| OCR Text |
Show APPENDIX NN. 1247 machinery to the lifting of heavy weights from below the surface and the conditions of practice in the reduction of ores. If time and means permit, nothing will be left undone in the full and fair Investigation of the present condition of mining industry in this section, as evidenced by work already prosecuted. The Sutro Tunnel, well known as the most extended work of its kind in American mining, will be examined in detail, and the rock- specimens gathered during its progress are likely to throw much light on the character of the several volcanic beds or " country rock" that make up the casings of the ore- bearing matter. The next annual report will give the progress made up to that date, while the finished results will endeavor to show in shape for permanent reference the present condition of this industry, now so well recognized in the western interior. In this duty I have been assisted by Mr. John A. Church, mining engineer, who has taken up the underground work with a commendable energy, and Antoii Karl, general service, U. S. Army, who has been engaged in completing plane- table sheets, begun in the year 1876. THE EAGLE AND WASHOE VALLEY MINING DISTRICT, NEVADA. [ From notes by A. R. Conkling.] This district was discovered and organized in August, 1875, since which time the North Carson has been worked continuously. Its post- office is Carson, Nev. It is distant from railroad communication three miles. The nearest practicable route is a wagon road, direct to the Carson Mine, from the Virginia and Truckee Railway. It is bounded on the north by the divide between Washoe Lake and Carson Plain; on the south by Carson River; on the east by the Como Mountains; on the west by the Eastern Summit Range. Area, about 25,000 linear feet, now taken up in North Carson Mine. Long and narrow in shape, the trend is generally northeast and southwest. Other mining- ledges are found in the vicinity, on the southern slope of the foot hills, with a general trend north and south. The general direction of lodes, deposits, and stratifications is northeast and southwest. The ore is richer, and the vein enlarges in descending. The wall- rock is granite. Its slope is nearly vertical. The clayey wall inclines slightly to the east. In age, the country rock is metamorphic, granite, and hornblendic granite. No fossils are found. Ores are worked by the free process. No water- level has yet been reached. Chloride of silver is the chief ore, with some sulphides. Silver is the principal metal, with a little malachite iucrustatiug the wall- rock. The principal mines now worked are the Montreal, Emerald, Clear Creek, Niagara, ( described in Whitehill's report,) and the North Carson. The North Carson is situated 3 miles due north of Carson City. It has one double- compartment shaft, 305 feet deep. The walls of shaft are well timbered. Timber can be hauled to the mine from flume at the rate of $ 12 per 1,000 feet. At every 100 feet in the shaft there is a station. At the foot of the hill there is a tunnel 610 feet long, not yet ( September, 1876) reached by the shaft. Two hundred feet from the mouth of the shaft a little rock has been broken, t. e.% sufficient to reach the vein. At 100 feet level there is a drift 320 feet long. The mine has good ventilation. No ore has been sent away from this mine as yet. Vein of ore varies from 4 to 5 feet. Seventy- live thousand dollars has been expended in the mineral development of the North Carson Mine. The average cost of milling labor per day is $ 4. Cost per foot for sinking a shaft on amain vein is from $ 00 to $ 70. Average cost per foot for running a drift on a main vein, $ 30. Hay is $ 30 per ton. Oats, 3 cents per pound; an abundant supply of both. Facilities for raising farm- produce are good. |
