New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-20
GOLD IN NEW-MEXlCO.
THE SAN PEDRO PROPERTY.

FORNIA MINES.
frRox A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE
SANTA FE Aug 24.-Promising as the gold and
copper lodes on the Canon del Aqua grant, de-
scrbed in my last letter. to be- they constitute
by no means the chief value of the property. nor
the principal from which The company ex-
poets to derive its income. The famous West
Bonanza" or New Placors" in the broad canon OF
Una de Cato Creek, about three miles north of the
little Mexican village called Real do San Francisco,
and the same distance west of the camp in the
Tuerto Mountains. established last spring by
Colonel Gillette, the superintendent of the COM
pany cover an area of about 2 COZ acres of remark
ably rich aurferous gravel, to which 1t Is hoped
that a large stream of water can be brought WITHIN
few months. to be used in extensive hydraulic
mining operations.
Una de Cato Creek is on of the dry water-courses
so common in New Mexico which heads on the west
side of the Placer Mountains and extends across a
broad mesa, which is bounded on the north ana
south by wooded foothills, and slopes gradually to
the west until it reaches the edge of the valley.
where il breaks off In sharp cliff 100 or 200
feet high. This mesa Is composed entirely OF
sand and gravel which has been brought
down from the mountains by the floods OF thou
sands of centuries and deposited at their base,
covering the bedrock to a depth of 40 or so feet.
and is richly impregnated with placer gold
1be surface of the mesa is covered by thin soil
which supports a sparse growth OF grama grass
cedar. piIon and tree cactus, except where 1t has
been dug ND by the Mexicans in their rude mining
operations
WHERE THE GOLD Is FOUND.
The origin of the deposit is plainly written
upon its face that of pile of sand found at the
foot of a gully after heavy shower is shown by
its form and position. The materials OF which the
cd hava for uuder-
going slow process of decomposition, and the dis
integrated rock has been washed down by the
annual foods In the rock there originally
rich veins of gold ore which broken up with
the material that surrounded them, allowing the
part cles of gold to be swept down and mixed with
the general of the sand and gravel 1t IL
possible that the remains OF the mother vein
from which the gold in the placers came may still
exist in the mountains to the east but If SO, it has
not yet been found.
The New Placers are not of recent discovery.
When the United States took possession of New
Mexico more than thirty years ago. the Real de San
Francisco was a much larger village than now. and
its entire population of fifteen hundred or two
thousand people was supported by the product of
the rude mining operations which they carried on
ut the West Bonanza, and some gold has been
washed out every year since. Even when the men of
the village have been engaged elsewhere. and gold
digging has been entirely suspended, the Mexican
women and children have been accustomed to search
up and down the arrovos after each heavy rain and
pick up the PARTICLES of gold that have been exposed
These they keep goose quilts and sell at the banks
in this city. saw or two of these goose-qus,
half full of little nuggets during my recent visit to
the placers.
THE RUDE MINING OBJ THK MENCANS.
The Mexican methods of mining are so crude and
imperfect and the scarcity Of water has been so
great as to make it profitable to work none but
very rich deposits. and even IN those large per-
centage of the gold has been lost No stream of
water of any size has ever been turned upon the
mesa and sluicng has therefore always been I'M
possible The Mexcans have from the first been
obliged either TO carry the water to the dirt or the
dirt to the water. As IN all placer deposits, the
gold is found most abundant In streaks or strata.
The richest layers, mantas they called by
the Mexicans, the ones sought after, and to
reach them pits were sunk from the surface of the
mesa until a manta found, and then Short
drifts were run upon this from the shaft These
operations had 10 be conducted with the greatest
caution. and at best were very limited in extent.
because the Mexicans never used any tmbers to
prevent their pits and the drifts from them from
| caying in. which they were very likely to do on
account of the loose character Of the ground. Be-
| fore Americans came here the Mexcans used
neither windlasses nor ladders in their pits, but
| ascended and descended notched sticks placed
against the side of the hole. carrying up the pay
dirt in rawhde bags upon their heads or backs.
Now they use wndasses. but they are of very rude
construction. Selecting tree of about the right
size and with a branch growing out of 1t at right
angles or nearly so, they the trunk OF the tree
for the drum Of the windlass and the branch. four
or five feet of which is left, serves as crank, The
| buckets are still generally made of rawhide.
! If the dirt after being raised to the surface, is
! 70 be taken to the water. IL is placed In rawhde
sacks and loaded upon the little burros donkeys.
each of which will carry about 200 pounds at time
fl tbe springs from which the wafer for washing ont
fine gold is obtained More frequently the water is
taken 10 the Mines and then again the buIro comes
| info reQulsition. Three small kegs filed
with water are placed each animal,
one on each side and one top OF the
rude wooden pack-saddle. Some OF the MeXcans,
! a lutte more enterprising than Others rig a
cask ON two rude wheels, fill ii with water and make
! q burro draw it, and German and his Mexican
| partner whom | saw washing some gravel on the
| New Pacers had put an iron bolt through the CEN
ire of each head of a and attached piece of
rome 70 each bolt by which the burro hauled along
the cask. which rolled over and over. This was not
AN original device for water formerly taken
into Pensacola in a similar way land may be now),
and many Virginia planters have found 1t a con-
yenient method of moving hOgsheads of tobacco to
market.
Sometimes in winter, when there has been
| ON the mountains, the Mexicans have obtained
water for mining by melting the snow. Small.
saucer-shaped holes called estancas made in the
| crouud near the mines aud lined with adobe TO make
| them water-tight. Bomlders, the size of mans
head and larger, then heated in fire and placed
in the basins and snow is gathered and thrown upon
them. saw many of these contrivances about the
placers with the backeDed stones lying about them
| I have said that the Mexicans Obliged to Obtain
water by these tedious methods were never able to