The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

UST.

iMBER.

Niels° l5
Hendon l7
Monmouth . 17
Newmarket Ist October 22
Walsall 23
West Drayton 2l
Royal Caledonian Hunt
and Western M

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

THE COMSTOCK LODE.—HOW MUCII OF TILE
ComsTocx as WORKED.—Comparatively few people out-
side of the State of Nevada are possessed of any definite
sort of idea of the size and extent of the Comstock ledge,
and what proportion of it has been and still is being
worked. In fact, very fow of us Oven in this city, dwell-
ing directly over the great lode, have a realizing concep-
tion of the extent of the mining excavations beneath our
feet, or of the amount of shaft, tunnel, and drift work
which has been done in prospecting in every direction
throughout the vast body of vein matter in search of the
much-coveted streaks of pay ore. Those of our commu-
nity, however, who delve with pick and shovel, or whose
daily avocation leads them down among the deep mines,
hundreds of feet beneath the foundation of our city, can
hardly fail to have a fair appreciation of the subject. The
Comstock is pretty definitely traced, located, and compa-
ratively understood for the distance of over three miles,
including that portion from Cedar Mil, south, running
under this city, Gold Hill, and for a limited distance be-
yond. As to the width and depth of the lode, those are
two points which the profoundest experts, we believe,
have never thus far been able legally to decide. From
present indications, it is fair to presume that it continues
down through the crust of the earth into the molten
bowels thereof, but the width is not so easily disposed of.
The peculiar hard diarite or " couhtry rock," forming the
body of Mount Davidson, is generally conceded to be the
west wall of the ledge, but the precise location of the east
wall has ever been a subject of legal controversy. We
shall not presumptuously attempt here to locate and per-
manently fix that mythetical institution, but will sim-
ply state that our own observation makes the real
Comstock ledge from 100 to 800 feet in width, being
narrower in some localities than in others. The vein
matter in the boundaries we hare described is composed
of quartz, porphyry, clay seams, "horses," and other spe-
cies and descriptions of rock formation, the vast majority
of which does not come under the head of pay ore. This
latter desirable commodity comprises but a very small po:
tion of the ledge, lying in streaks or bodies of all sizes, the
permanency or continuance of which cannot be calculated
or depended upon to a certainty ; thus it is that the famous
Mexican mine, which was once considered worth millions,
failed altogether to yield pay ore two years ago. There
were two rich streaks in it, which narrowed as they were
sunk upon, from thirty to forty feet in width, until, at the
depth of less than four hundred feet, they gave out en-
tirely. The mine at present is like a nut with the kernel
extracted—the shell remains. The Ophir has a similar
history, and the Gould and Curry, once considered the
leading representative of the Comstock mines, has little
left to brag of. The future hopes of the mines wo have
mentioned all lie in the development of new bodies of ore
unknown at present writing. Their locations and Fos-
poets are excellent. The principal bodies of ore which
have been, and still aro being, worked this side of the Di-
vide, aro those included in the Savage, Hale, and Nor-
cross, and Chollar-Potosi mines. These great bodies are
thus far continuous, that portion cropping out at the thiuld
and Curry descending thence with a dip to the south,
through the Savage and into the Hale and Norcross, while
the other portion crops out at the surface of the Chollar
Potosi mine, and is known es the old Chollar croppings,
The space included by these three mines is about 2,600
foot in length of the lodge, and during the last five or
six years many hundreds of thousands of tons of ore have
been taken therefrom, the mining having been carried to
a depth of nearly 1,000 feet. Let it be borne in mind
that the pay ore even at this point does not constitute
occurs
followed
betvraene do ore
internal ar
cc there
one-
half of the real extent of the vein itself, onlythe
streaks
Alongorho endiebsarorf. pamineder
out. e
and Gold Hill, where another rich placer found
cropping out on the surface, and of
course immense was
exca-
vations were and are still being made in the extraction of
rich bodies and streaks of ore. Probably, altogether, there
has boon about the same amount .of space worked out in
that section of the ledge as there has on this side of the
Divide. It is not an easy matter to compute with any de-
gree of precision the total amount of space worked out
within the three miles to which we allude, but, as will be
seen, the bodies of pay ore thus far developed and worked,
as compared with the balance of the ledge, constitute but
a very small portion of it, probably considerably less than
one-tenth part. This estimate, of course, has no reference
to the great unknown regions of the ledge below the level
of the present workings, which, generally speaking, have
not extendo I to more than 700 or 800 feet in depth. Pros-
pecting shafts, tunnels, and drifts have been run in all di-
rections through the vast extent of vein matter, in search
of pay ore, by the numerous other companies locatedlonogr
the line of the lodge, but thin far without permanentrighteous
important success, although the prayers of
the
citizens of Virginia have always been with them. A huge,
indefinite width and length, ranging north
thick plank, of inde ini
angle of 45 degrees
~ewise at an
and south, standing ed 6
ls meandering throu
oast, with numerous little worin:ho s
ozede spots of a h
ry rot to m-
ils upper edge, and a few go
present the shafts, tunnels, drifts, and mining excavations,
would give one a tolerably fair idea of the mining done on
the Comstock, and how much of the great lode has been
worked thus far.— Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise.

TfIE REPRESENTATION OF LONDON UNIVERSITY.
—Dr. Frederick Wood has retired from his candidature for
the representation of London University. There are still,
however, three candidates left in the field —Mr. Lowe, Mr.
Walter Bagehot, and Sir John Lubbock, each of whom ha
received a large number of prow c§ 91 tipport.