power engine upon it, sufficient to pump and hoist, and another of 20 horse-power to run a 10-stamp mill which adjoins the engine-house. There are three shafts. The engine-shaft, with three apartments, is vertical, and 150 feet deep. The next is 115 feet, and inclines, with the dip of the lode, about 60° to 70° southeast. The third shaft (whim-shaft) is 85 feet deep. The strike of the gneissic strata is north 40° east. Several drifts have been run on the vein, which averages 34 feet wide, and carries excellent ore from wall to wall. About 14 inches of it consist of white, transparent quartz, of fine grain, (sometimes of milky and leaden hue,) showing free gold most of the time. The remainder of the lode consists of a selvage of decomposed quartz, next to the wall-rock, of dark, rusty color, and very rich in gold. The width of the oreThe ore, I streak in the southwest part of the vein varies from 6 inches to 5 feet. learn, yields about $40 to the ton on an average. The Miner's Delight, (east end,) is owned by parties in Tiffin, Ohio, to the extent of 800 feet. I found Mr. Robert H. Morrison, the manager, putting the shafts and levels in true mining order, timbering the shafts and drifts in the best and most approved manner, which, on such a lode, is always the best economy. The whim-shaft is 85 feet deep, and two levels (of 30 and 40 feet) are run each way from the shaft, showing same The walls of the lode are quality of ore and width of vein as the west end lode. smooth and well defined. The lode bends north at its eastern end. The Hartley lode, owned by the Messrs. Hartley to the extent of 800 feet, is probably on the same vein as the Miner's Delight, which it adjoins on the southwest. The shaft is 100 feet deep, the vein 14 feet wide, and drifted upon 100 feet, and the quartz-rock is very rich. But the mine is flooded with water when the Miner's Delight pump does not keep it down, as had been the case the past summer, while the new engine of the Miner's Delight was being set up. The Peabody lode is southwest of the Hartley, and on the same vein; and is owned by Manheim, Quinn, Frank, Young, Smith, and others, to the extent of 3,000 feet. One inclined shaft is 120 feet deep, the dip being about 45°, and the vein 3 to 4 feet wide. The ore is not as rich as the Hartley, but fair; yields $15 per tou. Stamp-mills.-Twelve stamp-mills have been erected in this district, carrying about one hundred and sixty stamps, which was double the number required for the small working force and production of the mines. One or two valuable ones were burned, and two were erected on worthless, huge quartz-veins; and one of these is now being taken to the Utah mines. Gulch-mining.-Gold has been found in nearly every gulch in this district, and some have proved almost as rich as the famous Dutch Flat diggings in California, though of far less extent, the ravines being narrow. But their large yield is the best evidence of the number of rich lodes in this district. There are six or seven of these rich gulches, which are worked only a small portion of the year, for want of sufficient water, to wit, the Cariso, and Rock Creek, above and below Atlantic, and the Yankee, Meadow, Smith's Promise, and Spring Gulches. The Spring Gulch is just below Miner's Delight, and contains the débris of that rich lode. I found thirty to forty men working on it, with only the water pumped from the Miner's Delight engine-shaft. The largest nugget taken from it weighed six ounces. I saw many of an ounce or two in weight, and also saw a lump of gold-quartz, taken from the gravel, as large as a water-bucket, which looked as if it contained a pound or two of gold. Promise Gulch was discovered this summer, and is a branch of Smith's. It heads up north against the southwest extension of the Miner's Delight lode, on the dividing ridge. It is on the road between Miner's Delight and Atlantic, and I have already made mention of it. Amount of bullion extracted.-I found it impossible to obtain anything like correct statistics on this point. During the year ending July 1, 1869, the estimate was $155,000 in coin. The product has probably been that much for each of the last two years, and perhaps considerably more, as that is about what is taken from only three of the best mines. This looks like a small amount for so many lodes that yield so well; but it must be borne in mind that it is very little over a year since Indians murdered some of the best young men and miners, within the very center of this eight miles of mines, and killed several other citizens in the valley, not far north of the mines. Miners cannot work and at the same time watch and fight Indians. This state of affairs has prevented immigration to those mines, and large numbers have been induced to leave and go to the Utah mines within the last eighteen months, where the prospector can pursue his arduous calling, free from the constant apprehension that while he is stooping over his work the arrow of an ambushed savage may pierce his heart. Fuel for mining purposes.-The question of fuel will become a serious one at no distant period, when capital and experienced labor shall be brought to the energetic development of these mines. Most of the timber for the mines, and lumber for buildings, can be obtained twenty to thirty miles west, in the Wind River Mountains, where there are saw-mills at this time; but fuel for the engines and furnaces, and for domestic purposes, cannot be brought so far except at too great expense. Coal must therefore be found, and it is possible, and even probable, from what I can hear, that it may be found not far north of the mines-in the "valley," as it is termed. If it cannot be found, then the next step necessary will be to enlist capital for the purpose of securing the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad from Fort Steele, or Rawlins, via Seminole Gap, and thence up the Sweetwater to the gold mines. This would supply coal from the coal-fields at Carbon, or north of Fort Steele, or from valuable veins that exist not far south of Rawlins. It would also give access to the gold and silver mines of the Seminole Monntains, close to this line of road, which in a short time will exhibit sufficient wealth in mineral products, and so attract public attention and confidence as to command the building of a railroad thus far toward the Sweetwater mines. The whole line would require but very little more grading than for a railroad over an Illinois prairie. CHAPTER X. THE SMELTING OF ARGENTIFEROUS LEAD-ORES IN NE VADA, UTAH, AND MONTANA. The material for this chapter has been collected in part by my deputy, Mr. Eilers, and myself, by personally visiting the localities and works described. I believe all the works mentioned in the chapter have been visited by one or the other of us; but in many cases the brevity of the time at our disposal prevented us from as detailed an examination as was desirable. The deficiency was remedied by the courtesy of Mr. O. H. Hahn, a metallurgist of skill and experience, well known in the West, whom I requested to furnish me with such data as were at his command. This he has kindly done, and I have incorporated in this chapter his very detailed and admirable article, discussing the principles involved, and giving much information with regard to special operations in Utah and Nevada. I can give Mr. Hahn this general acknowledgment only, since the free use I have made of his materials, interpolating, distributing, and altering, to suit my own views, renders it necessary that I accept the responsibility of this chapter, while I would not deprive any colaborer of his due share of credit. The same remark will apply to the contributions of my deputy, Mr. A. Eilers. Perhaps it would be nearest the truth to say that these two gentlemen are primarily the authors of the chapter, but that their work has been edited after a somewhat arbitrary and self-willed fashion, so that they cannot be asked to adopt and acknowledge it as it stands. I shall speak here only of such works as beneficiate ores directly in the mining districts. And when I say that more than twenty furnaces exist in Utah, about as many in Nevada, five in Montana, and four in Cerro Gordo, Inyo county, California, it is obvious that a business so extended deserves attention. Wide apart as these different works are located, they have nevertheless to deal in nearly every case with the same or very similar circumstances and conditions, so that, with very few exceptions, virtually the same system of smelting is fol lowed in all these establishments. This is the so-called method of reduction and precipitation in blast-furnaces. As the principal reasons for the employment of a blast-furnace process, are to be considered: the low percentage of lead in the ores, the high price of the only available fuel, charcoal, and the exorbitant rates demanded for labor. The reasons why the reduction and precipitation process is preferred to a roasting, reduction and precipitation process are the high prices of labor and materials, and the preponderance of oxidized ores over sulphurets, though in some cases the latter are quite abundant. The weight of these reasons will be better understood when the character of the ores to be treated and the object of the smelting are more minutely stated. The ores are in nearly all cases a preponderating mass of oxidizedlead ores, such as cerussite, anglesite, and leadbillite, in which nests and nodules of undecomposed galena occur. Associated with these are: in Eureka, Nevada, arseniate of iron and arsenical pyrites, hydrated oxide of iron, quartz, and calcareous clay; in Little Cottonwood Cañon and American Fork, Utah, iron oxide, and in some |