale the demand. ; There is no certainty of any such yield of ore, and it is considered hy good authorities, the smelters themselves, that $8,000,000, will he ahout the amount of bullion to he turned out during the last six months of 1879. There will not, in fact, be more tbsn 10 to 12 millione of hullion from Leadville for the entire ycar. These estimates are sustained not only by the statistics showing the output of the principal mines of the camp, which can he obtained with considerable accuracy, but also by the opinion of meu who are best qualified to judge. Supposing Fryer hill to produce each montb ore worth $400,000, Carbonate hill $300,000, and all other mines $200,000 (and these are liberal estimates), the output from the firat of June to the firet of December would be only $6,300,000. A correspondent of the N. Y. 7'ribune, says: “The president of one of the largest mining companies told me that he did not thiuk that the year’s product of the camp would exceed $6,000,000; the manager of the largest smelter thougbt that it might possibly reach $12,000,000, and this was the largest estimate I have heen able to ohtain from anyone who is in position to express a very intelligent opinion.” The silver product of the whole State of Colorado last year, was ahout $12,000,000. There will undouhtedly he some increase this year outside of the carhonate helt, but it will not he very greet—two or three million dollars will prohably cover it. The only carhonate mines ‘that are yet producing are those here at Leadville. A few mines have heen opened in the Ten Mile region, ahout fourteeu miles from bere, but there are no smelting works there yet, and ae the charges for freigbt sent here have heen $20 a ton it has been impossible to sbip ore to the Leadville smelters. The same oorrespondent also says: ‘‘ The Gunnison country, as a mining region, is as yet almost a terra incognita. Within a few weeka only has it been accessible, and last week gentlemen who returned from there reported that in crossing the range they passed througha tunnel in the snow seventy feet long. I have no douht that rich carbonate ores have heen found there, and when they are developed they may beas valuable as those ahout this camp. In that case wagon roade and possibly a railroad willhe built into the country, smelters will he erected and silver will be produced in large quantities. But to-day the Gunnison country is producing no eilver, and no matter how rich its ores may be, it will he several months before it can hegin to produce. The same may be said of the Nortb Park and of other regions where it is reported that carbonate ores bave recently been found. ni “In conclusion I give it as my opinion, based ou the best information I have been ahle to obtain, that Leadville will not send to market this year more than $10,000,000 or $11,000,000 wortb of silver, and that the product of the State of Colorado will not he more than $25,000,000.”

MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [August 9, 1879. W. B. EWER... 0000000 Seeghacncondes SENIOR Epiror. DEWEY & CO., Publishers, A. T, DEWEY. W. B. EWER. Office, 202 Sansome St., N. E. Corner Pine St Subscription and Advertising Rates: Apvertising Rates. lweek. 1 month. 3 mos, 12mos Per lin. ..6eseceee 26 80 $ 2.00 $ 5.00 Half inch (1 square). $1.00 33.00 7.50 24.00 One inch......+ 4.50 4.00 12.00 40.00 SusscrivTions $4a year in advance. Large advertisements at favorable rates. Special or reading notices, legal advertisememts, notices appearing in extraordinary type or in particular parts of the paper at special rates. Four insertiond are rated in a month. Our latest forms go to press on Thursday evening The Scientific Press Patent Agency DEWEY & CO,, Patent Solicitors. A. T. DEWEY. W. B, EWER. G. H, STRONG. SAN FRANCISCO: Saturday Morning, August 9, 1879. TABLE OF CONTENTS. EDITORIALS.—Preacott, Arizona; Bucket Shops; The Sun ss an Electric Focus, 81. The Week; A Generation of Active Mining; Collecting Sutphurets in Seam Diggings; ColoradoExaggerations, 89. Hydraulic Tailings; A Mammoth Grain Depot, 89. Opening Exerciseg of the Fourteenth Industrial Exhihition, 92. . ILLUSTRATIONS.—Prescott, the Capital of Arizona, $1. Miasion Rock Grain Warehouse, 89. . CORRESPONDENCH.— Ascent of Mt. Shasta; Mining Along the Humboldt, 82. Oe P MECHANICAL PROGRESS.—Electric Blowpipe; Thimble Manufacture; Barrel Cleaning Machine; Antwerp Exhihition; The Werdermann Electric Light; Electric Motor; Automatic Speed Regulator; New Reverging Key; Sailing on the Raila, 83. SOIENTIFIC PROGRESS.—Iron into Fine Steel without Fusion; Playing Balls; Siliciuretof Iron; Drawing in Schools; Utilization of Exhaust Steam; Spontaneoug Generation; Artificial Fuel; Deyolopment of Mining Industry in Spain, 83. MINING STOCK MAREKET.—Ssles at the S.n Francisco, California and Pacific Stock Boards. Noticea of Assessments, Meetings and Dividends, 84, MICELLANEOUS —Deep Mining on the Comstock; Miners’ Law; Gold in South America, 86-'7. " USSFULINFORMATION.—Embellishing Metallic Plates; Dyeing; Stop-Cock of Easy Construction; Prering Metal Sheets and Wire for Coating; Sulphate of ta, 87. @o0D HEALTH —The Treatment of Neuralgia; Recreation; New Diseases; Blackberry Root for Summer Complaint; Carholic Acid Inhalation, 8'7. MINING SUMMARY from the various countles of Qalifornia, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Uteh, 85-92. NEWS IN BRIEF on page 92 and other pages. Business Announcements. Rock Drills, Address, P. O. Box 1078, 8. F. Annual Meeting—Mono & Cross Con, Mining Compauy. Assessment Notice—Gover Mining and Milling Company. The Week, Mining in the field, witbout startling devel. opments or ntber cause of excitement, is every: where making good, and in eome localities very rapid progress, In some portions of TransSierra California there is an unusual activity. The mineral helt, reacbing from tbe bead waters of Walker river soutb for a bundred miles or more, including the Bodie, Dunderberg, Esme” ralda, Alpine, Lake, and other districts, is becoming a very attractive and lively mining region, the importance of whicb seems to grow witb tbe explorations made along it; while tbe fine gold-bearing ores and tbe bullion product of the Bodie district have earned for it a well-de_ served notoriety. There are otber mining centers along this belt that promise to develop, under active exploitation, a wealth nearly as large and quite as permanent as Bodie, On the upper confluents of the main Walker, some rich gold veins are heing opened. The Dunderberg mine, lying near the West Fork of that river, is a property of immense value, idle now by reason of the financial troubles of the principal owner. In the big prospecting shaft being sunk at Aurora, encouraging prospects are being nbtained; while the Mammotb mine, in the Lake district, thougb yet comparatively young, is making large sbipments of bullion. Looking nearer home, there is observable mucb activity in our drift and hydraulic mines, more especially in Trinity, Sierra and Nevada counties, Along and near the mother lode of California, quartz mining is undergoing a marked revival—this industry being particularly lively in Mariposa, Tuolumne and Amador counties—where many of the older mines sbow great improvement, and new ore-finds of importanoe are being made. From that section of the eat Veta Madre reaching from Jacksonville to Plyitouth, including the Keystone, tbe Oneida, the Amador, Potosi, Phenix and other bistoric properties, the most encouraging reporte come to hand,Tbe Fourteenth Induetrial exhibition of tbe Mecbanics’ fair opened in thie city on tbe 5th inst., under auspices promieing a creditable and suooessful display of our industrial, inventive and art productions, A Generation of Active Mining. It is 30 years the present summer sincs the gold seeking population began to arrive fresly in California, Tbe Marshall-Wimmer discovsry occurred 16 months hefore; hut for a year or more following that event the only accessions made to the population previously in the country came from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, the sea-hoard towns of Central and South America, and from northwestern Mexico. On tbe 28tb day of Fehruary ’49, the steamship California entered the harhor of San Francisco, hringing the first lot of immigrants that reached here from the Atlantic side of the continent, no sailing vessels having as yet come out around Cape Horn, nor had any immigrants arrived across the plains. Along in the spring a few sailing vessels from Eastern ports hegan to putin an appearance at San Francisco, these arrivals increasing rapidly as the eummer advanced. As the most of their passengere made their way at once to the diggings, the earlicr settled camps hegan then to fill up rapidly, and soon over-flowed with population. In the mouth of July the advance of the overland immigration hegan to arrive in the minee, qnite a large number of these hardy pioneers having reached Hangtown, Coloma and other camps near the terminus of the main route, hy the end of August. Meantime, the arrivals hy sea and nverland from Oregon and Mexico had rapidly increased, aud, pouring into the mines, the new industrial era witb its tumult and bustle, its excitements and its excesses, was duly inaugurated. In all that was least commendahle and most characteristic that era has ended. It brougbt with it mucb of evil and inuch of good, the latter having heen perhaps a little under estimated. The period of active mining in California having been so rounded into a full generation, its history invites retrospection, there being much in it with which the on-coming age is not very familiar. Upon the newe ot the discovery of gold spreading abroad, there at ouce ensued such an emigration movement as the world never before saw, and ag it will probahly never see again. This movement extended to all the people in Christendom, and to some outside, All came; the Kanake, the Fiji and the Mongolian—the Mahomedan, the Pagan and the Christian. It was anew crusade, the masses being now impelled by a lust for gold, and not as aforetime by a spirit of chivalry or a pious deeire to wrest the Holy Sepulcher from the hand of the unbeliever. And so a stream of immigration sets toward this coast from all lands, the adventurers coming by every available means of conveyance; not afew who had essayed to make iu wagons the journey overland being compelled to finish it on foot. Many perished on the way; some hy dlisease, some overcome by exposure aud toil, and some by the merciless hand of the savage. But these were so comparatively few that they were not missed, save perhaps in the hearts and tbe homes that their loss may have made desolate. Their goal of promise reached, the eager thousands rushed to the mines, and swarming through the gulebes of the foothills awakened there for the first time the roar of a great industry. And,theu for seven or eigbt years the work of gold seeking and gold gathering went on ac. tively and prosperously, some meeting with a great, some with a moderate, and some with hut an indifferent success. The majority of tbe fortunate nnes taking their easily acquired gains, left and came not back again. Some of the peculiarly unfortunate, disheartened and bomesick, left also and never more, or but rarely, revisited California. Those that remained aud made permancnt homes bere, consisted mainly of euch as bad earned enougb to encourage tbem to hold on, and yet not enongh to satisfy their desires and induce them to return to their old bomes. Hence happens it that of tbe Argonauts who bave staid witb us the most have heen those who prospered but moderately at first, and so were here detained till they got well weaned from their old bomes and partially reconciled tothe new. Staying on, these pioneers, to adopt the foreign view of their case, hecame at last so demoralized that they lost all zest for civilization, and may now he considered hopelessly attached to California, At the end of these seven or eigbt yeare, the more superficial places baving been pretty well dug out, gold mining began to wane, and many of tbe miners leaving, the interior towns went to decay; trade diminished and.all other branches of husiness suffered a corresponding depression. As before etated, but few of the Argonauts proper came here to stay. Their sole purpose was to gather all the gold they could witbin a limited epace of time and leave. If they staid longer than tbe period proposed it was, asa general thing, because they could not belp it. Hence they took little interest at first in the advancement of the country socially or materially. Most of the improvements undertaken Were made in a rude and hasty manner. And, although the mines were opened and worked with a determination and energy never surpassed, it was an abnormal energy, alike unnatural and unhealthy. With the subsidence of mining, therefore, improvements halted, and everything tended to relapse into its primeval condition; hullion production having shrunken the while to a third of its once large proportions. For tbe next 10 or 12 years gold mining made hnt little progress in this State, the Frazier river, the Washoe, and other diversions of population having occurred msantime. At the end of this period the business here hegan to revive, and has since been improving, latterly at a very lively rate; the hydraulic gravel, the deep-lying

drift deposits, and the auriferous quartz veins constituting the sites of this greater activity. In these several departments our resources are likely to prove extensive and permanent, yielding large and steady profits for along time to come, Our stores of mineral wealth surpass, in fact, the most sanguine bopes of the early goldeeekers, though more lahor and skill is now required to make them practically availahle. To mining in the past, or rather to the men who carried it on, we of to-day owe a great deal. They were guilty of some excesses and fell into some errors, hut these were due in good part to their surrouudings, and the inherent difficulties of the husiness, which contained much that could he found out only by costly experiments and crucial trials, During these daye of learning and testing they made sacrifices for which they will never he paid. But no generation works for itself alone, nor can any great industry he advanced to a high perfection without losses and failures. They who come after these pioneers will profit largely hy their unrewarded lahors—profit almost ae much hy their mistakee as by their improvements; they will leave to their successore a noble heritage in their experience alone. Collecting Sulphurets in Seam Diggings. From W. H. Howland, a practical miner of long experieuce, we ohtaiu the following informatiou in regard to the husiness of collecting tbe auriferous sulphurets from the hydraulic tailings and other containing matter, now heginning to be prosecuted by new methode and on quite an extended scale. Mr. Howland, who is an inventor as well as miner, conceived the idea not long siuce of passing tbat class of these tailiugs that have accumulated in the seam diggings through an ordinary rockbreaker, reducing them to about the size of peas or emaller, and thereby releasing the sulphurets, which they carry in great abundance. What are known as seam diggings consist of very thiu veins of partially decomposed goldheariug quartz, runuing, generally in great numhers, through the slate or other formation, the principal site of these deposits hciug the northerly parts of El Dorado county. ‘These small veins having in times past hcen quite largely worked, considerable quantities of tailings have gathered at points where this class of operations was carried on. ‘These veins were washed down hy the bydraulic method, being brokeu up witb picks or shattered with powder when too hard to be torn to pieces with the force of water, as always happened when followed much helow the surface. These tailings are composed of fragments of quartz, slate, porphyry and gravel mixed with a little mud and sand. This mass of stuff, being shoveled or run into the sluice, is carried down and discharged into the rock-breaker placed at its lower end, and, passing through, is by it crushed to the fineness ahove mentioned. After passing through the rock-hreaker the whole mass is run through another string of eluices provided witb euitahle appliances for concentrating tbe eulphurets and saving the free gold, quicksilver and amalgam, which these tailings carry in greater or less quantity. The locality selected by Mr. Howland for his first experiment with this waste, and as heretofore supposed worthless material, ie what was formerly known ae the French mine, eituated at Greenwood, an old camp on the Georgetown divide, and at a point ahout balf way between the South and the Middle Fork of the American river. This place was chosen, not that the tailings were here richer than elsewhere, but because there were enough of them and the facilities for conducting the proposed experiment were good. As the result of a first trial Mr. Howland finds these sulphurets to be more ahundant and of hetter quality than was expected. T'be tailings also carry more free gold, quicksilver and amalgam than was at first counted upon. One lot of sulphurets hrought to this city was found to assay at the rate of $1,300 per ton, another lot, more carefully concentrated, having assayed as much as $5,308 per ton. These concentrations are being treated at the Deetkiu works by the chlorination process, under a guarantee to return 90% of their assay value, the price charged for working them being $35 per ton. Mr. Howland has invented and has now in use a patent riffle especially suited for rewasbing this class of tailings, the sulphurets being concentrated and all their other valuahle contents saved hy it with great closeness. This ingenious and useful contrivance will be more fully described in our next issue. On looking around our informant observed considerahle quantities of tailings on the old dump piles in the neighborhood where he is operating, and some of whicb are prohably as good as those he has been handling. They run uneven, bowever, wherever the mines themselves have been rich this refuse heing found of corresponding grade, There are left here, too, still in place, many of these thin eeams of quartz that appear to be full of sulphurete, and moat likely contain also some free gold. They invite attention as presenting fair chances for profitable mining on a small scale, Colorado Exaggerations, There is no question that great wealth exists in the ground in Colorado, hut the eass with which the pracious minerals are reduced, coupled with the money that has heen made on small investments, has blinded the eyes, and hronght about fabulous statements, which demonstrate ‘that human nature is the same all the world over, We are, in fact, children of greater growth, and our imaginations continually mislead us, particularly when glittering gold and cilver is the ohject in the mind’e eye. The Leadville fever which eeized upon the mining communities of Colorado, and the heretofore cool way of talking ahout millions, or hundrede of thousands of dollars, has heen enougb to turn the brain of every man who has not goue there fully determined to preserve his equanimity. The annual ontput of Leadville alone, has heen estimated at one hundred millions of dollars, a few tens of millions more or less, with millions in sight is of no consequence. These reports of the carhonate helt are freely circulated, and accredited as trne, yet they are not hased upon accurate information. The managere of the largest mines and the superinteudents of the smelting works could not have given such information, hecause they could not have stopped to reckon up the output of the principal mines, the product of which is only approximately known. Nearly all the ore produced in this cainp is smelted in and ahout Leadville. A few amall mines, producing ore of exceptionally higb grade, ship it to Omaha or Chicago to he separated and refined, hut the amount thus disposed of, when compared with tbe entire output of the camp, is very small, There are now in operation in Leadville eigbt smelting establisbments, with 15 furnaces, producing, when run to their full capacity, 400 tons of ore per day. A liheral estimate per ton is an average of 100 ounces of silver, and if all these emelters had run to their full capacity durin the last five mouths, they would have turne out ahout $6,000,000 of bullion, but so far from this probahle amount heing turned out, there was only about $2,000,000 of bullion. Eight more smelting furnaces are being pnt in ruuning, an aggregate of 12 fnrnaces, with reducing capacity of 400 tons of ore. All of these will make the smelting capacity of the whole camp for the last six months of the year, $14,400,000. That is, if the ore supply equale the demand. ; There is no certainty of any such yield of ore, and it is considered hy good authorities, the smelters themselves, that $8,000,000, will he ahout the amount of bullion to he turned out during the last six months of 1879. There will not, in fact, be more tbsn 10 to 12 millione of hullion from Leadville for the entire ycar. These estimates are sustained not only by the statistics showing the output of the principal mines of the camp, which can he obtained with considerable accuracy, but also by the opinion of meu who are best qualified to judge. Supposing Fryer hill to produce each montb ore worth $400,000, Carbonate hill $300,000, and all other mines $200,000 (and these are liberal estimates), the output from the firat of June to the firet of December would be only $6,300,000. A correspondent of the N. Y. 7'ribune, says: “The president of one of the largest mining companies told me that he did not thiuk that the year’s product of the camp would exceed $6,000,000; the manager of the largest smelter thougbt that it might possibly reach $12,000,000, and this was the largest estimate I have heen able to ohtain from anyone who is in position to express a very intelligent opinion.” The silver product of the whole State of Colorado last year, was ahout $12,000,000. There will undouhtedly he some increase this year outside of the carhonate helt, but it will not he very greet—two or three million dollars will prohably cover it. The only carhonate mines ‘that are yet producing are those here at Leadville. A few mines have heen opened in the Ten Mile region, ahout fourteeu miles from bere, but there are no smelting works there yet, and ae the charges for freigbt sent here have heen $20 a ton it has been impossible to sbip ore to the Leadville smelters. The same oorrespondent also says: ‘‘ The Gunnison country, as a mining region, is as yet almost a terra incognita. Within a few weeka only has it been accessible, and last week gentlemen who returned from there reported that in crossing the range they passed througha tunnel in the snow seventy feet long. I have no douht that rich carbonate ores have heen found there, and when they are developed they may beas valuable as those ahout this camp. In that case wagon roade and possibly a railroad willhe built into the country, smelters will he erected and silver will be produced in large quantities. But to-day the Gunnison country is producing no eilver, and no matter how rich its ores may be, it will he several months before it can hegin to produce. The same may be said of the Nortb Park and of other regions where it is reported that carbonate ores bave recently been found. ni “In conclusion I give it as my opinion, based ou the best information I have been ahle to obtain, that Leadville will not send to market this year more than $10,000,000 or $11,000,000 wortb of silver, and that the product of the State of Colorado will not he more than $25,000,000.”