Mohave County miner., 1900-01-20


gaining every day that finds him per-
severing in his quest for mineral. and
he learns to read the lessons told by
the rocks almost before he is aware of
1t. Enthusiasm is useful to keep him
from growing discouraged after days
and even weeks and months of fruit
less search. 1t is quality needed not
alone by the prospector and miner, for
no one can succeed in any business
without enthusiasm to keep up his
spirits and spur him on to continual
effort. But observation is perhaps the
most necessary quality of all. He
must notice every slight change in
the country rock and his attention
must be arrested by the smallest frag-
ment Of rock, whether of quartz or of
/ country rock foreign to the region.
The writer knew prospector at Pinos
Altos, N. M, who by noting a small
piece of porphyry not half an inch
square in granite country, and spend
ing day in tracing it to its source,
found blind porphyry dyke in which
was gold ledge that made his little
stake A few months later he had
sold out and gone home to the states
a comparatively rich man, though
observation and industry were all the
capital he had to start with. But there
is one point on which even old and ex-
perienced prospectors are apt to be
careless. They unconsc iously drift in
to the idea that the only thing worth
prospecting for are precious and com
mercial metals. II a rock or section of
country plainly contains no gold, sill.
yer, copper or lead they pass it by or
hurry over it, taking it for granted that
there is nothing there worth while.
Now, in this conclusion they may be
thoroughly mineralized as is Arizona,
with such extensive denuded areas
and with rocks of every geological era
from the Archaean GRANTEES and meta
morphic scnists down to the modern
Quarternary drift, must and does con-
tain large and varied assortment of
valuable minerals besides the above
mentioned metals. BY the way, the
difference between a metal and min
eral is this A mineral Is a mechani-
cal mixture; its PARTICLES are thrown
together by earth forces or by the ac-
ton of water or by cement, while a
metal is chemical compound. Some
: of the minerals that would we'll repay
the prospector for his search are litho
graphic stone, many of the aluminous
clays, mica, asbestos, phosphate rocks
and marbles. Then there is borax; the
ochres, which furnish mineral paint;
barytes, or heavy spar, used as an
adulterant for white lead, as well as
for surfacing heavy white paper; cryo-
lite, worth from POS to 305 per ton to
glass factories and aluminium plants;
kaslin, worth l0S to l5S per ton to pa
per manufacturers; emery, worth 705
per ton; graphite, asphalt, manganese
lin short, the list is almost endless.
These minerals are all in Arizona, but
not found because they are not looked
for. We all know the old proverb, "all
things come to him who waits For
the use of the prospector would alter
it slightly and read it, all things wait
for him who hunts | read the other
day of farmer in Maine who found
large bed of pure white clay on his
farm. He took the trouble to dry
some of it out, pulverize it and send it
to paper factory, where he had once
worked, and remembered that they
used something of the kind in glazing
and weighing white paper. He received
immediate answer that the material
was as good as the best imported ar
ticle aud that they would give him l2s
ton for all he could furnish As his
clay bed contains about 100000 tons
he is now on easy street, and the
shady side at that. The prospector
should carefully examine any new
substance he finds, whether rock or
earth, and If he cannot identify it with
any mineral known to him, he should
mark the spot, take sample and have
it analysed. Many prospector has
blithely walked over fortune and
knew it not. Particularly valuable are
the lime phosphates, the pure clays
and the mineral paints; and when once
Al l. .t,,o g., H.,