| OCR Text |
Show UTAH ARGENTIFERA. 167 and most of the old arid noted mines of Utah The Emma, Flag-staff, Davenport, South Star, Titus, and a dozen others. The ore carries from $ 100 to $ 200 per ton in silver, and from thirty to sixty per cent, in lead. Thus the base bullion produced from this ore is from ninety- six to ninety- nine per cent, fead, and is shipped eastward for separation. The old question, " Which is the heavier, a pound of wool or a pound of gold?" has its correct application among miners ; for gold and silver are estimated by Troy weight, wool ( and lead) by Avoirdupois. This distinction is preserved even when lead and silver are in the same ton of base bullion. Hence a pound of wool is heavier than a pound of gold or silver, though an ounce of either metal is heavier than an ounce of wool ! North of Little Cottonwood, and also opening westward upon Jordan Valley, is the caiion of Big Cottonwood, with a similar class of mines. Far up the cafion is Big Cottonwood Lake, in the center of a beautiful oval vale, where the Saints usually celebrate Pioneers' Day the 24th of July, on which date, 1847, Brigham Young and party first entered the valley. From any commanding point above either cafion, one can look out westward over Jordan Valley, over the lower sections of the Oquirrh Range, over Rush Valley west of it, and on a clear day, upon the far summits of Deep Creek Range, glittering like silver points in the dim distance. But the grandest view is from the summit of Bald Peak, highest of the Wasatch Range, and nearly 12,000 feet above the sea. Thither I climbed to-wards the close of an autumn day, and overlooked one quarter of Utah. Eighty miles South of me Mount Nebo bounded the view, its lowest pass forming the " divide" between the waters which flow into this basin, and those flowing out with the Sevier into the Great Desert. Below me lay Utah Lake and vicinity a clear mir-ror bordered by gray slopes ; far down the valley, Salt Lake City appeared upon the plain like a green blur, dotted with white; north-ward the Salt Lake rolled its white- caps, sparkling in the sun-shine, while, the Wasatch Range, glistening along its pointed sum-mits with freshly- fallen snow, stretched away northward till it faded in dim perspective beyond Ogden. A hundred and fifty miles from North to South, and nearly the same from East to West, were in-cluded in one view twenty thousand square miles of mountain, gorge, and valley. Eight days sufficed to visit most of the mines of Little Cottonwood. From thirty to fifty tons of " ore were leaving the cafion daily, and at least a thousand new locations had been made, every one of |
