News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-04-27

carefully examining the walls on each
side. Sometimes prospector will find
ledge in two or three hours, but 1t
sometimes happens that he has to
spend months in the search before he is
successful. This he willingly does if
the piece of float was unusually rich.
In fact, instances of men working two
and three years in their search have not
been lacking in the history of the West,
and in some cases the discovery at last
has more than paid them for their time.
Whatever period is taken in the actual
finding of the ledge, the work, when it
is found, is always the same. The first
thing is the examination of the vein to
ascertain what kind of ore it contains,
together with its probable value. To
do this, the. prospector takes a small
piece of the ore and, selecting smooth
stone, proceeds to pulverize it by pound
ing it with hammer or another stone.
He works away at this until he has got
the rock as fine as flour, using toward
the last his pestle and mortar. If it be
fine gold rock-that is, if the gold in it
be metallic and not an ore-he either
washes the pulverized ore out in his
horn spoon or mixes it with mercury.
In either case he gets the gold and
silver. Should the ore contain sui
phurets, chlorides or carbonates, the
prospector, if an old hand at the bust
ness, relies on his eye to tell him the
value of the ore. In that case he pull
verizes it as before, mixes it with chem
ical reagents, washes the result, dries
it, mixes it with mercury, and produces
some amalgam, which is bright, white
paste. To this he applies heat, driving
the mercury off as vapor, and he has
the gold and silver left.
The value of the ore having been more
or less closely ascer tanned, the next
thing to do is to trace the ledge so far
as it ''crops out" or appears above
ground. The prospector having done
this, proceeds to "stake out claim"
upon it. The mining laws of the United
States allows any man to take up; that
is, take possession of, claim fifteen
hundred feet in length upon ledge
and three hundred feet on each side of
it. If he be the discoverer he is per-
mitted to take up another of the same
size 'for discovery" as it is called, and
as prospector always takes all he can,
his claim is three thousand feet on the
ledge by six hundred plus the width of
the ledge, in width. Upon each of the
four corners he plants post or erects
pile of stones, and in or near each one
he hides notice of pre-. emption, which
generally reads somewhat like this:
NOTICE.
], the undersigned, hereby take up a
claim upon this ledge, which I have
named the Roaring Tiger, fifteen hun
bred feet in length and three hundred
feet on each side of the ledge in width.
l also take up q second claim of the
same size for discovery.
JOHN SMITH.
And so the ledge having been found,
assayed and "taken up" or '1ocated,"
the prospector makes the best of his
way back TO town in order to inform his
partner, the storekeeper of his luck and
to register the property. He is careful
to take with him a number of speci-
mems of his claim. Reaching the town,
the claim is registered, the fees for
which are always paid by the store
keeper, aud the amount of work neces-
sary to develop the ledge is decided up
on. If there are many charges, the
storekeeper, being the capitalist of the
concern, pays them. The mine, if it be
a good one, is ultimately sold and the
profits divided between the owners.
The share coming to the prospector
generally goes as before, and when he
is penniless once more, he shoulders
his pick, gets fresh "grub stake" from
the storekeeper, is furnished with more
medicine for snakes bites, and starts
out to again find another paying mine.