The Elk Mountain pilot., 1880-12-30

enough to enable him to continue his
development, bat the average miner
is not 50 lucky-he may get job one
week, and then lie idle a week, and if
there is surplus of labor around the
camp he may be. 4 week in getting
anything to do, and 50 he is obliged to
ask some merchant to give him credit
for the food he eats, for few days,un
til he can find something to do.
In a camp like. this, where the sea
sons have been supposed to be SO short,
and when the most of our mines have
been discovered within the past few
months, any intelligent man will now
comprehend why it is that the aver
age prospector desires to sell his prop
erty unless it proves perfect bonan-
"a from the grass roots clear down to
China.
Except in the immediate vicinity of
this camp there are no wagon roads
from any Of the mines. and all the
ore that comes to this camp from any
distance has to be. brought in on the
backs Of pack ANIMALS, which general
ly bring 200 opounds to the pack. This
is slow business, but unless the mine
owner can raise the money to build a
road he has to keep packing his ore or
wait for the capitalist. Only three
months ago all the ore from the For
est Queen, situated about two hun.
dred yards from the, centre of the
camp, was packed down to the wagon
road on burros. Now suppose that the
Forest Queen had been situated FIVE
miles away, Gas many Of our claims
are) and was taking out but ten tons
of ore per day, a small quantity for
any good working mine, it would
take one hundred jackasses to- pack
the ore of single mine to the
wagon road. Quite number of oui.
miners ship their ore to Denver, or
they pack it in and sell it to our
sampllng works, which ships to Den
yer. 1t must be- rich ore indeed
which pays such transportation.
COAL.
Of our coal deposits We will simply
say that beginning two miles or less
to the south and southwest of orr
camp, and extending an unlimited
distance, lies the inexhaustible de-
post of anthracite coal. Two mines
are now open on this deposit and coal
Is being taken out to supply fuel for
our camp.
The bituminous deposit lies to the
east OF our camp few miles and ex-
tends little south of east. From this
deposit coke of a very superior quail
ty is made at Crested Butte. 1t is not
burned in ovens as at Ell Moro, but
coked in the open air as charcoal IS
burned-the coal when piled up be-
ing covered with fine coal instead of
dirt. The coke when burned forms a
solid mass and is broken up for use.
The following analysis Of this coal
was made by Malvern w. lies, Ph. d,
chemist of the Grant smelling works
at Leadville: Specific gravity, 1878;
One cubic foot weighs 79.75 lbs.
1t contains-Volatile matter 24.zo
per cent, coke, 1910 per cent;
moisture, 1.1o per cent; gas, 20. 20
per cent; fixed carbon, 62.6 per
cent; ash, $40.
OUR WANT.
The great want of our camp is
sufficient number of reduction works.
Here is a business opportunity pre-
sented to those capitalists of the east,
whose boarded millions lie unused M
the bank vaults, or if used draw but
paltry interest, one which for the pres
ent has no parallel, and one which will
not be likely to occur soon again.
SAMPLING WORKS.
We have one Of the most conve-
nlently arranged sampling works in
Colorado, capable of crushing large
amount Of ore per day, and twenty
STAMP MILL
built by the best mandatory in tie
United States, but these works are
not sufficient. In fact they will not
be able to do but 1.-THE of the busi
ness OF our camp when spring opens.
We want more works. and those can't