The New York herald., 1879-01-02
THE PRECIOUS METALS.
Theories as to the Cause Of the Rich De-
pOSit in the COmst0ck Lode.
HORSES" AND WILDCATS"
How PanicS Are Created in
Mining Stocks.
DIAGRAM OF THE WORKINGS
Patient Searches in the Depths for
the Bonanza Prizes.
PRODUCTS, ASSESSMENTS, DIVIDENDS.
VIRGINIA CITY. New. Dec. %

VIRGINIA CITY, New, Dec. %, 1875
Some eminent geologists affirm that the ore bodies
in fssures formed by the gneous gases produced
by internal heat coming from the centre of the earth
while other geoogists, equally learned and studious
hold that the assures filed in some way from
above. Another theory is that all metals in their
natural state. aud all the other substances which go
to form productive ore body. held in solution
in the rocks and concentrated by
currents which are supposed to be continually pass
ing from the South the North Pole and called
polar currents.
COMPOSITION OF THE vEIN-THE "HoRsEs."
The Comstock lode is what is called "a true fssure
ven, filled by chemical processes with matter differ
ing in nature from the common rock Of the country
or what is usually termed in mining parlance coun
try rock" On the west side Of the fissure Mount
Davidson is huge mass Of diorite, hard and almost
impenetrable. This is termed the '.west WALL
of the Comstock. The "east WALL" that which
encloses the vein on the east is porphylite.
The vein matter proper is very varied in character
q jumbled mass Of quartz clay and porphyry, the
latter largely predomnating, and fragments of the
country rock which in course Of violent commissions
got broken off from both walls and mixed up with
the vein matter and comes into sight occasionally,
to the disgust of the miner and the CONSERVATION Of
stockholders. These fragments of country rock
named by the Cornish miners "horses,' translated,
Dobably from earlier Spanish miners Falling into
the hssure the larger fragments must have done.
near the surface during the violent shaking of
this portion of the globe the "horses constituted
about five-sxths Of the upper portion of the Com
stock lode. In the depths of the vein smaller frag
ments of this country rock found Judgement. and
these are the horses which now and again dis
turb the stock markets and bring about the panics.
The numerous large "horses" discovered by the
no concern. for he could give them wide berth
and sink on the croppings-he had only him
self to please-but the collective body called
a company have such choice to-day. Their
claims are limited for them. stakcd out to hairs
Breadth and definite programme for exploration
within these limits is laid out.
THE ORIGIN A PANIC
With "stock" in the market aud the mines income
and expenditure nearly balanced. or even with an
excess Of income and paying dividends, the first
port of the indications Of "horse in the path Of
the miners goes through stock dealing community
like the first alarm OF deathdealng plague in the
midst of a populous city. We're "horses' anything
like each other in size the difficulty could
be easily grappled with; but when "horse' has
some time other been spoken of thousand feet
in length and in width and depth proportonate it is
not easy to quiet the nerves of stockholder who
"bought in for a bonanza. Though this apparition
OF "horse might turn out, after all, to be but "a
hump of porphyry." which few miners could go
through in two or three hours the damage done is
irreparabe the market becomes sensitive. nobody
believes the truth when 1t is told every thinks his
neighbor rogue and the stock comes tumbling down
like avalanche. The proud figures away up in the
hundreds. which had taken years to create are in
stany wiped out of the stock list and replaced
by tens and twcnties in a few hours.
BOGUS MAPS WILDCATS.
large number of maps of the Comstock have been
published in the usual course of legitimate business
but many others have been published and scattered
all the country gratuitously. giving the names
of thousands of locations of mining properties COW
ering every inch of ground the breasts of the
mountains within sight of this city, and particularly
to the east of the Comsock lode The makers such
maps are of course paid in way by the locators
who desire to their claims the map and
for the service IL is to them in floating "wildcat'
stock the uninitiated. I assured by the very
best authority that of all the thousands of so-caed
mines named in such maps there not score do
ing anything to justify the OF such name as
that of "mne." 1t would be but aiding smart men to
injurc the buyers of stock were the names of such
locations published in the HERALD and l. therefore,
omit tho whole of them-those few that may have
some claim to legitimacy and value. as well
lent While this is said of the wildcats that never
had any cropping of vein to justify location at ALL
there some of the others the breast of the
mountain with promising groupings that justify the
sale of stock and the expenditure Of money in develop
ing the vein body of that may be traceabe
those groupings.
l make this statement broad enough in order
first, that good property may not be injured; second
that tho public may be warned Of fraudulent COM
panies, and the exhibition of United States patent
covering any piece of surface ground is no evidence
either of the presence of beneath the legitimate
title to that IL IL were even found there 1t is
probably true that there not large city in the East
to-day that is not attacked by fellows trying to sell
mines, parts of mines. organizing companies and
Issuing stock, claiming to represent rich locations
on the Comstock and pointing to those worthless
maps for evidence of their contiguity to the bonanza
mines.
THERE OTHER VEINS THAN coMsrocK2
The Comstock mines proper--thosc that are known
to the world as such-are represented on this dia-
gram. drawn specially for this correspondence by the
most reliable civil engineers in the country. These
names together with those mentioned which could not
DC brought within the compass OF the diagram have
clearly defined limitations running north and south.
The Challenge, south of the mpcr rial is tho smallest
property i'm ground. having only forty feet between
'cnd lnes." and tho Sierra Nevada Is the largest
property In ground extending 5000 feet According
to the ruling. OF the courts there il no limitation to
these properties. either in castcrly westerly
direction. so long as the vein discovered Mount
Davidson can be traced The theory Of the
mine owners, the superintcndents and the fore.
men who work the mines Is that there is
but one true issure vein this mounain--the Com
stock--and they consequently will claim all the ORC
discovered eastward OF their groupings. provided the
orc discovered is traced to the Comstock assure.
There are other intelligent geoogsts and miners who
confidently assert that there several veins of ore
bearing quartz separate and distinct from Comstock
and from each other; consequently companies have
been formed in good faith for purpose of sinking
upon groupings. or where ore was supposed TO be.
directly east of the old locations of the Comstock
Up to the present time the several theorists have