The semi-weekly miner., 1885-03-18
MINING ITEMS.
The Biggest Boulder Of Gold Yet
= Found.
CAPITAL to Start 4 Mill or Smelter
Wanted In Washington
Territory.

The Coeur d'Alene Sun of the 18th
says IA sensation was created late
on Thursday afternoon by the news
that an immense chunk Of gold had
been found on Porter & Henderson's
Gillette claim, q mile below Murray.
The report was brought to town by
one Of the men working on the claim,
but as the nugget did not come up
during the evening many were in
clined to dlscredit 1t. However, MI.
Porter gave all doubters an oppor-
tunity to convince themselves by
sight and heft of the piece yesterday
morning. Itwas found to be irreg-
ular in shape, nearly four inches
long, two aad q half wide and one in
thickness, and weighed 10 ounces II
pennyweights and Is grains, the
largest nugget ever found in the
Cmur d, ,Alene mines. It carries some
quartz, which will probably amount
to an ounce, while the gold Is of q
bright yellow, with no rusty stains,
and Is we'll rolled. It was struck
twice with q pick, and scraped into
pan with some gravel by q miner
named Jackson, one Of the lessees Of
the ground. He had not proceeded
very far in washing the dirt when
he came across q nugget. For mo-
ment he was bewildered at its enor-
nous size, then be gave q yell that
made the pineries echo for miles, and
In the excitement of the moment he
Jumped into the creekup to his arm
pits: His companions hearing the
cry rushed to the SPOT and found
the oveJoyed miner struggling up
tho bank with the nugget firmly
olenched In his hand. There was
general rejoicing over the fad, and
tbe remainder Of the dirt panned
cut, which gave another piece Of an
ounce in weight and small gold
over an ounce, giving the en-
tire pan q value OF twenty
one ounces and over, the largest
amount ever taken out IN one pan in
the camp of which we have any
record. The Gillette has 80 far
proved to be our banner claim, and
the spring opening keeps 1t In the
front rank. Its previous largest mug
get weighed l3f ounces, while q vast
number of smaller ones of from one
to ten ounces have been gxrnered by
the lucky owners.
Up to the finding of the above
nugget Dream Gulch had the pres
tige with 10 ounces, but, as will be
seen, the Gillette piece is nearly half
ain ounce heavier. The Myrtle claim
on Trail Gulch, which has held the
second position in the nugget line in
camp, with q l7-ouuce chunk, Is now
relegated to the third position and
Dream to the second. No doubt we
will be called upon to chronicle fur
ther changes a. the season advances.
A postal just received oy Mr.. James
Cronin, q half owner in the Gillett
claims says: jackson has just
found the largest nugget ever dis
covered in these diggins-en this
claim, weight 19-12-lS." Mr.. Cronin
showed us yesterday several beauti-
full nuggets Of almost pure gold, one
of them the SIZE of hens egg. The
gentleman leaves for the Ceu- d.
Alenes tomorrow.
An old-time mining man, formerly
of Nevada, writes from Embry,
Stevens county, Washington Terri
tory, stating that he has struck 1t
rich there, having developed val
liable carbonate silver mine. He
wishes to know what could be done
in Portland with high grade smelling
ore in quantities that would warrant
the erecting of smelters. Many such
inquiries are received and yet Port
land, which is situated in the centre
of region which is destined to pre-
duce millions of dollars worth OF
gold, silver, copper and iron, within
the next decade, has not q single
facility for reducing ore.