The Arizona sentinel., 1903-01-07

mia, 1S48 when the news reached the gold miners Of Sonora, there was general exodus or the Able-bodied men who were able to get away northwest to the new Fl Dorado in California, and the state of Sonora contributed many men
 to the mining population They took the old
 road, which was known as the ''camino real, | from EStancia and Altar northweStward, nearly parallel to the gulf, following the mountain ridge known as the Gila range, just north of our present boundary. The road led to Yuma, and in passing the Gila range they went within few feet or yards of a very modest outcrop of quartz which no one seemed to consider of sui ficient value to merit any attention. That hum
 ble and insignificant quartz outcr0p IS today the outcrop of the great Fortuna mine.
 It is situated on the westward slope and nearly
 at the base of the range of mountains called on some of the old maps the G1la range. This trends northweSterly and reaches nearly to the Gila river at the point now known as Blaisdell. The railway in its course to Yuma passes around the northwest point of this range. Where the rocks are exposed at that point they are mostly of homogeneous granite, of gray color and weathered out at the surfaces, which, however are much pitted as If by decompoSi- tion of some soft substance. But beyond these lowlying hills of granite there are big outcropS of rock which to the experienced eye indicate stratified formations. They are indeed strait
 fed. for the bulk of the range southward and southeastward Is composed of regular stratited. laminated. 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
 mica states and hornblendic states with inter pOlAtiOnS Of QuartZlte 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 arc peculiaritleS Of color, and
 some yellow colors. which indicate to me the presence of some other mineral possibly, tel luTium, 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 he lower levels of the mine The workings wh ch have been carried on here have developed a condition of things which could not be foretold from an inspection of the outcrop. The vein or lode appears to be chimney, not a cOntino- ous ore body, nor @ continuous vein with an ore body or chimney chute upon it. As re-
 marked the outcropping points indicate that
 there Is no very great longitudinal extension of this ore body.
 crop second, in its continuity in depth, It's con- tinued satisfactory rich q ess, and the promise gives of enrichment by further veins dipping .nto # on the foot-wall sides.
 Some facts in regard to the product or yield: The ore paid from the surface. The product ore extracted up to the time has been about so tons per day, which is sent to the 20stamp mill, each stamp Of which crushes about tons in ! every twenty-four hours. The extraction is chiefly and largely by power drills A force of 80 men is employed by this mine and mill.
 mining is done by compressed air. The lode, was told, was to 15 feet wide. This large space 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 l mill They would prefer to reject most of this wall rock. but 1t would take more time and eI-
 pcnse than 1t does to mill 1t, and there is chance of some of it containing gold. From 1 these 80 tons of rock crushed daily the average product is perhaps S4S,000 worth of gold per month. Some months they have produced as high as S9O,OOO
 In the region of the Fortuna mine the forma- tiOnS appear to be wholly of mica slate and
 hornblende slate, with some arenaceous layers Ike old micaceous sandstoneS and quartzites.
 The mine is surrounded by black hornblendic states and mica slateS, dipping Southward and and these states are very evenly laminated ridge after ridge