thick strata of quartzite, which alternate with limestone and slates. The deposits carry mostly an iron cap, which is from two to three feet deep. Below it occur carbonates of lead mixed with arseniate of iron, and frequently lumps of undecomposed galena are found in the middle of large bodies of cerussite. The number of claims taken up is enormous, but few are actually worked at present. The principal reason is that the percentage of silver contained in these ores is actually too small to pay for working at present. The average contents of silver is only from $12 to $30 per ton in different mines, and the cost of coal being from 25 to 30 cents per bushel, and thirty bushels being used to smelt a ton of ore, while labor in the nines is $4 and in the furnaces $5 per day, you must see that such ores cannot pay for treatment at a locality one hundred and twenty miles from railroad communication. A reduction of wages and freight, in case the long-talked-of railroad from Elko to White Pine should be built, will, of course, remove the obstacles now in the way of profitable working. Of the quantity of smelting ores in the Base Metal Range, there is no doubt they occur everywhere in large deposits, and will eventually be the surest basis for extensive mining industry.

About six miles to the northwest of Hamilton occurs a mineral-bearing zone on White Pine Mountain, which seems to hold out better inducements for working at the present time. Ores from this locality are now in New York for assay, and if they should prove to be as rich as their appearance leads me to expect, this locality will rival the now famous region near Eureka, of which it is an almost exact geological and mineralogical counterpart. Facilities for smelting are here better, and especially the item of coal may be reduced to almost half the Hamilton and Shermantown prices.

The mountain on which the mines are located is here very steep, and about as high as the hill on which Treasure City is located, i. e., a little over 9,000 feet. It is better wooded than most mountain regions in Nevada, but the growth of pine and mahogany is, as must be expected at such an altitude, rather stunted. Charcoal made from such wood cannot therefore be of the best quality; but it is sufficiently dense, when properly burned and guarded against moisture in the winter months, to answer very well for smelting operations. Mining property situated at such a distance from Hamilton, Treasure City, and Shermantown, has, of course, a large advantage over the latter places in the very important matter of the cost of the necessary fuel. Water is here rather scarce, but there is a sufficiency obtained in springs and wells to conduct smelting operations. For the present, and as long as the decomposed ores are encountered in the mines, no dressing is necessary.

The geological formation on White Pine Mountain consists, in this neighborhood, of heavy beds of limestone interstratified with quartzite layers of great thickness. On the west slope, referred to above, the strata are highly tilted, and stand in places nearly vertical. They strike from northeast to southwest, and dip to the northwest. A stratum of quartzite, underlain and overlain by limestone, crosses the mountain here diagonally. In the limestone overlying the quartzite, sometimes close to the latter, sometimes as much as 200 feet above it, occur the mineral deposits. They run with the strata of the country rock.

The San Bernard is located on the west slope, high up, and just over the crest of the mountain. It is hardly sufficiently opened to form a correct opinion of it, but shows in the cross-cut a streak of 12 to 15 inches of solid carbonate of lead and patches in the limestone outside. It runs parallel to another location on the east side of the mountain, which is better opened and has acquired quite a name on account of the abundance of ore which it carries. I refer to the Jennie A., a mine which gives a very fair idea of the nature of these deposits. I am informed that it showed very little outcrop at the top. It is now worked by an open cut about 50 feet in length along the deposit, which shows a large body of carbonate of lead mixed with manganese, arseniate, and hydrated oxide of iron. About 1,200 tons of ore are here on the dump, and the quantity in sight in the mine is very large. The assays go from $3 to $1,000 per ton in silver.

An assay from the San Bernard has yielded $31 per ton in silver. The percentage of lead is about 40 per cent. In neither of the two mines spoken of here have I noticed the mineral stetefeldtite, which, when occurring, is the main source of silver. The Yosemite claim is 800 feet long, and lies on the west slope about 500 feet below the San Bernard. It is also about 200 yards above the quartzite in the limestone. The deposit is from 2 to 3 feet thick, and is exposed by an open cut 40 feet in length and about 8 feet deep. The ore is carbonate of lead with iron ore and lumps of galena. No assay has been made of this ore, but a piece from the extension higher up the hill is reported to have assayed $30 per ton. The quantity of ore in sight is large, but it is my impression that it will not go high in silver.

The Emigrant is an imperfectly opened deposit, parallel and not far from the foregoing. The decomposed lead ore is about 2 feet wide in the opening.

The Indiana, parallel to the foregoing, and nearer to the quartzite. The ore-streak is 2 to 3 feet wide, and carries more quartz, an indication in this region of greater rich

ness in silver. The ore is carbonate of lead mixed with arseniate and hydrated oxide of iron, and occasional patches of galena.

Aerolite Length of location, 800 feet. It lies still nearer to the quartzite down the mountain, and the cut shows a streak of from 3 to 4 inches of stetefeldtite.

Tuna and Iron-clad: Each of these two locations comprises 1,600 feet. They occur below a smaller stratum of quartzite lower down the mountain. The deposits dip steeply, and are evidently larger and more important than any of the foregoing. They show a very large outcrop of iron ore, over 12 feet thick in each case, which havo been penetrated downward by shafts 15 and 20 feet deep. Small patches of carbonate of lead occur in the bottoms of the shafts, but the solid lead ore has not been reached. The Sentinel lies just above the before-mentioned quartzite, in limestone, and shows an iron outcrop 10 feet wide, in which a shaft 15 feet deep shows a streak of carbonate and red oxide of copper and stetefeldtite.

The Alabama is another deposit with a large iron outcrop, in which a shaft 10 feet deep has been sunk. It has just reached patches of carbonate of lead.

The four last locations are by far the most important, and may be expected to carry large deposits of lead and stetefeldtite under the iron cap.

Later in the season large lots of ore from several of the above-named mines were smelted in Shermantown and Hamilton, and those from the Yosemite and Jennie A. have especially given highly gratifying results. The English company which bought the Eberhardt mine has constructed a new sixty-stamp mill three miles from the mine, and a tramway connects mine and mill, so that the transportation of the ore will cost them only 25 cents per ton.

New smelting works have been erected just above Hamilton by Governor Matteson. In the middle of September, one furnace had already been in blast for a week, and was working admirably. The result of the week's run was about thirty tons of bullion, assaying $180 per ton in silver. For the last two days the work had been gradually increased toward full capacity. The result of the last twenty-four hours' run was 170 bars of bullion, weighing about 8 tons-giving an average assay of $186 per ton. The second and third furnaces were to be blown in before the 1st of October.

About the same time the Ward Beecher was working thirty men, and took out from 30 to 40 tons of ore daily, which netted $40 per ton. Quite a body of ore was struck in this mine, which resembles closely that taken from the Eberhardt in its palmiest days. From the Silver Wave the ore from shaft No. 4 was paying $80 per ton; that from the Hidden Treasure, $74. Schoharie turned out 6 tons daily, worth $40 per ton; the Matilda yielded $80 ore. The Aurora South was working with a large force of men, and had an immense body of ore in sight. Fifty tons of ore were shipped daily, and the last 3,000 tons taken out had yielded $46 per ton.

In November, an English company commenced mining operations on the Aurora North with one hundred men. They extracted low-grade ore for the new mill, and the mine was looking well. In the Eberhardt new rich discoveries of chlorides had again been made, both in the large chamber and on the surface. Most of the mills and furnaces were run'ning, and at Matteson's smelting works refining furnaces were being erected.

Of the base-metal mines, the French, Jennie A., Yosemite, Uncle Sam, and Fay produced large quantities of ore.

The old Monte Christo Mill has been rebuilt during the year; five stamps and a Stetefeldt furnace have been added, and in November the mill was running profitably on ore from the Maryland mine of Pinto district.

In Pinto district the Germania, a gold-bearing ledge, has been worked, and five tons of selected ore assayed as high as from $1,500 to $12,000 per ton. Champion ore assayed from $400 to $750; Mountain Chief,

$138. The Maryland is reported 30 feet wide, and samples of the ore found from a two-foot pay-streak in this ledge assayed as high as $1,360 per ton. I am not informed what has been the average of the ore worked, at the Monte Christo Mill.

Robinson district is situated forty-five miles due east from Hamilton, in White Pine County, Nevada. The district came into favorable notice about a year and a half ago, and at the present time has acquired considerable importance, as the development of the claims since the first discovery has established their richness. The country rock is limestone and porphyry, and the former is in places uplifted by diorite. In the limestone and porphyry occur mineral deposits, carrying carbonates of lead, galena, and in some instances red oxide of copper. In the diorite occur veins carrying galena with fluorspar as predominating gangue. The Isaac, mentioned hereafter, is one of these. The pure galena from these veins assays $75 in silver. The ores carry always a very large percentage of quartz, and they require, therefore, very close selection to fit them for smelting.

Most of the mines and mining claims, thirty-six in number, are owned by Chicago capitalists, Messrs. Cummings and Waller, and I am indebted to Mr. E. G. Moss, the mining engineer of the company, for much of the following information. The principal mines are the Flying Cloud, Isaac, Elijah, Old England, and General Gregg, which have been worked by the company during the last year. Several hundred tons of smelting ores have been extracted, and the owners have found sufficient encouragement in the appearance of their mines to erect a large furnace for the reduction of their ores.

This furnace is the largest one in Nevada, except the Piltz furnace in Eureka. The furnace is a blast furnace, with four tuyères. Its inside horizontal section is 3 by 4 feet, and the blast is supplied by a No. 8 Sturtevant blower, driven by a twenty horse-power engine. The capacity of the furnace is twelve to fourteen tons per day.

By far the largest portion of the ores cannot be smelted at present, as a preparatory dressing is required to fit them for the furnace. The works being located at the head of Murray Creek, water for this purpose is. abundant, and the erection of dressing works is contemplated. Meanwhile the ores are picked by hand, and the first campaign lasted a fortnight and produced eighty-one tous of bullion. The bullion assays $410 in silver per ton.

The ores of at least one of the above-named mines contain some gold. This is the Elijah, but the contents per ton being only from $10 to $12, and the ores being mixed with those from all the other mines, the gold is not at present available. The carbonate ores assay about $110, and the galenas about $90 per ton in silver. This refers, of course, to the ores picked out for smelting. According to Mr. Moss the mines are amply able to supply the furnace, especially after dressing works have been built. Wood in the neighborhood is comparatively plenty. It is the same as found in other portions of Nevada, pine and mahogany, and does not make very good coal except when carefully burned and handled. The Chicago Company employs about seventy-five hands, including furnace-men, wood-choppers, etc.

About four miles from Mineral City, the town of the district, an important mine, the Carbonate, is worked by other parties, and small smelting works are being erected. The ores from this mine assay, according to Mr. Moss, $53 in silver, and about $50 in gold.

Robinson district, like all the mining camps in Eastern Nevada, suffers

as yet from high labor and transportation; but at least in regard to the former there are good prospects of a speedy change for the better. The following is the number of tons, and their value, worked or sold during the four quarters from July 1, 1869, to June 30, 1870, in White Pine County, as per returns to the county assessor, Mr. W. W. Hobart, to whom, with Mr. J. B. Dayton, his deputy, my thanks are due.