Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-08-26

testify to. The territory is covered all
over with evidences of failure and aban-
donment by those who with most san.
guine anticipations poured out their
funds in baseless mining speculations.
The fact that one particular locality had
silver in it in paying quantities was
sufficient evidence to the inexperienced
that every other mountain face or
gulch Was also worth working, and it
is incredible to those who do not come
here to witness the fact, the ineXplica-
bic stupidity of the great mass who
made the first ventures. One Eastern
company, for instance, sent out an
agent to work the lodes it had bought,
and this agent spent hundred thou
sand dollars in unnecessary improve
ments in houses, &C., before he tested
by shafts whether the lodes were valu-
able or not, and when it was demon
Strated that they were worthless or rot
ten, would require immense capital to
| fully test them, of course the whole en-
| terprise was abandoned. But there is
now far better state of affairs. East
ern people have grown wiser, and are
not so easily duped or mi5led, while
the whole mining system appears on a
truly healthy basis. Mines are more
extensively worked. The inclination
to expert ment on mere theories has
given way to the desire to improve
upon what experience has demOnStra
ted to be best in smelling and mining
and as a consequence the production o
profitably mined silver is now beyond
IqueStiOn-it is an indisputable fact
M 10 inS hA al
tral Lode, from which its owners tool
16S tons of ore, and sold for $75,605
This is only the better class of ore. Tit
poorer is dumped to await such eco
nOmical processes of smelling as OBJ
tains in Europe or even in California
We are accustomed in the States to see
ing mining veins in horizontal strata
But silver and gold are perpendicular
A lode is of every width, from one fco
to one hundred and fifty feet, and con
isiSts of a soft rock and debritus encaSet
in solid walls of granite, &c. The pre-
cious metal is found in streaks of vari
Gus widths, running through the lode
through what is termed the pay streak
lies against one or the other wall, ant
: rarely exceeds six inches of rich ore
. Usually the lOdeS are richer, and ar
, worked to greater profit, as they arr
: deepened, and the above lode is fiil
better to-day than when above sale
were made from it. The Terrible
, Dives, Pelican, and many other lode
5 here have been as profitable as the Col
orado Central, and l can perceive n
| reason why others may not become a
| valuable as they. Silver mining is il
its infancy here. In getting On soli
basis, and narrowing itself down to
: legitimate business to the exclusion G
: the blind and foolish speculatiOns c
, formers years, it must be, that futur
near at hand, will see an immense pre-
duction of silver. While true success
is at present exceptional, yet whe
more capital and more economical pro
cesses of mining and smelling are ap
: piled, the profitable production of sill
yer must necessarily be more assure
than profit in the iron business at Bel
aire, Wheeling or Steubenville. Th
market for silver can never be glutte'
to the extent that may be done wit
any general manufactured product
such as iron. Georgetown needs but
process by which she can smelt ore at:
profit, which contains an average {
S35 of silver to the tor, in order to max
her what she claims to be, the ''Silve
Queen" l..