The Arizona sentinel., 1900-10-24
IA FoRTuNA hINK.

h the early days of gold discovery Of Csiifor. nia, 1s4s, when the news reached t.:e gold miners of Sonora there was general exodus of the Eole-bodied men who were able to get away northwest to the new Fl Dorado in California, and the state of Sonora contributed mary men to the mining population. They took the old road, which was known as the "canino real, B from Estancia and Altar northwestward, nearly parallel to the gulf, following the mountain ridge known as the Gila range, just nerth of our present boundary. The road led to Yuma, and !n passing the Gna range they went within a few feet or yards Of very modest outcrop of quartz which no enc seemed to consider of sui fcient value to merit any attention. That hum ble and insignificant quartz optcrop is today the outcrop Of the great Fortuna mine.
 IL is situated on the westward slope and nearly at the base of the range of mountains called on some of the old maps the Gila range. This trends northwesterly and reaches nearly to the Gila river al the point now known as Blaisdell. The railway in its course to Yuma passes around the northwest point of this rarge. Where the rocks are exposed at that point they arg mostly of homogeneous granite, of gray color and weatheTed out ct the surfaces, which, however, are much pitted as if by deconpcsi-
 
 low-lying hills Of granite there are big outcrops of rock which to the experienced eye indicate stratifed formations They are indeed strait fled, for the bulk of the range southward and southeastward is composed Of regular stratifled, laminSted, hard gneissic rock. use the word "gneissic" in very general and comprehensive sense, for you can describe these rocks with much more accuracy if you localize them as vd hor dio clofa rri+b ;pfa polations of quartzite beds especially in the upper part of the series with green stains, sup posed to be stains of copper and decomposition of copper ore, which they probably are, al though there are peculiarities of color, and some yellow colors, which indicate to me the presence ot some other mineral, possibly tel nr3nnn, which by it's decomposition has given these colors. The fact remains, however, that the bullion from the upper part of the vein con- tains more copper than it now contains in the lower levels of the mine. The workings which have been carried on here have developed a condition of things which could not be foretold from an inspection of the outcrup: The vein or lode appears to be chimney, not a contino- ous ore body, nor a continuous vein with an ore body or chimney or chute upon it. AS re- marked the outcropping points indicate that
 
 this ore body.
 The vein is remarkable first in this limited out crop; second, in its continuity in depth its con- tinued satisfactory richness, and the promise it gives of enrichment by further veins dipping into it on the footwall sides.
 y-D Some facts in regard to the product or yield: The ore paid from the surface. The product or ore extracted up to the time has been about 80 tons per dag, which is sent to the 2O-stamp mill each stamp of which crusheS about tons in every twenty-four hours. The extraction is chiefly and largely by power drills A force et 80 men is employed by this mine and mill. The greater part of the labor underground and mining is done by compressed air. The lode, l was told was to 15 feet wide. This large s<Ace permits the use of power drills to great advantage. In the material hoisted there are fragments of the wall rocks some of which are thrown out. but many pieces pass through the mill. They would prefer to reject most of this vs.l rock, but it would take more time and ex- pense than it does to mill it, and there is a chance of some of it containing gold. From these 80 tons of rock crushed daily the average product is perhaps s4s,OO0 worth of gold per month. Some months they have produced as high as s9OO9O.
 In the region of the Fortuna mine the forma- tions appear to be wholly of mica slate and h0rnblende slate, with some arenaceous layers ike old nnicaceous s8ndStones and QuartZites. The mine is surrounded by black hornbleIdiC states and mica slates, dipping southTRrd and southwestward at an angle of about 45 degrees. and these states ere very evenly lsminated, ridge after ridge. This is apparently con