Chapter III: Part 3

The Chollar Mill has thirty of these pans. On a platform below that on which stand the pans are fifteen settlers. These are about twice the size of the pans. At the end of three or five hours each settler has drawn off into it the contents of two pans. In the settler the pulp, quicksilver, and amalgam are kept in motion for about two hours. During this time water is let in and the pulp made very thin. The quicksilver and amalgam settle to the bottom of the “settler,” and are drawn off through a pipe and pass into a strainer—a strong canvas bag. There is an iron box around each strainer, and this is kept locked.

It is in the pan that amalgamation takes place. There the sulphuret and chloride of silver is changed to the metallic form by the chemical action of the sulphate of copper (bluestone) and salt, and when it takes the metallic form it at once unites with quicksilver. The gold contained in the ore (generally one-third of its whole value) being always in the metallic form, is amalgamated as soon as it is ground out of its inclosing shell of quartz, or pyrites of iron.

The thinned pulp—mere muddy water in appearance—on leaving the settlers passes into large wooden tubs called “agitators,” in which are revolving rakes. In these tubs is caught some valuable material—principally amalgam and quicksilver. From the “agitators” the pulp flows out of the reduction works through a small flume which conducts it to the blanket sluices, fifty yards away in the open air. The blanket sluices are broad, shallow flumes in the bottom of which are placed strips of coarse woolen blanketing. In passing over these blankets the pulp deposits pulverized iron pyrites containing gold, some fine particles of amalgam, and quicksilver; also such silver sulphurets as escaped being amalgamated in the pans. From time to time the blankets are taken out of the sluices and rinsed in a large tank, in which operation is saved whatever of value they may have caught.

The amalgam collected in the strainers standing below the settlers is placed in a press and as much quicksilver as possible pressed out, when it is placed in retorts, which are heated till all the mercury is driven off. There then remains behind the silver and gold, in a dull, rough-looking mass. This “crude bullion” is then broken up and placed in the melting pots, to be made into “bricks” and assayed. The bars or bricks made weigh about 100 pounds each. From the top and bottom of each pot or crucible of molten gold and silver is taken a small quantity of the fluid metals from which assays are made to determine the value of the bars. About thirty per cent of the value of the Comstock bullion bars is in gold, though it has at times run up to fifty per cent in some mines, and as low as ten per cent in others.

Though the Nevada Mill is in part driven by water, half the power used is electrically transmitted from six forty-inch Pelton water wheels set up in a large chamber excavated on the Sutro Tunnel level of the Chollar Mine, 1,630 feet below the surface. These small Pelton wheels drive six Brush dynamos, which generate the current that passes over the copper wires to the electric motors in the mill. The electric apparatus transmits to the main driving shaft of the mill about sixty-five per cent of the power developed by the Pelton wheels. Each Pelton wheel drives a dynamo, and one, two, four or all the dynamos may be run at the same time, just as may be required, each Pelton and dynamo being independent of the others.

After the water is used on the large-surface Pelton wheel in the mill it is caught up and by means of a small flume is conducted to the shaft of the Chollar Mine, near at hand, down which two large iron pipes carry it to the six small Peltons below. By thus twice using the same water a saving of one-half is made. The pressure on the lower Pelton wheels is immense. Never before has any water wheel been operated under a vertical pressure of 1,630 feet.

The Nevada Mill was built to work the ores of the Hale and Norcross, Chollar and Potosi Mines. It is one of the most substantial mills in the country, and no mill in the State is better arranged. It is lighted with electricity, and the grounds in front are illuminated by means of an arc light on a tall mast.

The Two California Mills.

The California stamp and pan-mills in Virginia City reduce the ores of the Consolidated California and Virginia Mine. The stamp-mill is situated immediately east of the C and C shaft of the mine. It contains eighty stamps. The ore crushed in this mill is amalgamated in the pan-mill, which stands about 1,500 feet further east. The crushed ore is conducted from the stamp-mill to the pan-mill through an iron pipe four inches in diameter. The process of amalgamation is much the same as at the Chollar Mill, except that the pulp goes directly into the amalgamating pans instead of being first received in settling tanks. It flows from pan to pan—the outflow of the first pan passing into the second through a pipe, thence into a third, and so on and from settler to settler, being in all about three hours in passing through the series. This is called the Boss Continuous Process. It is in use in no other mill on the Comstock, as yet. In connection with the Rae electrical process of amalgamation (in which a current of electricity is passed through the settlers) it is found to work satisfactorily. The electric current prevents loss of “floured” quicksilver. Both mills are driven by Pelton water wheels. A single Pelton wheel eleven feet in diameter, placed on the surface, drives the eighty stamps of the battery-mill, and also twelve Boss grinding pans. The water used on the surface Pelton is caught up and conducted to the C and C shaft, where it is used on a series of Pelton wheels of the same size. These wheels are placed in chambers made for their reception 500 feet apart from the top of the shaft down to the Sutro Tunnel level (there 1,500 feet), and by means of steel wire cables, used as belts, the power of all the lower wheels is brought to a main driving shaft on the surface. The whole power is then transmitted to the pan-mill (about 1,600 feet) by means of steel wire cables passing over pulleys placed on a series of tall wooden towers. The cables pass over a considerable depression between the top of the C and C shaft and the pan-mill; three high towers are required in the middle portion.

River and Canyon Mills.

The Mexican Mill, on the Carson River, contains forty-four stamps and a corresponding number of pans, settlers, and other amalgamating machinery. The Morgan Mill has forty stamps. It works ore from the Consolidated California and Virginia Mine. The Brunswick Mill contains seventy-six stamps, the Vivian sixteen, Santiago thirty-eight, and Eureka sixty. All these mills are about and below Empire City, and all work Comstock ores. The Eureka Mill is run on ore from the Consolidated California and Virginia. The Rock Point Mill (thirty stamps), at Dayton, and the Douglas Mill (ten stamps), in Lower Gold Hill, also work Comstock ores.

At and about Silver City are two or three small mills that work the ores of mines in that neighborhood, and on the Carson River are the Douglas and Woodworth Mills, which work tailings.

On Six-mile Canyon, below Virginia City to the east, are several small water mills having an aggregate of about thirty stamps. These work ores from the mines on the canyon and in Flowery District. On the canyon are also one or two small mills that work tailings and the concentrations from blanket sluices.

The Alta Mining Company has a ten-stamp mill, with concentrators, immediately adjoining the hoisting works at their mine. The Justice Company have a new ten-stamp mill near their mine.

Owing to the fact that many mines are now at the same time producing large quantities of ore, a lack of milling facilities is being felt. To meet this demand the Nevada Mill has been enlarged one-third, and the capacity of other mills will be increased, and perhaps some new mills will be erected. Processes by means of which low-grade ores may be profitably worked will no doubt yet be invented or discovered, which will cause many new works to be erected either on the Carson River or in the neighborhood of the mines producing large quantities of such ores.

THE COMSTOCK LODE.

Hoisting Works, Shafts, and Mining, Past and Present.

The Comstock Lode crops out along the eastern face of Mount Davidson about 1,200 feet below the summit, and just above the western suburbs of Virginia City. To the northward and southward the vein runs along the east side of other and smaller mountains of the same range. The face of Mount Davidson slopes to the east at an angle of about twenty-five degrees, and the vein dips in the same direction at an average inclination of forty-five degrees. It was at first supposed that the vein dipped to the west (into Mount Davidson), and the first hoisting works were erected on or near the croppings, where shafts were sunk and inclines sent down. For the first 400 to 500 feet the vein did pitch to the west into the mountain. Mount Davidson was then supposed to be the great central magazine, or nucleus, of all the silver found near the surface, and claims located on the slope of the mountain below to the eastward found but little favor in the eyes of mining men and would-be purchasers. Suddenly all this was changed, and there was a general “right-about-face.” It was discovered in the Gould & Curry and the Ophir Mines that at a certain depth the lode became perpendicular, then turned and took a regular dip to the east, of about forty-five degrees, following as a footwall the syenite slope of Mount Davidson. It was then seen that the false dip above was caused by the top of the vein being bent over under the pressure of sliding material on the slope of the mountain at and near the surface.

THE THREE LINES OF HOISTING WORKS.

However, much ore was mined at the first line of works, particularly at the Ophir, Mexican, California, Gould & Curry, Savage, and Hale & Norcross Mines. But, as the dip of the vein was away from these first works, it presently became necessary to move to the eastward about 1,000 feet. As very deep shafts would there be required in order to intersect the lode, larger and much more powerful hoisting works and pumping machinery must be erected. Indeed, the new works required to be first-class in every respect, as the shafts would be far deeper than any yet put down on the lode, and it was by this time known that there would be immense quantities of water to handle.

Accordingly, the second line of fine and powerful first-class works, seen at present, and again in active use, was constructed. The shafts of the new line of works all cut into the heart of the vein, and in several the “bonanzas” found were so large and so rich as to astonish the whole mining world and create a much greater and far more widespread excitement than was seen when silver was first discovered in the croppings of the vein at the Ophir Mine. All the leading mines were soon taking out their tens of millions, but when the “big bonanza” was struck in the Consolidated Virginia and California the yield of gold and silver bullion soon became a matter of scores of millions. It was then that the fame of the Comstock spread to every corner of the world, and the rush of speculators, fortune-seekers, and adventurers of all ages, sexes, and classes was greater than ever before. Though what is called the “Big Bonanza” was struck in the Consolidated Virginia in October, 1873, at a point on the 1,167-foot level, it was not until October, 1874, that the excitement in regard to it reached fever-heat. The main shaft had then reached the 1,500-foot level, and the ore disclosed by drifts and chambers was of such extraordinary and astonishing richness that experts could hardly believe their eyes or assayers their figures.

The Comstock Lode had a width (between the syenite wall on the west and the propylite on the east) of from 1,000 to 1,200 feet at the point where the “Big Bonanza” was struck. The space between the two walls was filled with what is locally termed “vein material” (gangue), and in this was found the ore body or “bonanza,” which was in one place over 300 feet in width. This mass of ore yielded from $100 to $700 per ton, but in places were found masses of pure native silver and spots of ore so rich in black sulphuret and gold that to make assays of it was much like making assays of the pure metals. From the “Bonanza Mines” alone from 1873 up to 1882 were taken $111,975,761.39; but in 1879 the yield began to fall off as the vein was followed downward, and in 1882 the amount of bullion taken out was small, not paying expenses.

In the meantime (while the big bonanza of the Consolidated Virginia and California companies was being worked out) most of the leading companies had exhausted their second bonanzas. Instead of prospecting further in their immediate neighborhood, they all determined to go still farther east, sink a new line of shafts, and tap the vein at a still greater depth. This time they went out about 2,000 feet beyond their second line of hoisting works, or 3,000 feet east of the croppings of the lode. As it would be necessary to sink shafts to a depth of about 3,000 feet to intersect the vein, the hoisting works, hoisting machinery, and all else was made much larger, more powerful, and on a grander scale in every respect, than the second line. The principal works on this third line are those of the Combination shaft, New Yellow Jacket shaft, Osbiston and Union shafts, and the Forman shaft. In sinking these several companies united, the work was prosecuted with the greatest energy, and no expense was spared as regarded machinery and appliances.

THE COMBINATION SHAFT.

Of these shafts, that which attained the greatest vertical depth was the Combination—the joint shaft of the Chollar, Hale & Norcross, and Savage Companies. Before work on it was discontinued it had reached the great depth of 3,250 feet. There is but one deeper vertical shaft in the world. This is the Adalbert Shaft, in the silver mines of Bohemia, which is 3,280 feet deep. There is no record of the time when work on this mine in Bohemia was commenced, though its written history extends back to 1527. The Combination Shaft was sunk at the rate of three feet a day, even in rock as hard as flint. The whole shaft is sunk in very hard rock (andesite), every foot of which had to be blasted. It is thirty feet by ten feet in size and is divided into four compartments for the accommodation of the hoisting and pumping apparatus.

The shaft was sunk to the depth of 2,200 feet before more water was encountered than could be hoisted out in the “skips” with the dirt. Down to the 2,400 level two Cornish pumps were used, each with columns fifteen inches in diameter. A drift run west into the vein tapped more water than the Cornish pumps could handle, when the management introduced hydraulic pumps. These pumps are run by the pressure of water from the surface through a pipe running down from the top of the shaft, whereas the Cornish pumps were run by huge steam engines. The shaft is connected with the Sutro drain tunnel at the depth of 1,600 feet, and to that point it was necessary to pump all the water. At the 3,000 level were placed a pair of hydraulic pumps, the deepest in the world. In Europe the deepest point at which a hydraulic pump has ever been worked is 2,700 feet. This is in the Hartz Mountains, in Germany.

When one stood at the 3,000 level and looked up a compartment of the shaft (five feet by six feet in size) the little spot of daylight seen at the top appeared to be about four inches square. At this great depth even the smallest bit of rock falling from the top whistles like a rifle-ball before reaching the bottom, and, striking a man on the head, would instantly kill him. Should a man fall that distance little would remain on which to hold an inquest—his body would be quite “dissipated.” The Cornish and the hydraulic pumps working together had a daily capacity of 5,200,000 gallons—a small river! Hydraulic pumps were placed at the 2,400-foot level, the 2,600 and the 3,000 levels. Some idea of the great size of these engines and pumps may be formed when it is stated that the stations excavated for them were eighty-five feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and twelve feet high. All this space was so filled with machinery that there was only room left to move about among it. Drifts were run to the west to the lode at the 2,400, 2,800 and 3,000-foot levels. On the 3,000 level the distance from the shaft to the east wall of the vein was found to be only 250 feet. The lode at this depth (3,000 feet) was found to be of great width and well mineralized—indeed the Hale & Norcross folks had a good showing of ore.

The Deepest Workings.

Although the Combination Shaft is the deepest vertical opening on the lode, it is not the point of deepest mining. The deepest workings are in the mine of the Union Consolidated Company, toward the north end of the lode. There long drifts were run and much prospecting done at the great depth of 3,350 feet. This depth was obtained by running a drift from the bottom of the vertical shaft and then sinking a winze from the drift.

The Yellow Jacket (new) shaft has a vertical depth of 3,050 feet, and much prospecting was done in the mine at a depth of 3,000 feet; also in the Belcher and Crown Point. In the Belcher excellent prospects were being obtained when the company were obliged to discontinue work. By connecting adjacent shafts by means of drifts and otherwise maintaining a proper system of ventilation miners experience no difficulty in working at any depth yet attained on the Comstock Lode.

A Return to the Second Line of Works.

February 13, 1882, a flow of water was tapped on the 2,700 level of the Exchequer Mine, that flooded not only that mine, but also the Alpha, Imperial, Yellow Jacket, Kentuck, Crown Point, Belcher, Overman, Segregated Belcher, and Caledonia. The water rushed to the Yellow Jacket Shaft, where the pumping was done which drained the advanced workings (most eastern) of all the mines named. The Yellow Jacket folks pumped and bailed an average flow of 110 miners inches a day for seven days. Though they were raising 1,320 gallons every minute the water gained on them and raised to the level (2,700) on which it was tapped by the Exchequer. The water had then filled all the drifts, cross-cuts, and winzes of the whole group of mines from the Bullion south to the Caledonia. Pumping was still continued, for the purpose of exhausting the subterranean reservoir in the Exchequer, till March 28, when the water had been so far reduced that there was a depth of only 950 feet above the 3,000 level of the Yellow Jacket Shaft. Then, as no combined arrangement could be made among the several companies interested to continue the work and drain all the mines, the Yellow Jacket Company stopped pumping and shut down their works. This stopped all work below the level of the Sutro drain tunnel, and the works have never since been started up. Had all the companies “stood in” for a time longer all the flooded mines would have been thoroughly drained.

The cost of the new works on the advanced line had been so much, and the expense incurred in hoisting and pumping from such great depths was so heavy, that stockholders in all the mines along the lode now became discouraged. They declared that what had happened in the case of the Gold Hill group of mines was liable to happen in the other deep workings, and began to clamor for a general return to the works at the second line of shafts, where it was known that pay ore had been left behind in the race after depth. When stockholders found that the deep shafts did not at once cut into pay ore, when they tapped the vein, they had no patience to wait for much prospecting to be done. They demanded that paying deposits be sought for at once in the old levels above the Sutro Tunnel, where there could be no trouble from water. Thus it happens that along the whole lode all the mining now being done is at the works situated over the second line of shafts, and above the level of the Sutro Tunnel. These shafts are by no means shallow, as they range in depth from 2,000 to 2,900 feet. The return has been fortunate. The vein being from 400 to 1,000 and even in places 1,400 feet in width between walls, it was very little explored in the neighborhood of the works of the second line of shafts. When the bonanzas in sight were exhausted, the universal cry was: “Get away to the east! Strike the lode at greater depths! Another 1,000 feet of depth will give us a third fertile zone—a third line of bonanzas!” Now it is being discovered that large and rich deposits of ore had been left behind—that they are scattered in all directions in the great breadth of vein material like plums in a pudding. Again dividends are the order of the day along the famous old lode.

The Old First Bonanzas.

Out of the first “bonanzas” great fortunes were taken. The bonanza of the Ophir, into which the first discoverers of silver—O’Riley and McLaughlin—accidentally dug, yielded about $20,000,000 before it was exhausted; the Savage, $16,500,000; Hale & Norcross, $11,000,000; Chollar and Potosi, $16,000,000; Gould & Curry, $15,500,000; Yellow Jacket, $16,500,000; Crown Point, $22,000,000; Belcher, $26,000,000; Overman, $3,250,000; Imperial, $2,750,000, and the Kentuck, Sierra Nevada, Justice, and many other mines sums running from hundreds of thousands up into millions. In all, the yield of the mines on the Comstock Lode from the discovery down to the present time has been between $350,000,000 and $400,000,000. Of much of the silver and gold at first taken from the lode, both at Gold Hill and Virginia City, there is no record; and in many instances since that time much gold and silver bullion has been obtained from ores, tailings, slimes, and sulphurets that was never fully accounted for.

The New Departure.

In the new departure, of which a return to the second line of hoisting works was the leading feature, the two bonanza mines—the California and the Consolidated Virginia—were consolidated and incorporated as one mine under the name of the Consolidated California and Virginia. Work was resumed in the old upper levels and soon small streaks of low-grade ore, that had formerly been passed by, led to deposits of fair milling ore. In working these deposits other bodies were found, and finally many new and valuable ore bodies were developed. A fire which had been smouldering for about ten years in a section of the old workings was extinguished by the use of carbonic acid gas, and this gave access to large deposits of milling ore that had not before been available. This and the new discoveries soon gave the company large bodies of ore in a number of places above the Sutro Tunnel level. Again many miners were employed, and the output of ore became sufficient to keep many stamps in constant operation.

The total yield of the “Big Bonanza,” in the California and Consolidated Virginia, was as follows: Consolidated Virginia, $65,116,822.69: California, $46,858,938.70, making a total of $111,975,761.39. Out of this the Consolidated Virginia paid dividends amounting to $42,930,000, and the California a total of $31,320,000 in dividends.

Present Yield of Leading Mines.

Since the consolidation of the two mines, the Consolidated California and Virginia has yielded $8,001,856.95, and has paid dividends amounting to $2,440,800, up to and including December, 1888. The total yield of the great ore deposit known as the “Big Bonanza,” from the time of its discovery to the end of December, 1888 (under both incorporations), was $119,977,618.34, and the total amount of dividends to the same date was $76,690,800. To give an idea of the rate of the present yield of the mine the following details are furnished: For the quarter that ended March 31, 1888, the mine produced 39,552 tons of ore, yielding $921,903.77 in bullion, an average of $23 30 a ton. In April (1888) there was worked a total of 13,893 tons of ore, yielding bullion to the value of $418,729.43. The average assay value a ton was $36.83, and the average yield a ton was $30.13. In May the yield was $411,173.13; in June, $405,834.08; July, $206,672.26; August, $352,554.97; September, $267,386.18; October, $339,814.45; November, $220,373.74; and in December, $260,320.56. The falling off in the month of July and thereafter throughout the year was due to the dry season in the summer and a phenomenally dry fall and winter. In January, 1889, there was a fair milling stage of water in the Carson River the greater part of the time, and the yield of bullion rose to $267,847.51.

The mine has kept the Morgan and Eureka Mills going to their full capacity whenever there was sufficient water to run them at all. Owing to a scarcity of water at the sources of supply in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company have for some months been unable to furnish water for the two California Mills in this city; to furnish water to the Nevada Mill has been a heavy draft on the reservoirs. With proper storage reservoirs in the Sierras the mills on the Carson River might be run the year round. At present eighty per cent of all the water flows into the “sinks” and is lost.

More mines on the Comstock are at the present time producing paying ore than ever before in the history of the lode. The following mines are now ore producing: Consolidated California and Virginia, Gould & Curry, Occidental, Ophir, Andes, Savage, Hale & Norcross, Chollar, Potosi, Confidence, Challenge, Yellow Jacket, Belcher, Crown Point, Alta, Justice, Overman, Baltimore, and Kentuck. Several other companies who own mines on the lode have quartz that yields promising assays in the precious metals, and are liable at any time to find paying deposits.

To show the rate at which some of the mines have been paying during the past year, though handicapped by an unusually dry season and a lack of milling facilities, I give a few statistics, as follows: During the quarter that ended March 31, 1888, the Chollar Company milled 1,415 tons of ore that yielded $21,795.70 in bullion; the Confidence 1,722 tons, yielding $42,541.72; Hale & Norcross, 7,958 tons, yielding $236,047.32; Kentuck, 1,027 tons, yielding $13,055.50; Potosi, 3,050 tons, yielding $56,461.16, and the Yellow Jacket, 16,780 tons, yielding $121,027.82.

For the quarter ending June 30, 1888, the Hale & Norcross yielded 18,075 tons of ore, that produced $451,740 in bullion; the Chollar, 4,750 tons, yielding $74,507; Confidence, 17,285 tons, yielding $401,293; Yellow Jacket, 7,080 tons, yielding $55,022.

For the quarter that ended September 30, the Hale & Norcross yielded 6,365 tons of ore, that produced $173,941.80 in bullion; Confidence, 9,207 tons, yielding $176,064.93; Yellow Jacket, 1,370 tons, yielding $9,932.

For the quarter that ended December 30, 1888, the Chollar milled 2,835 tons that yielded $38,130.81: Challenge, 1,875 tons, yielding $31,096.16; Confidence, 6,195 tons, yielding $105,970.59; Yellow Jacket, 3,388 tons, yielding $25,856; Savage, 5,292 tons, yielding $66,422.75; Hale & Norcross, 4,820 tons, yielding $90,015.59, and the Alta, 946 tons, yielding $23,330.

The Consolidated California and Virginia has steadily paid $108,000 monthly in dividends. The Confidence and Hale & Norcross also paid dividends during 1888 at the rate of from $49,000 to $50,000 a month. And during the year the pay rolls of the several companies have aggregated from $250,000 to over $300,000 a month.

During 1888, new bodies of ore were found in the Consolidated California and Virginia, Hale & Norcross, Confidence, Yellow Jacket, Crown Point, Gould & Curry, Savage, Chollar, Potosi, Best & Belcher, and some others. Crown Point and Belcher have made connection with the Sutro drain tunnel, and are again working below that level. Eventually the leading companies will get back into the deep workings now deserted.

Vicissitudes of Fortune in Mining.

The vicissitudes of fortune are probably more striking in mining for silver than in any other kind of mining. In all silver-producing countries we are told of mines being again and again abandoned because it was thought their rich “bonanzas” had been exhausted, but they have again and again been reopened and new and rich bodies of ore discovered. The Valenciana Mine, on the Veta Macbee (mother vein), of Guanaguato, Mexico, was reopened in 1760, on a part of the vein where work had been done in the sixteenth century, and which had afterwards lain as worthless for 200 years, and in 1768 a bonanza was struck at a depth of only 240 feet, from which $1,500,000 was extracted annually. And from 1788 to 1810 the annual average was still $1,383,195. At a depth of 1,200 feet the ore was considered too poor for extracting, and the mine was allowed to fill with water. Afterwards it was again opened and again paid immensely by working the almost inexhaustible quantities of low-grade ore.

The Veta Grande, at Zacatecas, which from 1548 to 1832 yielded $660,000,000, occurs in propalite, as does the Comstock, and has a similar structure, the vein branching out toward the surface, and dipping at an angle of forty-five degrees. It is, however, much smaller than the Comstock. It averages only about thirty-three feet, and eighty feet is its greatest width. In the upper part the ore was found concentrated in chimneys, but at depth it was found to be distributed through nearly the whole width of the vein. At first this low grade material could not be made to pay, but since it has been profitably worked and the bullion product has reached a high figure. Scores of such examples may be found in all silver-producing countries, as chronicled by Humboldt, Ward, Von Cotta, and others.

Even when no more large deposits of rich ore are to be found on the Comstock, there are immense and almost inexhaustible areas of low-grade ore upon which to fall back. In working these small bonanzas are sure to be encountered—scattered plums in the pudding—which will assist in sending up the average. New processes for working and concentrating ores are constantly being discovered, new methods in mining are being introduced, and new labor-saving machinery is almost daily being invented. Water-power, steam, compressed air, and electricity are fast taking the place of muscle. Each year machinery guided by mind is lessening the work to be done by mere power of muscle. Already the cost of milling has been greatly reduced, as has the cost of transporting ores and the cost of wood, lumber, and mining timbers. Present expenses will shortly be still further reduced.

TOWNS OF WESTERN NEVADA.

Virginia City.

Virginia City having been sufficiently well described in connection with the Comstock Lode, it now remains to briefly mention the other towns of Western Nevada. These all lie near the Sierras within a space of territory forty-four miles long and twenty-five miles wide—under the “eaves” of the mountains.

Gold Hill.

The town of Gold Hill was originally about one mile south of Virginia City—a mile south of where silver was first struck in the Ophir Mine. Buildings now unite the two towns. The boundary line between the two places is on the ridge called the “Divide,” but at that point there is no break in the rows of buildings on the streets. Gold Hill is built along the deep and narrow gorge that forms the head of Gold Canyon. From the north line on the Divide it straggles down the hill and along down the canyon for a distance of about two miles—almost down to Silver City indeed, the main business street following what was formerly the channel of the ravine.

There were houses and settlers in Gold Hill before there were either in Virginia City, therefore it is the older town. Here it was that the Comstock Lode was first struck—though not the silver ore—by “Old Virginia” (John Bishop) and others, who were prospecting for placer mines. The town is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and, being shut in on the east and west sides by hills, it is always two or three degrees warmer than Virginia, 1,000 feet above on the mountain-side.

The first miners at Gold Hill were really at work in a “chimney” of the Comstock, a little hill sometimes called “Gold Hill proper,” to distinguish the hill from the town. Much gold was taken out of the top of this chimney, and at depth it yielded many millions in silver. Although scores of millions have been taken out of the vein beneath the foundations of the town, it is still yielding its millions, and still new ore bodies are being developed in the great vein.

Under the town are situated the world-famous Crown Point, Belcher, Yellow Jacket, Imperial, Kentuck, Confidence, and other mines, while farther down the canyon (under Lower Gold Hill) are the Overman, Alta, Benton, Justice, and several other well-known mines. The mining works in the town are in every respect first-class and are lighted with electric lamps. In the town are many fine buildings, both public and private. There is a handsome Catholic Church, and the High School building is one of the best buildings of the kind in the State. The Miners’ Union have a commodious hall on Main Street, and the other societies and orders have fine halls. Conspicuous among the private residences of the town is that of U. S. Senator J. P. Jones—the “Jones mansion,” as it is familiarly called. The town has an abundant supply of water (from the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company’s works), and is well supplied with fire hydrants; it also has electrical lights. In 1878 the population was about 8,000, but it is now less than half that number. About the town are many handsome private grounds. Shade and ornamental trees begin to abound, and to the north, towering hundreds of feet above the town, are picturesque castellated piles of bare granite rocks. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad passes through the town.

Silver City.

Silver City is situated on Gold Canyon, a short distance below Lower Gold Hill. The two towns are separated by a rugged ridge of porphyritic rock, through which is a pass only three or four rods wide, known as the Devil’s Gate. About and below Silver City much gravel mining was done by the Johntowners in the early days. It was at Silver City that the first silver mill (Paul’s Pioneer) was built. It had a newspaper—the _Washoe Times_—before a newspaper was published in Virginia, the _Territorial Enterprise_ being then (1860) published in Carson City. At one time it had many big silver mills and promised to be the big town of the State; but the tide turned and all crowded in about the big mines at Virginia City. The town contains at present a population of only about 600. There is a fine public-school building, church, Miners’ Union Hall, and many handsome and comfortable dwellings, with an adequate supply of saloons, stores, and shops.

About the town are an immense number of small veins of gold-bearing quartz that pay from the surface down. Nearly every head of a family in the town has his own mine, and when he wants money he shoulders his pick, goes out to his mine, and digs it, as a farmer in the East digs a “mess” of potatoes. Of late some large veins have been opened up in and about the town—as the Oest, Hawood, and others—and Silver City bids fair soon to become a busy mining center. The people have lived off their home mines for thirty years, and constitute the most thoroughly independent mining community to be found in Nevada.

Dayton.

Dayton, the county seat of Lyon County, lies five miles below Silver City, on the Carson River, at the mouth of Gold Canyon. The beginning of this town was a log building, erected as a dwelling and trading-post by John McMarlin, in the fall of 1849. Being on the overland wagon road passing over the Sierras by the Placerville route, there was a good deal of trade with incoming immigrants, as well as with the miners, who soon began to earn from $8.00 to $12 a day in the gravel bank and bars of Gold Canyon. In 1856, about fifty Chinamen came over the mountains and began mining on the lower part of the canyon, working over the banks and bars left by the white miners. In 1858, nearly 200 Chinamen were at work in the canyon from its mouth up toward Johntown. These had their shanties about McMarlin’s store, and the place took the name of “Chinatown,” by which name it was known at the time of the discovery of silver.

In 1861 an attempt was made (many whites having then settled there) to give the place the name of “Nevada City.” This did not take, as there was already a Nevada City in California, and for a time the town was called “Mineral Rapids,” but this finally gave way to the present name of Dayton. The place grew apace, it being then expected that nearly all the ore of the Comstock would be worked at and near the town in mills driven by water-power. This hope was not realized, though several fine mills were built near the town. It had in 1878 a population of about 1,200, and has since held its own very well. Though not a very large town, it has always been a very pleasant and flourishing one.

The Carson and Colorado Railroad passes through the town, and from this a branch built in 1888 extends down the river to the Rock Point Mill. Here (at Dayton) is to be the scene of the operations of the Carson River Dredging Company, an Eastern incorporation headed by Dr. J. H. Rae. The object is to pump up from the bottom of the Carson River the millions in gold and silver, amalgam, and quicksilver, washed into the river and lost with the tailings running from the many mills. No doubt the “millions” found their way into the river, but whether they can be brought out of its bottom by means of a big suction pump remains to be seen. It is the universal wish that the dredger may prove a success. All will be in readiness to try it this season on a large scale.

Dayton contains good public buildings of all kinds required, both county and town, has several mills, and many handsome private residences, surrounded with gardens and fruit and shade trees. In summer the place is completely embowered.

The acid works of J. M. Douglass & Co. manufacture daily two tons of sulphuric acid. The sulphur used is a native product of Nevada, and is brought from the mine in Humboldt County at a cost of $40 a ton. Dayton is surrounded with a fine agricultural and grazing region. A narrow-gauge railroad five miles long runs down the river from the Douglass Mill to a large tailings reservoir.

Sutro.

Sutro is a town laid off at the mouth of the Sutro Tunnel by Adolph Sutro. Mr. Sutro claimed that his town would kill Virginia City, as all the reduction works would be located there, and all the miners would reside there, passing to and from their work through the tunnel. As there would no longer be any need of anyone remaining in Virginia, the place would be given up to bats and owls—coyotes would sit upon the peak of Mount Davidson and “bay the moon.” Believing Mr. Sutro to have got hold of the mantle of some ancient financial prophet, many persons were induced to flee the “wrath to come” (bats, owls and coyotes), and settle down at the mouth of the tunnel. There was quite a brisk little town there for a few years, but when the tunnel was completed and the miners discharged Sutro’s “bats and owls” came home to roost—they found no rest for the soles of their feet at Virginia. Once the men who had been engaged in driving the tunnel went away, there was nothing more to make or keep up a town than at any other point along the edge of the valley; for the big reduction works promised by Mr. Sutro were never built.

Carson City.

Carson City is the county seat of Ormsby County and the capital of Nevada. It is situated in Eagle Valley, immediately east of the high-timbered hills forming the eastern base of the main range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Unlike the majority of Nevada towns, it has a dry, level plain for its site. The city was laid out in 1858 by Major Ormsby and others. The streets conform to the cardinal points of the compass. There being no lack of level land, the streets were made sixty-six and eighty feet wide. Previous to 1858 there was no town where Carson now stands, and only one house, which was at Eagle Ranch, which ranch gave its name to the valley in which it was situated. Afterwards this ranch became better known as King’s Ranch.

Carson City grew rapidly from the start, for it was not only pleasantly situated, but also occupied an advantageous position as a center of trade. For several years in its infancy it derived a good deal of benefit from its trade with the great immigrant trains that yearly rattled in across the “plains;” besides, it was a halting-place for people rushing to the silver mines from the California side of the mountains. In nearly all directions it is surrounded by excellent agricultural and grazing lands. With the regular and scientific opening of the mines Carson became the headquarters of an enormous trade in wood, lumber, and mining timbers, a business it still retains. The city has at present a population of about 4,100.

Carson contains many fine and costly buildings, both public and private. The pride of the city is the State Capitol. It is the most striking structure in the place. The building is handsome architecturally, being well proportioned in all its parts. It also has a very substantial appearance, as it is constructed of stone throughout. This stone is a beautiful, fine-grained sandstone obtained from a quarry at the State prison, about a mile and a half east of the town. The building was erected in 1870. The Capitol occupies the center of a square several acres in extent. This square is surrounded with a handsome and substantial iron fence. The grounds are handsomely laid out and well kept. They are well swarded and contain a great variety of shade and ornamental trees, shrubbery, and flowering plants. The whole is a credit to the State.

The U. S. Branch Mint building is a large, substantial, and imposing structure. It is also of stone, from the State Prison quarry. The building was completed in July, 1869. It has done and is still doing a great deal of work.

The State Orphans’ Home is a large and well-arranged building with a small farm in connection therewith. In this institution a great number of orphan children from all sections of the State are cared for. The home is governed in a paternal way, and the children are well clothed, well fed, and well educated both morally and intellectually.

The town contains several churches of leading denominations, excellent school-houses, and a number of halls of various societies, orders, and lodges. There are half a dozen fine hotels, many large fire-proof stores and business houses, with the usual proportion of neat and attractive retail shops of all kinds, saloons, and the like.

The buildings of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Company are a noticeable feature of the town. The depot buildings are commodious and conveniently arranged, and are always kept neatly painted and in good repair. In the town they have an immense car shop. The building is in large part constructed of iron. In it are a foundry, machine shop, roundhouse, and car manufactory.

Carson has a large box factory and other manufacturing establishments of several kinds. The place has both electrical lights and gas. It is well supplied with pure mountain water, which is led through all the streets under a heavy pressure. The town site has sufficient slope to the eastward to afford good drainage. The city supports two daily newspapers, the _Appeal_ and _Tribune_, and has a good theater.

A fine large brick building has this year (1889) been erected in the town by the United States Government. It will contain several public offices. It fills a gap in the center of the town that long stood as a staring vacancy—supplies a “long-felt want.”

There are pleasant drives in all directions from Carson, with smooth and level roads. A mile west of town are Shaw’s Hot Springs, with every convenience for either bathing or swimming. The swimming bath is 60 by 24 feet, 4½ feet deep at one end and 5½ at the other.

All visitors to the town of a scientific turn of mind will wish to visit the State prison and grounds, situated a mile and a half east of the place. A portion of the building now occupied as a State prison was built for a hotel by Col. Abe Curry (of whom the State purchased the property), and was of stone, two stories high, 32 feet wide, and 100 feet long. Colonel Curry also excavated and walled up the magnificent swimming bath now connected with the prison and fed by warm springs.

In the floor of the quarry, beneath from fifteen to twenty feet of strata of sandstone, is a stratum of fine-grained stone that is filled with the tracks of all manner of animals and birds, and even one set of tracks supposed to have been made by some prehistoric giant of the human species. There are tracks of elephants, horses, deer, lions, tigers, panthers, giant cranes, and all manner of creatures. The tracks supposed to be human present the appearance of having been made by a large man wearing moccasins of the undressed hide of some animal. All the tracks tend toward a common point, which must have been a spring or small lake.

Omnibuses run to the Hot Springs and the State prison, and stages leave for Lake Tahoe and Genoa on the arrival of trains.

There are several lumber flumes near Carson that are worthy of inspection.

Empire City.

This town is situated on the banks of the Carson River, three and a half miles east of Carson, and on the line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Empire is pre-eminently a milling town. Here are located the Mexican, Morgan, Brunswick, and Merrimac Mills, all first-class silver reduction works. The town is in Ormsby County, and contains about 700 inhabitants. Each year thousands of cords of wood floated down the Carson River from Alpine County, California, are taken out here. Formerly no fewer than 150,000 cords of wood came down to this town in the drives of a single season. On account of these wood drives Empire was jockularly termed the “seaport” of Nevada. The wood “drives” and the landing of them for a time each year gave employment to a great number of men and teams.

The town contains a number of handsome residences and a few good public buildings.

Genoa.

Genoa is the oldest town in Nevada, and is the place where the first white settlement was made. These settlers were Mormons, and they established a station there as early as 1848. For this reason the place was long known as “Mormon Station.” For several years most of the settlers in the valley and about the town were Mormons. Genoa is the county seat of Douglas County, and is situated in Carson Valley, at a point about 13 miles south of Carson City. Although in a beautiful valley it lies close in against the Sierras, at an altitude of 4,335 feet above the level of the sea. To the westward the main timbered Sierra Nevada Mountain Range rises to a great height, while above its ridge tower many bald, granite peaks. Among these (to the southward) Job’s Peak rises to the height of 10,639 feet.

The town contains a fine court-house, and other handsome public buildings, as school-houses, churches, and halls. There are in the place several good, substantial stores, and business houses and shops. There are many neat dwellings and cottages surrounded with fine gardens and grounds. In the town is published the Genoa _Courier_, a sprightly weekly paper devoted to the interests of the people of the town and county. In this town was first published (in 1859) the _Territorial Enterprise_, the pioneer newspaper of Nevada. The paper was moved to Carson in 1860, and thence in a short time to Virginia City, where it was soon made a daily, and where it has ever since been published as such.

Fine ranches lie up and down the valley. A mile and a half south of the town are Walley’s famous hot springs, of which more particular mention will be found in another place. Lake Tahoe forms part of the western boundary of Douglas, and both Glenbrook and Cave Rock are in the county. The Carson River passes near Genoa and through the heart of the county. Genoa contains about 1,000 inhabitants.

Reno.

Reno, on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, and pleasantly situated on the banks of the beautiful Truckee River, is the county seat of Washoe County. Reno began to be a town in 1868, and under the influence of the Central Pacific Railroad, it grew very rapidly. The town at once became the shipping-point of all goods, machinery, and supplies destined for the Comstock Mines, and for all parts of Storey, Lyon, Ormsby, and Douglas Counties; also for Susanville, Honey Lake Valley, and a great scope of country to the northward. In the days before the completion of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, Reno was filled with teams and stage coaches. The place was a sort of teamsters’ paradise. This was good for the town, but it could not be expected to last forever. The present ambition of the place is to become a railroad and manufacturing center. It has the Virginia and Truckee Road leading southward, while to the northward the Nevada and California is fast advancing to completion.

Reno is the center of one of the finest agricultural and grazing sections in the State, and is a point for the shipment to California of immense numbers of beef cattle. Although there are in the town large and fine reduction works for smelting refractory ores, and two flouring mills, it may be said that hardly a commencement has been made toward the utilization of the immense water-power afforded by the Truckee River at and near the town.

Here is located the Nevada Insane Asylum, the building and grounds of which do credit to the town and State. The State University is also now located at Reno (having been removed from Elko), and is in a more flourishing condition than ever before. The buildings, and grounds, and teachers are all that could be desired. This institution has recently been made an Agricultural Experiment Station. Here is located Bishop Whitakers’ excellent school for young ladies, and also a similar school, first-class, in charge of the Sisters of Charity. There are, besides, five public schools. The town is well supplied with churches and public buildings of all kinds adequate to present requirements.

The town contains many first-class fire-proof business houses, five depots and railroad buildings, many attractive retail stores and shops, excellent and commodious hotels, “palatial” saloons, and handsome and comfortable private residences. It is lighted with electrical lamps, has good water works, and almost everything else that its public-spirited citizens have thought it necessary to provide. It has two excellent daily newspapers, the _Gazette_ and _Journal_, and a first-class theater. This spring (1889) there has been in the place a boom in town property, and much building is in progress. Not only is the town on the highway of the nations of the world leading East and West, but is on the highway of the Pacific Coast leading North and South, along the great range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from Oregon to Arizona. The present population is estimated at 5,000 souls.