Evening journal., 1916-12-16
MINING ENGINEER
Gives TESTIMONY
Declares MaranOn Gold
Fields Have Not Been
Properly Prospected
MINING CASE OVER
UNTIL MONDAY

Carlton II. Hand, a practical min
ing engineer, Of California, another
witness for the defense, took up all
OF the short afternoon session Of the
United States District Court yesterday
giving direct testimony for the de-
Tense in the case Of Government
against Charles S. Miller and Ray
mond McCune, charged with conspir-
acy and fraudulent use Of the United
States Mails. Mr.. Hand testified to
having had a long and varied exper-
fence in both quartz and placer min
Ing. In response to questions asked
him by Henry A. Wise. OF counsel for
McCune, Hand described placer min
ing.
Witness stated that he went to
Peruvian gold fields of the Maranon
River Placers. Inc, for the purpose
Of looking the property over He
said that the character Of the coun-
try was such as to lead him TO con-
slider Il gold producing country. The
widening OF the river valley at one
point indicated to him, as a miner,
that gold bearing gravel was likely
TO have accumulated there.
Hand testified that he had person
ally examined about 10 OF the old test
pits. having had them cleaned out 70
a point 20 or below the water level
in the pits. Witness said that when
gold bearing rocks are broken up or
disintegrate the larger PARTICLES of
] cold hrs to IN 20
the spot where they are dislodged, or
in the smaller streams nearest the
point where they are released. while
the finer gold would be carried along
| into the larger streams. Witness
said that when the pit to be sampled
had been cleaned out. the water was
bailed out. and then Hand got down
in the hole and took his pans" Of
gravel. three buckets Of gravel
weighing the one hundred pounds that
being the amount OF gravel taken FOR
the test. The sample was then rock
ed" and the concentrates bottled and
assayed at Lima Hand testified that
all this work. from scooping the gra.
vel up In the bucket. through the as.
! saying Of the concentrates. was done
by him personally. He said that only
one pit failed to show gold. The
values he obtained ran from one
quarter Of a cent cubic yard to over
2s cents a cubic yard. In one bar
along the Maranon River. where con
ditions were not favorable for placer
mining. witness stated that he OBJ
tanned a sample OF gold, indicatlne
that the gravel would yield about 5s
cents 10 the cubic yard.
In addition 10 examining the pits
Hand told OF taking sixteen samples
OF gravel from along the river. begin
ming az one end of the property. and
! extending TO the other. which aver
aeed in value 33 cents per cubic yard
OF gravel. The highest value he found
was 81 26 q cubic yard.
Mr. Hand stated that he examined
the gravel along the river bank. be.
cause a miner would naturally go tc
n river bank the first thing upon
reaching a gold country. as the logi-
cal place 20 look for evidences ol
gold Hand testified that in his 1udg-
ment the Maranon River country was
not properly investigated. even by
himself. He also said that In his es-
timation the propertv has not vel
been pronerlv prospected.
Asked n he thought a man could
make an adequate examination Of the
property IN four or i've days