The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-08-17

vi luIpt ONtultIlb Oh tNiS very DISSATISFACTION
state of affairs. The enormous depth ; Il
r~uinous expense of pumping water from
depth of over a third of a mile, and, abo,
all, the expense of cutting exploring drift
and opening levels in the torturing hea
where sustained labor is a mater Of she,
physical impossibility-all those causes ten
to put silver mining on the Com,tock at a
immense disadvantage when compared wit
districts in Which the obstacles offered h
great depth, immense floods of water and
high temperature are not to be encountered
The last mentioned difficulties increase ia
more rapidly than in direct ratio with tn
increase of depth, so it is not at all surprisin
that already we hear plain hints of a tota
cessation of mining on that world-famou
ledge.
As for Leadville, if it went up like a rookie
it is going down like a stick and the collaps,
predicted Icy competent experts, at their frs
view of the thin "blanket - lodes, has set in
Leadville, as a mining field. promises to droI
out of notice more rapidly than White Pine
and it is worth the Montana miners while tt
depression in the two great camps of Colo.
RADIO and Nevada. The ultimate effect, ex.
erted through IA diminutiOn in the production
of silver, will probably be an appreciation in
the price of this metal and the consequent
disappearance from the stage of the "silvel
problem" now vexing our politicians. But
this will be a more remote result whose con.
sideration we may well leave to the future
while We turn our attention to the immediate
effects, those by which silver mining in Mon
tana will likely be affected. The collapse of
the Leadvllle mines, added to the Comstocii
depression, will certainly have the effect of
sending to other fields of investment large
numbers of operators whose attention has
heretofore been devoted to one or the other
of those mining centres. Those operators
will be apt TO drift south towards Arizona, or
even across the line into Sonora or Chihua-
hua, unless something be done to convince
them that in Utah, Idaho and Montana they
can find mines fully as valuable as those
farther south besides the advantages of an
infinitely better climate, and with greater
for life and property than is to be
found under Mexican law. As for Montana,
if our prospectors in outside districts could
only foreso the practice of asking as much
for a prospect as any careful operator would
be willing to give for the mine when devel-
nna1 flp ,,1,,pro Un,I1 cnaa1il- ,,ln,,,J 20,
their advantage. Capital is seeking invest
ment; but capital is not looking for a chance
to throw itself away; and the Montana pros
pectors have only themselves to blame if the
impression has gone abroad among mining
that in this territory no undeve!oped
claim is to be purchased at a reasonable
figure, or at anything like it. As for devel-
oped mining properties it is scarcely to be
wondered at that Montana stocks attract but
little attention on the market, when it is re-
menlbered that at Butte, the great silver
of Montana, there is only one claim,
the Alice, that can be considered prospected.
the Lexington, the Moulton, the Travona.
the Shonbar, the Burnett, to say nothing of
. dozen Others we might mentlon-if those
claims were opened to the depth of 500 feet
so that operators could not help perceiving
what we all know to he true, viz:-that
Butte, instead of one ledge, like the Com
stock, has several large, well defined true
assure lodes, it would not be long
ere the mining shares of Butte would
occupy the leading pace Oh the
lists of the New York and San Francisco
exchange. Montana has a bright minin, ia
.ure Immediately before her if her prospect
DIS and miners will only do their share to-
wards Introducing it. This they can do if
he former will reduce within the bounds of
ommon SENSE the prices they ask for unop-
mines; while the latter must turn their
attention towords opening the mines thai
hey appear to have purchased only to keep
one else from developing them.