Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-03-15


letter shall present the most plausible
in detail. Sufficient for the present be
it to inform the reader as to the actual
facts. I have seen mines where the
mineral was reached ten feet below the
surface, and other claims, adjoining
them, where the owners have dug hum
dreds of feet without as yet reaching
ore, so sharp is the incline of this min
eral bed.
The two partners continue digging
until by-and-by they reach porphyry
rock.
THEN THEY ARE GLAD;
for experience has taught them that the
Leadville silver-bed lies between por-
phyry and limestone. A true ''contact"
vein Is one where this connection is un-
broken by outside physical causes.
There are places where the silver, in its
tumultuous course down the hills, seems
to have overlooked and formed q pool
or pocket. This is not nearly as valua-
BILE as the "contact;" for, once the
pocket is exhausted, the mine is of no
further value. The celebrated Emma
Mine'' was a pocket, and was good
while it lasted. Most of the mines in
the Leadville District, rs far as can be
discovered, are in ''contact. The bed
of ore between the limestone and the
porphyry varies in thickness and quail
ty-sOmetimes attaining depth Of ten
feet, and then narrowing down to as
close as two feet; and sometimes even
disappearing altogether for time, leav
inn 70 hn u
touching one another.
As soon as Smith and Jones get
through the porphyry, they strike either
the carbonates (that is, the soft stone in
which the silver is found) or the lime
stone. In either case they cease per-
pendicular digging, and
STRIKE OUT SIDEWAYS,
following the limestone-bed. Even if
they fail to strike the carbonates, they
drift of, hoping to fall in soon with the
regular vein. Sometimes they fail to
catch up with the ore; and then the
shaft is abandoned, and the uudiscour-
aged miners go elsewhere and try again
This describes the simplest kind of
mining. The ground differs in different
localities. Very often it is necessary to
blast through the harder blocks of pOr.
phyry; and then, too, there is some
times found bed of iron over the car
Donates, which requires blasting; and
sometimes the carbonates themselves
are found in hard state, and continual
blasting is required to get out the ore
after it is found.
The Leadville District is alphabetically
the
POOR MANS PARADISE,
because, as a rule, the ground is easily
worked, and because the mineral aver
ages twice the value of the ore taken
from older mining places. In Nevada,
ore that assayed 20 ounces to the ton
has been worked, while here the man.
ayers of the smelting-furnaces look with
scOrn upon ore that is less than 60
ounces. The general average of the
Leadville ore is about 100 ounces, while
several mines are producing mineral that
assays as high as 500 ounces. An
ounce is reckoned as a dollar. Two
tons are loaded on wagon and driven
down from mine to the smelling or
reduction works, where the load is
weighed and assayed, and the cash is
paid over the counter for it. To the
uninitiated there is a certain charm
about this style of doing business. You
drive wagOn-lOad of dirt down q hill
a mile of two, and sell it out
FOR FROM $500 TO 81 600 CASH.
There are mines that produce 100 tons
d lily. The Little-Pittsburg people are
putting in machinery which will increase
their output within week from this |
date to nearly 200 tons daily. Even es-
timating the value of the ore at as low |
figure as possible, say 500 ton, the |
product is worth $4,000 a day, or
$4,000 week. Is it any wonder that |
people in the East are excited over this |
Eisiorado and 4ha4 ea.,sssi;.