New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-19
THE SAN PEDRO NINE.

z.L.w.
THE SAN PEDRO NINE
DESCRIPTION OF THE MINE WITH WHICH GENERAL
CrAX1's NAME HAS BEEN CONNECTED-M-
porTANT DISCOVERY OF sILvER-HoW THE
COPPER ASSAYS THE GOLD QUARTZ EXPFCrED
TO YIELD GOOD PRoFIrS-REDUCTlON WORKS
TO IL ERECTED.
lrrou STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBCNE.l
SANTA Fn. n NJ, Aug. 23.-The San Pedro and
Canon del Aqua property. with which General
Grants name has been connected. consists OF TWO
Mexican grants which have heen confirmed by
Conpress. and which together comprise about
10000 acres The first of these, and much the
larger of the two takes its name from San Pedro
Creek. which flows through it, if stream whose
normal condition is that of dry bed of sand and
Gravel can lie said TO flow at all. and consists OF
mountain mesa and valley lands, covered with
thc timber tree cactus and grama grass OF the
country. hut not known to be rich IN mineral de-
posts is value, except rs grazing lahuS' Is 1T
present chiefly prospective. The Canon del aqua
grant though net of great extent as tracts OF lana
are estima I'd in this part of the country, covers
norton of the Tucrto Mountains which is wonder
fully rich in gold, silver copper. aud lead. BESIDES
26OO acres of aurlferous sand and gravel comprised
In the famous West Bonanza" y" New Placers." III
the Una lie Gaia Canon. which have been worked
by the Mcxicans III an exceedingly ruue way ll""
time imncinorial.
The name means "water canon but does not
proye that very necessary element 10 be plentiful
ANYWHERE npon the property did not see sign
of 4 stream during my visit IN II, bat about TWO
and a half miles distant on The further slde OF
mountain there is a canon del aqua" through
which a little rvnlet runs and from which All the
water used in the camp by fifty persons and
dozen OF more horses and mules IS transported on
the backs of the little Mexican buTros III hVe-gaoh
casks each animal carrying three casks M time
HOW MUCH NEEDED WATER Is OBTAINED.
OF course this method of supplying what is eX-
pectcd to become large mining camp with wafer
is slow. expensive and far from satisfactory. If
stanp mill or snclter is erected Il small but con
tinuous stream of water will become an absolute
necessity to its successful operation. and the gold
I'm the placer deposits cannot I've extracted by any
process that has Thus far succeeded III practice
without a large quantity OF water hOwng under n
powerlul head. To wash the placcIs, hydraulic
works of great magnitude arc now being con-
structed a description of which shall give III an
OTHER letter. To supply Colonel GllIettes camp
and possibly to furnish water for Use in his stamp
mill and sineter. a well Is now beng sunk at a
nont n few rods from his office. At the time of
our visit ten days ago. this well HAD reached Il
depth of between 40 and 100 feet and the rock IL
very near water. After passing through the surface
deposit ten OF ffteen feet deep. a stratum OF gray
limestone sixty or seventy feet in thickness was
fouud and below this bed of porphyry, covered
on all its planes OF fracture. with nhltra'"hS oil
black oxide of manganese, forming very p'autini
dendrites They were still blasting through this
rock when we were there. There IL very little
reason TO doubt that water will be found in this
we'll bnt at what depth and in how great quanti-
ties. one can tell.
The Canon del Aqua Company has now about
forty men at work in its great copper mine about
half a mile from the camp. The mountain in which
this deposit of copper lies is one of the uertos
and is. should think about 5000 feet high. The
TOP of the mountain is limestone. beneath which
there is a mass of porphyry, the thickness OF
which did not ascertain, and this. suppose rests
on the granite although ! did not. in any OF my
wandcrings over the mountain, see ANYTHING Oh
the contact The general dip of the entire lorna
tiou is a little to the north of east and the entire
country for twenty thirty miles around seems To
have been heaved up by the same force II not at the
same time. The dip of the rocks IN the Placer
Mountains eight or ten miles north. and even OF the
sandstone on this side of the Galisteo RIVER, Is
about the same, both in angle and direction. as at
the Canon del Aqua copper mine. and. on gong
around to the other side Of the Sandia Mountains.
nearly twenty miles west, the evidence that that
range WAS also formed by similar upheaval APP
reared in the general position of the strata CON-
posing it.
rHg VEINS OF ORE IN THE COPPER NINE
The opening of the copper mine is apparently
about 800 feet below the summit of the mountain
and is reached by road which has recently been
luilt along the face of the hill at considerable ex
pense. The rock In which the vein occurs is por
phyry. which forms both the foot and hanging wall
The ledge Of is about thirty feet thick and dips
with the general formation twelve degrees to the
east. II the reader can imagine the top OF the
mountain sa wed Off about 500 feet below its sum-
nit the plane Of the cut dipping very slightly TO
the east, and the mass above removed. tie surface
exposed would be what is supposed to be the upper
side of the vein or the portion OF it in contact with
the hanging wall Another and parallel cat thirty
feet below. would separate the ore-body from the
foot wall. This Is, of course. on the superstition
that the vein extends all the way through the
mountain which, OF course. can only be ascer-
sained by extensive prospecting. There are out
groupings Ct similar the opposite side Of the