The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-07-13
PLACER INNING IN MONTANA.

fortune may nave leu CIelH, muSC
perceive from the quotations published in
the mining journals of New York or London,
that mining in Montana in the year OF grace,
1880, offers widely from the mining Of the
early days, from '65 to 70. At That time
placer claims alone were worked with any
degree Of success, whereas at present, the
mining industry of Montana consists almost
entirely of quartz mining, with the subsidiary
departments of reducing or smelling the vari-
Gus kinds Of ore found in this rich, mineral
producing Territory. Working a placer and
working a quartz ledge are both included in
the term "mining," although their only point
of resemblance is in the result achieved or
hoped, viz: the production of one or the other
of the precious metals. But If the processes
of to-day differ from these of old, the face of
the country itself presents no less striking a
change. OF course the broad valleys, the
limpid streams and grand old mountains are
still here, and still the same. But the valley
where the Indian lodge was once the only
human habitation to be met with is now full
of happy homes, with a due proportion of
churches and school houses; where once the
cry of the coyote. or the mOurnful howl of the
grey wolf was the only sound to break the
merning stiffness, the hum Of the threshing
machine now falls upon the ear, aud along
the trout streams where the hardy prospector
used to be carefully on his guard against the
willy Blacsfoot or the treacherous Snake, a
more dangerous but less dreaded enemy may
to-day be encountered in the person of a
pretty girl with sunbonnet and fishing pole.
Yes, the old days with their discomforts and
their romance their dangers and their full
measure of individual freedom from all re-
straints, save that of the visllante, or the six
shooter, are r~eceding further and further into
the dim and shadowy past. With the sue
cessful establishment of permanent industries
we are becoming civilized. The nomads of
the early days are gradually disappearing
from view, their places being taken by new
corners who look upon the piles of tallings
and other debris left by the early placer milf
ers almost as they would look upon some
traces of the mound builders; and to whom
a sketch of Montana's early mining would
possess all the interest of a new and strange
story. To this class, as we'll as to the wide
circle of eastern readers to whom the MINER
makes its weekly visits, a description of
placer mines, and of the various methods of
working placer mines may not be unwel-
come.
We shall begin at tie very beginning, since
to some Of our readers even the most rudi-
mentary knowledge of the subject is yet to
be learned. Mining, as we have already said.
may be divided into two great divisions,
quartz mining and placer mining. A quartz
ledge, also called a quartz lode. and in Aus
tralia a "reef" is a wall or dixie of quartz
rock striking across the country, north and
south in some districts, east and west IN
others. They are not confined to any par
ticular direction, the only limitation in this
respect consisting in the fact that the true
Lodges Of a district are nearly always parallel.
When a ledge appears along the surface of
the ground, the visible part is called its
"apex" or " outcrop,'' and the surface quartz
is known as the croppings.'' The line of
the outcrop, that is, its direction, constitutes
the strike of the ledge or lode. Some
times 4 ledge descends into the earth vertical
ly, but very seldom. Generally they are
found to go down at a greater or less devia-
ticn from a vertical plane passing through
the middle Of tine outcrop. The angle a ledge
makes with the horizontal plane is known as
its "dlp," or "pitch." Thus a ledge having
a dip of 80 DIG. is one that makes all angle of
80 deg. with the surface of the ground, or
would make such all angle if the ground
were perfectly fiat. Ledges are of all widths
from a few inches to a hundred feet, or more.
When d ledge divides into two branches, the
one leaving the main body of the lode is
known as a "spur." Where a ledge consists
Of nothing but pure quartz rock it is known
As barren" and is of course worthless.
Valuable lodges are valuable because of the
mineral they contain closely Embedded or
mixed with quartz, which, when it thus holds
mineral of any kind is known as the I" ma
.rix " or "gangue.' The mineral found in
he quartz may be pure gold, pure silver, or
)ure copper. 1t may be so found, but gener-
lilly it is found to be a combination OF gold
and silver, or gold, silver and copper; or even
Soih, silver, copper, iron, leau, zine, man
sanese, etc, the difficulty Of separating the
minerals from the quartz, or from one ali
'tIler, increasing with the completely Of the
combination. Quartz containing gold, silver,
etc, is Known as ore, and the operation of I
separating the mineral from the ore as {. re-
the ore. Simple ores are reduced
by being pulverized into fine powder in stamp
mills constructed for that purpose; then
in large iron pans containing water
with certain chemicals in solution, also some
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