The San Francisco call., 1896-12-20
An Artisan Discovers a
Rich Ledge in This
City.
In Public Street, but He Can
Get No Authority to
Work It.
Keeping the Location a Secret and
at a Loss How to Realize
on His Find.

An intelligent artisan residing in this
City has discovered in one of the public
streets of this City ledge Of rich ore
and he is in a quandary how he
may profit by it, for the thoroughfare is
the City's and the neigh boring property
belongs to private persons.
Ii he divulge the location OF the vein
chances OF ever prospecting it or deriving
benefit from it seem to him small.
His long experience in the Coeur Alene
mining district prom pied him when he first
saw the rock several weeks ago to think
seriously that 1t was the right stuff, al
though to the ordinary observer the red
dish-colored decayed quartz appears of no
value. All this time he carefully guarded
his secret, while he tried to devise some
means of realizing upon What he became
more firmly convinced was good thing.
Yesterday ne had some of the surface
groupings assayed and this is what the
ASSAY showed: Gold ounces to the ton, so;
gold value a ton, $12 40; silver ounces 10
The ton, 4; silver value a ton, 81 90; total
value ton, SIS. And miners consider the
surface OF d ledge less rich than that fur
ther down.
LIE 4OOSO 81 IlG dSSSItSI 4OllN
sixteen inches thick, the stratum is tilted
at an angle of about forty-tive degrees and
crosses the street 6iagonalIy. How far it
extends or to what depth 1t reaches he
cannot tell without prospecting. He can
not prospect without obtaining permission
and in applying for the privilege he must
divulge his secret, and there's the rub.
No one has right to mine the public
streets, and probably nothing but a
special act of the Legislature could en-
power the Board of Supervisors to grant
such privilege. The rights of the prop
erty in the street and to that in private
lot lie in the municipality or with the in
dIviduaI possessing the patent title TO the
land and all under it through to the CEN
ter of the earth.
Were a prospect possible to de-
termine the exact location and extent
of the ledge the discoverer might
buy the adjacent property, sink
a shaft to a safe depth, branch out
and crosscut the ledge far below, then fol-
low its course, guarding the entrance to
the tunnel and taking out ore presumably
from his own lot, for all the other prop
erty-owners might know of the location
VI l1lO N0lIs oub unfortunately 1Of LQlS
carpenter he is not possessed of an abund-
ance OF coin and is In much the same posi-
ton as an inventor at the mercy of ca pital
needed for developing his oevice.
While the finder is trying to solve the
problem of getting at his known gold
mine other persons may be daily walking
or living over it unawares.
There have been other discoveries of ore
in this City, but none so rich or so ex-
tensive as this appears to be. Some time
since John McCarty, the contractor, dis
covered ledge of quicksilver on lot at
the corner of McAllister aud Devisadero
streets, and had to abandon 1t when it led
into the public street. The inconvenience
of the location and the necessary extra
expenses of mining in the City made the
undertaking unfeaslble. In 1888 the State
Mining Bureau took specimens OF ore
from the hillside on Liberty street. and
their assay showed 81 ton.
On another occasion fine body of
manganese ore was found on a part of
Guerrero street well built up with SUBJ
stantial houses that rendered the develop
ment of a mine i'm practicable
A number of years ago the gold fever
struck North Beach and numerous claims
were quickly staked out on bright surface
indications that subsequently proved to
be nothing but brass filings from a neigh
boring brass foundry. A printer in the
early days of The Alta California picked
up small bit of quartz on Twin Peaks
one Sunday and in it was a gold nugget
the size OF large bean. Such are the
records of the mineral discoveries in this
city known to the State Mining Bureau.
More recently there have been several
supposed fnds-one near Ingleside aud
one on Geary streeR