Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-09-12

ONE of the worst enemies to the prog
 ress ot mining in Arizona Is the exag- erstIon miners are so prone to make III speaking of the mineral resources. In not infTequently happens that a ten
 inch pay streak expands to a four foot
 vein of solid metal, under the enlarging
 influence of few potstions and the prospect of enlisting an interesting
 amount of capital When a real pur-
 chaser comes along and carefully exam
 ines a little mineral seam that vas rep
 resented to him to be 8 big mine.
 and meets with 8 similar disav- poiptment several times il a1-cr--
 sion, he naturally infers that Ia.Ei0. l-
 humbug and uine ow..rs a-. .-
 lIars. But the strangcst isc.-r.g. sIa-
 phenomenon Is the fact that I4s miner
 very often deliberately deceiygS himself
 His hopeful mind dweils uBcousciously 7
 upor the future castles that the ineyi
 table rich strike will build for nim. and
 out of this absorbing desire his iudg-
 ment is so often obscured that mere in dications will pass current with him
 for the genuine article. He discsrds the unpleasant opinions of his calmer iudg- ment and instinctively follows 8 dazzling hope bssed upon the vagaries of luck fair illustration of the blind leading the blind. To be sure there are excep- tions-msny of them-but thIs practice of exaggerstion is pretty generally dis tributed throughout all our mining dis tricts. The worst class of enemies to these interests Is the professional eI- pert-the Rdventurer whose smatterIng of mineralogy and oily tongue serve him well in competition with the genuine
 practical expert who has acquired his
 lore among the dips, spurs and angles
 of ore lodges. As an instance of the
 character of the bait such persons throw
 out to claim the attention of unsuspect- ing speculators in the east, We will give an extract from a letter received
 by & gentleman in Tucson nearly three years ago, asking If the matters therein reported were really true. The report was published in the east by
 Prof. c. H. VsnBuren, mineralogist. New York. He accompanied the sur veying party of the Post Lobos railroad from Tucson to the Gulf of California. The purport of that portion interesting in this connection, Is about as follows: The abundance of mineral along the route far exceeded his expectations; he found an immense body of gslenite of tn assaying ss high as 9l per cent. tin, also a big mine of platinum, quantities of which he reduced on a remarkable quality of fire clay that wIthstood tenn persture of $500 degrees, and he ob- tanned S7 per cent metslic platinum. The fire clay was of course superior to any in use He found gray cinnsbar, Jun commonly rich and extremely rare, aud when he had reached @ depth of seven feet he found quicksilver in all its purity so that it could be scooped up essily and filled into fissks without any artificial
 process The richness of the minerals
 was marvellous, and beyond ordinary conception or belief. or even description. The gold bearing ore was unsurpassed in its richness and unparalleled in ex- tent: free milling and almost coined, and whole lot ot just such absurd bosh, containing a5out three per cent of truth. On the
 strength of such GlitteTing noUsca-e should a searcher for a quicksilver
 well. mountain of almost pure tin or huge quarries of platinum Journey