SECTION II.-NEVADA.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE COMSTOCK LODE.

This chapter, prepared with the assistance of Mr. C. A. Luckhardt, and based chiefly on his notes and observations, is a continuation of the description given in my report for 1868, which is thus brought down to July, 1869, and in some cases to a later date. For facility of description, I will again divide the 19,000 feet of explored ground on the Comstock into three parts, viz:

1. The northern portion, extending from the Utah to the Chollar Potosi mine, a distance of 12,170 linear feet.

2. The middle portion, extending from the Chollar to the Imperial North, a distance of 1,794 linear feet; and

3. The southern portion, extending from the Imperial North to the South Overman, a distance of 4,775 linear feet.

There are further locations, both north of the Utah and south of the Overman, to which I will afterwards refer.

I. Northern portion of the vein.-My last report showed the existence of four distinctly separate ore bodies, on all of which work has been carried on up to date, while neither of them has as yet been exhausted of all its ores.

1. Commencing on the north, I described the first body, very irregular in its form, 140 to 150 feet in depth, and about 250 feet in length, lying principally in the Sierra Nevada Company's ground. During the latter portion of the year ending July 1, 1869, it has been very vigorously attacked by the Sierra Nevada Company, yielding them ore, carrying principally free gold, of the net mill value of five to ten dollars per ton. Local circumstances, such as the erection of a mill at the mine, the working of it through tunnels, &c., permitted the extraction of this low grade of ores, leaving the company a small profit per ton. There are yet thousands of tons of ore, varying from three to ten dollars per ton, in sight in this body. The company have explored the ground partially for six hundred feet below this ore body, but finding the vein barren of ore, have decided to dispense with further explorations in depth for the present.

2. South of the above we have 1,600 to 1,700 feet of ground which never has been productive. We then come upon the second ore body, extending from the North Ophir for over six hundred feet horizontally into part of the California ground. This body extended for 650 to 700 feet vertically below the surface, and yielded in former times immense quantities of rich ores. It is practically exhausted, excepting some low grade ores, for the profitable treatment of which even the present reduced rates of milling are still too high. Its great width in many places caused the leaving of pillars of fair ores at the time it was worked; and these pillars have been attacked by individual contractors within the past year. These parties have often been successful where it was impossible for the

companies themselves to extract the ores with profit. Want of capital or of confidence has prevented the work of exploration from being carried on as vigorously as might have been expected by many, in order to develop his ground below the depth of 650 or 700 feet. The main work of this character thus far has been the sinking of the new Ophir shaft for 700 feet depth, which brings them 280 feet below the point where ore body No. 2 pinched out. At that depth nothing was found but barren porphyries filling the vein, and it seems doubtful whether any ore will be met with at this depth, so far north from where the last ore body terminated. A single drift from east to west, in a piece of ground over two thousand feet in length along the vein from north to south, does not, however, furnish enough facts to permit a positive opinion as to the possible worth of the vein at this particular point. The ground south of this ore body for over 1,300 feet, including south portion of the California Company, Central No. 2, Kinney, White & Murphy, Sides, Best & Belcher, has been lying idle for years. It was explored to various depths, from 100 to 500 feet below the surface, but never with any system; and nothing can be said as to its value. It is very probable that much ore exists here, but it has yet to be laid open to view. The Central No. 2, Kinney, White, Murphy and Sides, comprising 860 feet, have been consolidated, and a shaft, now 300 feet deep, is being sunk with the object of thoroughly investigating this ground for ore. It is my impression that they will meet with success in depth, as they will most probably discover the continuous outcrop (blind here for 1,800 or 1,900 feet) of the Comstock vein. This outcrop has been ore-bearing wherever struck all along the line of the vein for over 13,000 feet in length, and if discovered here should insure the newly-formed company an indefinite period of lucrative mining.

3. The third ore body, commencing at the Gould & Curry Company's ground, extended south for 2,330 feet horizontally, and its terminus was discovered 1,089 feet below the outcroppings. There were many smaller outlying bodies of ore running generally parallel with it, and it split in several places, causing very extensive ore chambers at the points of reunion. It was this body and its smaller companions which gave the Gould & Curry, Savage, and Hale & Norcross their unequaled fame. It alone has yielded, as nearly as I can ascertain, over $12,500,000 worth of bullion. It has been exhausted of its ores, with the exception of about eleven thousand tons in sight in the Savage and five thousand tons in the Hale & Norcross, and its limit in depth has been demonstrated. It is very natural that such a colossal mass of ore, worked so rapidly as has been the case here in Washoe, as much as 650 tons of ore being extracted daily for a considerable period, should not be entirely exhausted in two years. Places which, in the hurry of operations, were overlooked are now being overhauled. Old abandoned works are repaired and continue to yield a limited amount of fair ore daily. For example, one parallel branch of this body was first discovered three hundred feet below the surface in the Savage Company's ground. It descended for two hundred feet, was there dislocated sixty feet from west to east, and, this dislocation being misinterpreted, was abandoned over a year ago as having closed out against the east clay wall. Since that time it has been found again, and worked for over one hundred feet vertically, varying from three to thirty-five feet in width of first-class ore, ($85 to $120 assay per ton,) and from thirty-five to one hundred and forty feet in length hori zontally. It alone has produced for the Savage mine three dividends, amounting to $208,000 net profit. This body was called the Potosi Chimney. At present it is again exhausted, having run out in depth into a

six feet wide quartzose seam, full of clay and clayey matter, dipping very flat to the east and south. It is still under further exploration, but it is doubtful if it will again widen out into a body of ore. Its eastern boundary (clay) has been broken through, showing the east country rock beyond, a circumstance unfavorable to a continuation of ore.

There is no doubt that similar conditions are likely to occur again in the ground surrounding this large third ore body; and it is with the hope of finding yet other parallel ore seams, though not with the expectation of as good quality or large quantity as the Potosi Chimney gave, that work is at present carried on in all of the three above-named mines, in what they term their old works, from the surface to a depth of six hundred feet.

Within the three mines (a space of say 2,400 feet, horizontally) through which this large third ore body swept, explorations have been carried on within the year for three hundred feet in depth. Cross-sections and longitudinal drifts have been run, amounting to an aggregate of five thousand linear feet; the limits of this third ore body in depth, both north and south, have been determined. These explorations have also revealed an entirely new body of ore in the 1037-foot level of the Hale & Norcross mine. It was first met with in sinking a small winze below the 930-foot level and then found ninety-three feet west of the Hale & Norcross shaft, in their 1037-foot level, where it showed again the dip east, and the sinking of its upper edge to the south, which are phenomena characteristic of all the ore bodies in the North Comstock. It has here been laid bare for 260 feet in length, showing from six to twenty-one feet width of pay ore. Its ores are somewhat different from the ores of the upper bodies. They contain more galena, and iron and copper pyrites, and traces of zincblende. In a word, they are "baser," and, in consequence, not as docile in wet amalgamation. This body promises to be somewhat extensive. The ores may be called thirty-dollar mill ores, though in places they have milled $60 to $65 per ton. They are not regularly distributed through the thirty-seven to forty feet quartz-width in which they occur. Large pockets of quartz, worth only $3 to $10 per ton, will frequently change places with rich ore: for twenty feet in length the body will give sixty-dollar mill ore, and again for fifteen feet or so only fifteen-dollar mill ore.

It has already yielded largely in ore in the Hale & Norcross lowest level, where it has been extracted for twenty-eight to thirty-five feet in height by over one hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and has every appearance of continuation in depth. Moreover, it lies, where opened upon, over one hundred and twenty feet to the east from the west wall, and has, therefore, should it even stand vertically, one hundred and thirty-five feet to pinch out in before it will meet the west wall. The Hale & Norcross is now deepening the main shaft, which will cut this ore body seventy-two feet below the present lowest level, (1037-foot.) The Savage shaft has attained a vertical depth of 958 feet, and pierced at this depth a quartz body twenty-one feet wide, which carries the fac-simile of the ore of the Hale & Norcross body, but only in small bunches and pockets. It is probable that these twenty-one feet of quartz are the northern portion of that Norcross ore body. There are strong reasons to believe this, but it is not absolutely certain, as three hundred feet horizontally and eighty feet vertically, of unexplored ground exist between the two explored points. Should this prove to be the case, we might expect this newly discovered body to be of large dimensions; we should, in fact, know it to be already 473 feet in length, but how much

of that length would be pay ore it is impossible to say. The ores of this body lie very irregularly, in bunches and pockets, as I have remarked.

By these developments, and others to be hereinafter described, in the middle and southern portion of the Comstock, we are strengthened in the opinion that as long as the west wall stands regular and undis turbed, whatever be the case with the eastern boundary of the vein, so long we may expect the occurrence of new quartz bodies in depth. The ores, however, become poorer, more refractory to the simple "Washoe" method of extraction, and more irregularly deposited through the accompanying gangue than they were in the superficial bodies.

4. Going further south from the Hale & Norcross and entering the Chollar Potosi mine, we have the fourth ore body, which has been worked, August, 1869, to the depth of five hundred feet below the outcrop for a distance of nearly one thousand feet, horizontally. The widest portion exposed last year was 123 feet; ore has been extracted in places, since then, for nearly two hundred feet in width. Very exten sive explorations have been carried on in depth through the Chollar Potosi shaft within the last year. The ground has been prospected to a depth of 1,220 feet below the surface, but the vein was found to be filled with porphyries, showing only very narrow quartz seams sparingly distributed and carrying merely traces of ore. Meeting in depth neither ore nor even promising indications, the company devoted attention to the upper old mine, which has been overhauled and re-explored from the surface to a depth of over five hundred feet, with great success. Ground which was looked upon as exhausted has yielded largely in ores; and in the extreme western portion of the vein, near the surface, where no ore was ever suspected to exist, very fair mill-rock has been found in abundance. For a space of over three hundred feet (measuring from east to west across the vein) on the surface, ore has been extracted in large quantities; and from appearances the company has yet six or eight months' supply of ore, worth, probably, $16 to $22, (mill value,) in sight, representing about fifty thousand tons, which will pay a profit at the present mill rates. There is, aside from this estimate, a vast amount of ore of lower grade in the mine, which will prove valuable at some future day when milling rates will be still further reduced.

From the above description it will be seen, that in the last year, espe cially in the latter portion of it, the leading mines situated on the North Comstock have had to attack their old works for ores, which had become valuable from local circumstances. The workings in depth have proven so far only a drain on the treasuries of the different companies; what new developments have been made, are but a small compensation for their incurred cost. It is true, more prospecting work might have been carried on, in the space of nearly 12,500 feet, than has actually been accomplished; but even this latter would possibly not have been undertaken had not the old ore bodies held out so well. Prospects north are certainly not very flattering at present, though there are 1,500 feet in one place, and 5,300 feet in another, (along the course of the vein,) not explored in depth, viz: between Gould & Curry and Ophir, and between Ophir and the Utah Company's ground.

II. Middle portion of the vein.-Under this name I desiguate the ground from the Chollar Potosi South, to the Imperial North, 1,794 linear feet, occupied by the Bullion, Exchequer, Alpha, Treglone and Imperial

North.

As I stated in last report, this ground contained the commencement of two extensive bodies of ore, especially the western one. This included

CONDITION OF MINING INDUSTRY-NEVADA.

the outcroppings, which have, with the exception of some low-g been exhausted in this portion of the vein. Small pillars left phate workings, and old stopes, packed with the "deads" of former day met tinue to produce limited quantities of ore, principally in the Alpha Imperial. Two hundred tons of ten-dollar to fourteen-dollar mill-ore will cover the daily yield from the entire 1,794 feet of vein length. During the past year, explorations have been carried on in the Bullion, Alpha, and Imperial, and 260 feet of further depth have been prospected. The Bullion has obtained a depth of 1,400 feet; the Imperial, 1,130 feet; Alpha, 1,000 feet. The result has been, that the vein is found to vary from 93 to 130 feet in width, and to show more porphyry intermixed with the vein matter, which is highly impregnated with iron pyrites. Quartz has been found in the Bullion as wide as 43 feet, but carrying only traces of ore through the mass; the Imperial shows from 15 to 30 feet of quartzose matter, likewise bearing ore in traces only. The Alpha, at the lowest level, exposes the vein 96 feet wide, filled principally with barren porphyry which divides the quartz, leaving seven feet close to the east wall, and three to four feet near the western wall. Both these seams show ore, but of no considerable value, consisting principally of sulphurets of lead and zinc, carrying silver in traces. In the Alpha, the seven feet of quartz underlying the east clay, when first discovered, gave great hopes for a bright future; small boulders of good ore were found imbedded in the porphyry immediately underlying this quartz; and in exploring the ground upwards, some three or four feet of fair ore were encountered. It was, however, soon worked out, having yielded over two hundred tons of forty-dollar mill ore. Explorations are still carried on in all these three mines, with the hope of meeting with an ore body in the quartz mass, now developed at the lowest depth attained. These efforts will probably be successful; but the vast amount of iron pyrites gives ground to fear that the ore will prove, when found, to be of a very refractory nature.

III. South portion of the vein.-Including the ore which existed in the divide or middle portion of the Comstock, I mentioned last year the existence of seven distinctly visible bodies or zones of ore in the Comstock, taking the ground from the Bullion to the South Overman.

1. The first, which extended from the Alpha to the Crownpoint, and which had been worked for over 2,300 feet in length, with some intervening barren ground, is not yet fully exhausted. The Yellow Jacket is producing from 60 to 70 tons daily from it, of the average mill value of $17. Belcher, Overman, and Kentuck have also to extract ore from it yet, but it is impossible to say how much may be expected from their

reserves.

2. The second, which commenced south of Exchequer, extended for 825 feet southward, and terminated in the Imperial South, may be considered as exhausted. Some little ore may yet remain; but it is doubtful if its extraction would leave a profit to either of the companies.

3. The ore, which was left at the date of my last report in the ore body, commencing in the Imperial South, and extending into the northern portion of the Yellow Jacket, (where it had been worked to a depth of 475 feet below the surface,) has been exhausted.

4. The fourth body, the horizontal length of which was nearly 1,200 feet, commencing in the Yellow Jacket mine and extending partly into the Belcher ground, although "worked out," as was supposed last year, has given considerable ore since from smaller parallel bodies, pillars, and ground at former times insufficiently explored, in the extreme western portion of the vein. In the Kentuck Mine it reached its maxi