The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-05
OF CHANCE
IN FINDING MINES
Good Fortune and Grit Are
Usually Present, Though For
mer Is Emphasized.

In mining Il often seems that the ele-
ment of chance is an important factor.
Particularly is this the case In prospect
ing and In the development OF new mines
The experienced prospector may search in
vain FOR a mine whore geological con-
dtions are seemingly the most promis-
ing while the tenderfoot unwlttingly
stumbles upon a vein worth millions. In
one instance three men who located a
famous mine sat repeatedly at midday
lunch upon an outcroppIng before one Of
them observed the gold scattered through
the rock. \ rich mine was discovered
In Montana by man packing his blan-
kets over a mountain road that had been
a highway for twenty years, He was
walking behind a heavily loaded freight
wagon, the wheels OF which ground Oft a
fragment OF rock from rut In the road
Nearly twenty years ago an experienced
miner in Arizona made his way up a
steep gorge. Something; he was unable
TO explain what--probaoly that intuition
characteristic of miners-urged him TO
return to this deep, uninviting canyon.
He went back and looked again. with
and then a fourth time he penetrated
this rent In the earths surface. Tow
ering cliffs of basalt one side, old
crystallized chlsts cut by dykes on the
ter. certainly. Late In the afternoon OF
the fourth day he sat in the broiling sun
on granite boulder ana GaZcd "lsttullS
at the steep hillside, shimmcring In the
heat. Worn out with his fruitless quest.
he was about TO start wearily back TO
camp. several miles distant
Finally he got up. and with a grit born
of desperation made his toilsome way up
the slope, eager eyed, overlooking moth
Ing, A few hundred feet from the creek
he observed a small outcrop. 1t was less
than foot wide and four or five feet
long. He struck his pick into the soft.
crumbling mass of granulated quartz and
iron oxide. IL looked good he took a
small sack full and returned to the creek,
The horn spoon came into use, and in
very few minutes the weary prospector
was Ieaping, up the hillside at gait
might have seen him. The horn spoon
showed rock of wonderful richness, and
another millionaire had suddenly come
into existence.
The first two Instances above mentioned
were merely fortuitous. The last was
the result of indomitable viii, deter
mnarion to succeed. 1t is this latter
quality SO largely developed In those plo-
neers OF our mining fields the world over
the discovery of most OF the great mines.
Seek and we shall find" was not writ
ten with direct reference 70 prospectors,
but it applies to them as well,
AS to mining being gamble. there al
ways Is an element or uncertainty -
most alluring. indefinite possibility in an
undeveloped mine-but in the extensively
opened property. when in the hands of
competent and honest management, min
Ing is not more Of gamble or more
risky than the construction OF new
railroad or the establishment OF any new
industrial enterprise. In fact, 1t involves
less OF risk, because the real resources
OF the mines are capable Of mea surement
and the possible prohts or losses can be
figured arbitrarily.-Los Angeles Mining
Record.