The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1892-03-11
MEETING OF EXPERTS,

were of particular interest to Mon
tana. Geo. +. Kunz, the Tiffany
expert, and who has lost no oppor-
tunity for the last year to belittle
the Montana sapphires, though a few
wears ago he pronounced them equal
to any known, was asked about them
at the meeting, and said: The
Montana sapphires are beautiful and
interesting as curios, but / don't
think they are of the color the public
wants. The standard colors in sap
phires for popularity are blue or red,
and such are not found in the place
ground on the Missouri, near Hell.
ena. A company to work the bar
has been stocked at *2,WO,OOO.
The interested parties took over to
England 10000 carats of Montana
sapphires, but they didn't put any of
them on the market. Diamonds are
too common. People of taste and Of
wealth demand something which
shall scienti)ate and which every
body cannot get. Americans are
now buying diamonds at the rate Of
*]3,WO,OW year, and there are in
the worldabout 81 600, 100000 worth
of diamonds. But there are diamonds
and diamonds. A stone of the first
water is still a rarity and of this class
there are onl y about eight per cent
of the whole amount"
Speaking of the precious stones
found in this country, DR.. Kunz said
the garnets which come from the
Navajo nation in New Mexico and
Arizona are the most notable. These
garnets are called rubies and are of
the finest in the world. "The Mon
tana precious stones are interesting,
but comparatively Of no value in the
market"
The meeting was presented with
some statistics on great feats of min
ing, engineering, few of which are
interesting to Montanians. One in
stance relates to Leadville and the
works of S. F. Emmons. The min
ing city of the clouds though it had
its day. The mines were being
worked out one after another and
abandoned. Vein after vein had
been followed to what seemed to be
the end. The city's population and
business were growing smaller.
Emmonds went to I.eadville. He
had maps prepared showing the
workings of the mines, the veins of
ore and the various strata of rocks.
These We're the given quantities of
the problem. Emmons studied them
and arrived at the conclusion that a
great fault had occurred in the early
days when the mountains curled up.
He pointed where he thought the
veins should be recovered. The
miners dug and found the ore bodies
again, and the second Leadville be-
came greater than the first had been.
The Drum I.ummon near Helena,
said another engineer, is one of the
greatest mines Of the present day.
1t is owned by "a company in which
Englishmen are largely interested.
At one time in it's history, years ago,
the Drum Lummon seemed to have
fulfilled its destiny. The vein came
to an end. Repeated trials to re-
cover it all failed. The managers,
almost in despair, sent for Clayton,
''the flannel shirt expert" the self
educated mining engineer. Clayton
studied the mine, located the fault,
ordered crosscut at that particular
point and recovered the vein.
There have been great fees paid
to some mining engineers for their
opinions on mines. One of the re-
ports made at the meeting says that
it is tradition that James y. Hague
received $4,000 for his examination,
of the Anaconda mine. A queer
history the Anaconda has had. The
mining engineer recalled this when
they visited the great reduction
works at Baltimore, where the Ana.
conda product goes to be treated
and burned into sulphate of copper
and pure copper. In the early days
of Montana mining the gold hunter
panned gravel and worked out yell
low nuggets on the location of the
Anaconda mine. Another genera
tion of treasure seekers came along
and searched for silver, going down