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the original locators, or purchasing them from the latter for small and often mere nominal prices. This was more particularly the case with the numerous small but extremely rich claims at Gold Hill, as well as the Ophir and Mexican near Virginia City. At first there were no taxes of any kind upon the product of these mines; the body of ore was large, exceedingly rich, easily extractedthousands of tons being found in the croppings above ground-and the most of it capable of being reduced at a comparatively small cost; wherefore the profits to the owners, or at least to such of them as had come by these properties cheaply, were, during the first three or four years, not only steady, certain, and large, but in many cases enormous; and had better judgment been exhibited at that period in working the mines, and more caution in properly securing their titles, or had greater economy in the expenditure of their proceeds been observed by the owners, much of the disaster, loss, and, in some instances, final ruin that overtook both might have been avoided. For the development of these mines and the working of the ores few assessments were ever required, the most of them being not only self-sustaining but dividend-paying from the start. Prior to the erection of steam-mills the argentiferous ores were sold and sent out of the country for reduction, the auriferous rock at Gold Hill being worked by arrastras, a slow method, but one that answers well where the rock is rich, and simple crushing and amalgamating serves the purpose. Another advantage at this early day was, the mines were mostly owned by single individuals, or two or three at most, acting as partners, and not by large incorporated companies; and thus a source of much wastefulness and mismanagement, not to say peculation and fraud, was guarded against. So large was the income from some of these claims at Gold Hill during the period we are considering that they readily commanded from five to fifteen thousand dollars per foot, the net monthly profits derived from them varying from five hundred to three thousand dollars per linear foot. In some cases persons owning but ten feet enjoyed from this source an annual revenue of more than twenty and even approximating thirty thousand dollars. Nor were these princely revenues confined to the claims in Gold Hill, proper, (a mound of quartz some three or four hundred feet in length ;) the proprietors of the Mexican and Ophir for a time fared nearly as well. This temporary productiveness of the mines, leading, as has already been observed, to the subsequent high prices and extravagant notions of their prospective value, which in turn caused the undue excitement and over-speculation that culminated, on several distinct occasions not far separated, in general disappointment and loss. How frequent and extensive these losses have been may in some measure be gathered from the following tables exhibiting the fluctuations in the prices of such mining stocks as have been generally dealt in by the board of brokers, and which, although they do not embrace all the productive mines in the State, sufficiently indicate the fate that at one time or another has overtaken a large majority of them.

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Table showing the fluctuations in mining shares from July 10, 1864, to January 1, 1865.

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Table showing the fluctuations in mining shares from January 1, 1865, to June 20, 1865.

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Table showing the fluctuations in mining shares from June 20, 1865, to November 20, 1865.

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Table showing the fluctuations in mining shares from November 20, 1865, to June 29, 1866.

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