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Show 64 IMMIGRANTS' ~D SETTLERS' GUIDE miles or more, and is believed to extend on indefinitely, and is owned for the distance spoken of by perhaps 100 different companies, whose claims vary from 25 to 2, 000 feet each of the lode, each company being entitled to the whole depth and width of the vein, whatever that may prove to be. Some of these claims sell at high figures, the prices varying with the general prospect of the claim when sold, the extent of development of the mine, and the quantity and quality of the ore then being taken out. The mines at Virginia City and immediate vicinity are the best developed, and for that reason are supposed to be the richest, as Virginia is the oldest, largest, and mo~t prosperous town in the Territory ; but the mines are now being well opened in several claims parallel · with the Comstock here, as in various other sections ; for instance those in the Humboldt districts, 180 miles north-east, in the Reese River districts, 160 miles east, and in the Esmeralda region, 130 miles to the southwest, and many others within .a circuit of from five to fifty miles. YIELD OF THE MINES. It is to be regretted that no statistics of the total yield of silver in this Territory have been thus far kept, but a well-authenticated estimate may be formed from the fact that a single express company transports from Virginia City alone an average of fifteen thousand dollars in bullion daily. Governor N ye, in a letter to the Secretary of State subsequently submitted to Congress, states that twenty millions of dollars of precious metals have been exported from ~h~ Territory since 1859, or an a.verage of over five m1lhons per annum.* This may seetn but a small return to those !lccustomed to bear of the yield of the g:old-fiel~s; but ~t 1nust always be borne in mind that silver mines, unhke those of gold, require patient and * This does not include the yield of the present year. \ . TO THE NEW STATES .AND TERRITORIES. 65 • "1 and heavy capital well expended1 long-contmued toi ' . h. . treasures The gold before they yield up their 8 !ning a~ounted to yield of the rrerritory during 1861-62 $53,846. . THE QUARTZ MILLS t . the mining operations of play a most importan~ £:~t l~hem but little woul~ be . Nevada. In fact, ~t the mineral being all contained realized from the mines, · · to be ground to powder in quartz rock, and J:qdu~nfhe mills before it can be and elaborately wor e In t number of mills in operu.made available. T?e pr~e~ from 300 to 400, all busily tion is variously estimate a engaged. PRINCIP .A.L TOWNS, ETC. t lace in the Territory. Virginia City is the}bre~~~ J£ land, some 2,000_feet It Stands on an elevate . t ~ m the Carson River. . h .1 s distan .LfO tb above and eig t ~ e. . . nearly 6 000 feet above e The elevation of -ylrgH~~oldt City', Unionv~lle, and a seaboard. ~tar Cl\t' boldt. Jacobsville,. Chfton, and few others In the um. r. 'and Aurora, In the E~m~Austin, in.the Ree~e RIVe flourishing toW?~• ~I_ld lt .ls lda districts-are already . · their vicinitieS will ra . d the m1nes 1n . · ht confidently beheve on the Carson l{,Iver, _ei~ prove valuable. DaytC~t the capital of the Ter~'ltory, miles distant; Carson It~' est. and Washoe City,. In fifteen miles to the sou .1-w e~t-are rapidly-growmg Washoe Valley, eleven ml es w towns. |