The Kusko times., 1929-02-02
Tales From the Hills


 pectors, as I see it,, to locate these patches and then. concen- trate their energies there. 1t simply means this:.. To make a-rich mining district you have to- get an- unusual set of geologic events which cause the naturalization from the igneous mag mas, which the geologists, talk about, to be concentrated into a limited area.
 "Take Butte, Montana, for exam pie. They call Butte the richest hill in the world. That hill is simply laced through and through with net work of strongly mineralized veins. There is mineralized country for you. All of that ore didn't come di- rectly from the igneous intrusion which makes up the hill. The big in- srusion which underlies that country for hundreds of miles has been g.eaned of metals, and while the in- .rusion was still ill a molten state some set of conditions caused the ore minerals for miles around to be forced into Butte Hill. Such intensive banding of ore into one corral does not happen often, and thatiis the rea- son we have so few camps like Butte. More often the naturalization is di- vided between three or four centers of mineralization and then we find three or four mining districts spaced 50 to 100 miles apart and the country between these districts robbed of it's It is something like this,. Jack: If you are in town and a big fire breaks out, everyone natural ly rushes to the fire and crowds around there. If at this time you would prospect the other section of town you would find them we'll de- serted, with only an occasional stay at-home to be found.
 "Then l. remember the Republic gold camp, in the northeastern corner of the Stateeof Washington, which has produced several million dollars and has a good life still ahead of it. You could lay blanket five miles long by one-half mile wide and cover up all the mines in the camp. Outside of that small rectangle Icouldn't find a prospect worth wasting a box. of pow der on.
 '"The producing area. of Tonopah, Nevada, can be inclndedl in a strip of country one mile wide. by about two miles long.
 "The Mother Lode d;stnict of Cali fornia is more like gold gold belt that trends along. the: coast of Southeast ern Alaska. The n1ineralized belt on the Mother Lode is about mile wide, but it contains d. series of closely spaced veins outcropping at intervals for a. length O HOO miles. Several of the stronger veins have been devel- oped for more than a mile along their strike"
 Jack laid aside his paper; lighted his pipe which had gone out, and then with a quizzical smile remarked: "So far, so good, Larry, but what l would like to knoow how sthe prospector going to recognize mineral country when he sees one? Anyone can rec ognize mineralized area after mines have been developed there, but sup pose you are in a new country, what are you going to do then?'
 "That is a, fair question, Jack. To start with, I'll admit that the hest prospector might, pass through min eralized district and totally miss all the signs, but there are some helpful guide posts available. Suppose we. were travelling through a news country and were following either along the ridges oraup a valley. We would watch for float or for outcroppings.. We mipht do a little, manning on the