The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-12-27
OUR BLACK HILLS LITTER.
from Our Hssu'ar Correspondent
CENTRAL CITY. Dec. -. 1877


To the Cheyenne Leader:
While in most cases the duties of a
correspondent are SO multifarious that
to-day lie %recounts a marriage, to-
morrow a murder, with all the political
and social gossip of the locality, 1 APP
prellend that in u region such rs this 1
shall best perform mine by giving a
heavy preponderance in favor of the
material growth of the community.
With this design I propose in this let
ter to give your readers the result of a
tour of inspection through one of the
richest tracts of gold mining country
to be found in the world. The entire
lergth Is close upon five miles, and
runs from the northwest, beginning
with the Rhoderic Dhu mine, through
Lead City and oil to the Yellow Water,
the farthest point that 1 had time to
trace the o%utcroppings of the fssure
vein that traverses the whole of this
distance.
But it may be us well to clear the
way by giving a few words of explana-
tion as to the word quartz" and how
much it means There is no class of
men that travel so extensively as the
genus miner, and therefore it is that
there are men here who have in reality
been from Alaska to Natal, from China
to Peru. Yet their first exclamation
on seeing the Black Hills is: "Why,
the whole country is one mass of
quartZl What does this mean?" 1t
means that there is scarcely 4 spot in
this who region where IA man may
not ''strike" and find a vein of gold
bearing ore. Most probably the first
discovery of gold was the finding of IL
piece of rock with a nugget visible in
it, and this would lead to n further
search for more of the same kind IL
rock. For this the prospector woul.i
dig in this locality, first through :.
strata of white flinty rock, the ~so-calle,l
quartz, and then through a strata of
slate, either standing upright or lying
flat in the earth. Beneath he would
find the ore containing the precious
metal. III again looking for gold bear
ing rock, which is rarely to be found
on the surface of the ground, he would
naturally try neal the spot where the
same formations of quartz and slate
u.ar. ., IL. saon p,;am...:. -
ful If would In oIa,rfy astah,;s,,oa -
him ih,t ,,haroror ,ho CO.. .mne,ao
indications Of ouartz md s,,ta ara
found tboro w;u ,,r,ost ;n,ar;.hu -
soorotod ,ho > ao,a p..t
10 s,,ta doos not o,r,o,, n,o.r.,sa -
oro,,,d wh;Io ov,r,, a,n,os. .Ir..o.s
Zoos tho I.,to. IL tharosnra 49, rs
the nrosnsctor 40 a cort,;n ind;o,tn,
~ a rold form,tior un1.r,o.,h O..
ia to the miner what Tho co,n,,.ss 10 70
| tho mariner and a . snro,r aa a. 80
man foot-nr;nt in tho .,na h-etot.rod
to Crusoe the presence or man nm his
island. so the presence of ouartz on the
mountain side is the eopa,iv sure index
to the finding of gold in the Immediate
vicinity. .This whole country ia one
mass of quartz,
The first vein that claims orr atten.
ton, at the furthest discovered end O,
the assure vein. is the Roderick Dim.
on Sawpit pulch. This is beyond al
question the most clearly defined lead
in the Black Hills. and probably tbe
richest. The vein goes down almos,
perpendicularly. the ore of red tale
slate, very brittle, and for the last two
weeks every bucket has shown nuggets
of gold glil.cring over the surface,
While I was there a thin wedge of gold
was taken out from between the LAYERS
of slate, and weighed Is pennyweights
value about $40. The shaft is only 1:
feet beneath the level of the gulcb. and
the breadth of the vein is 10 feet.
Crossing Deadwood we pass the do
| Smet, Alpha and others described ir
my last letter. Further ON we reacl
the divide at the head of Bobtail gulch
| Tere are located the Golden Terra