In the following table it appears that the total gold product of the world, for the year 1867, was approximately $130,680,000. The last column shows the ratio of the production of each country to the total production. Thus, the United States produced nearly 43 per cent., Aus tralia 23.78 per cent. and Russia 11 per cent. of the whole. Approximate statement of the value of the production of gold in the principal gold-producing countries, (1867.) Peru, (estimated 2,400 lbs. troy,) about CENTRAL AMERICA.-Venezuela, New Grenada, Central America, Cuba and San Domingo, (estimated)... Bolivia, (estimated 1,600 lbs. troy,) about 500,000 300,000 500,000 3,000,000 TRALIA. Victoria, (1,392,336 ozs. in 1867) 5,300,000 4.05 Austria, (1865). South Australia, (estimate based on returns for 1860) NEW ZEALAND.-(1864, $9,000,000. Estimated for 1867).. EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA. Russia, (estimate based on average of 4 years, 1859 to 1864) New South Wales, (estimate based on reported production 26, 510,000 4,500,000 140,000 400,000 Spain, (estimated) 1,175,000 ........ Italy, (1866) 8,000 France, (in 1846 about $9,000) 95,000 Great Britain, (about).. 80,000 Africa, (estimated)... 12,0 0 900, COO Borneo and East Indies, (estimated) China, Japan, Central Asia, Roumania, and other unenumerated sources, (estimated). Total 130,680,000 100.00 In part from jewellers' sweepings and refuse materials. SILVER. CHAPTER IV. SILVER REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. STATE OF NEVADA-EXTENT OF THE SILVER REGION AND TOTAL BULLION PRODUCT— PRINCIPAL DISTRICTS-COMSTOCK LODE-LIST OF CLAIMS-MACHINERY-Cost of MATERIALS-EXPENSES AND PRODUCTS OF THE GOULD AND CURRY MINE-AVERAGE YIELD OF ORES---PRODUCTION OF BULLION-REESE RIVER REGION-PRODUCTION OF MINES-EASTERN NEVADA AND DISTRICTS-CORTEZ DISTRICT-NYE COUNTYESMERALDA COUNTY-TABULAR STATEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF THE ASSAYS OF ORES SENT TO THE PARIS EXHIBITION-CALIFORNIA SILVER DISTRICTS-IDAHO— COLORADO-ARizona and NeW MEXICO-ATLANTIC PORTION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND LAKE SUPERIOR. STATE OF NEVADA. The State of Nevada has an area of nearly 100,000 square miles, extending from longitude 37° to 43° west from Washington, and between the parallels of 37° and 43° north. The presence of veins of silver throughout this vast territory was comparatively unknown eight years ago, when, in 1859, the Comstock vein was discovered. The region was then regarded as an irredeemable wilderness, a land of deserts and death, over which the early pioneers had passed as rapidly as possible in the tide of emigration to the gold regions of California. The scene has changed. Nevada, from a comparatively unknown portion of Utah, became first a Territory and then a State in the Union. It has now a large population, and its principal centres are Virginia City, Austin, Carson, Aurora, and Dayton. The valleys and deserts resound with the shrill whistle of engines and the falling of stamps. The little valleys are brought into cultivation; graded roads are made over apparently impassable mountains; mails arrive and depart daily, and the telegraph connects the business centres with those on the Pacific and the Atlantic. All this has resulted chiefly from the discovery of the celebrated Comstock lode, which has already added nearly $80,000,000 in value to the bullion of the world. From the Comstock the explorations extended in all directions, and resulted in the discovery of gold and silver-bearing veins in most of the principal mountain ranges that traverse the Great Basin in a general north and south direction. First, the metal was traced southward to Esmeralda, Mono, Coso, Walker's river, Owens river, and Slate range, near the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. Eastward, the Humboldt mines, Reese river, Goose creek, Egan cañon, and Utah mines, were reached in succession, and the discoveries have been extended eastward to the ranges of the Rocky mountains, where the prospectors met those of Colorado. Northward, in connection with the gold prospectors of Oregon, the precious metals were traced into Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, and southward, veins have been discovered along the ranges reaching into Arizona, extending the silver region to Sonora, thus connecting the whole with the great metalliferous belt of the Mexican plateau; and with the discoveries at the extreme north, proving a continuous zone of mineral wealth through North America, from Panama to the Arctic sea. The excitement incident to the discovery and developments upon the Comstock was intense, and claims were located by thousands in all direc tions. As veins were discovered at a distance new districts were organized by the miners, each with their separate records, laws, and regula tions, according to which locations were made and the claims worked. Veins bearing the precious metals have since been traced in nearly every part of the State, and it is difficult to enumerate even the districts that have been organized, and in which claims of greater or less value have been located. Nevada has become the great silver region of the world. and gives promise of an enormous production of the metal for a long time in the future. TOTAL BULLION PRODUCT OF NEVADA. It is difficult to obtain exact statistics of the total bullion product of the State, as the shipments from Austin, Aurora, and other points, are not reported at the end of each year as at the express offices at Virginia and Gold Hill. The Reese river region has generally been considered as producing about $1,000,000 per annum, and ore and bullion are now beginning to be received from the southern districts. The following figures are believed to present a close approximation to the annual and total yield of the State up to January 1, 1868. The greater part of this amount was obtained from the Comstock lode: The ores from many of the principal districts were exhibited in the Exposition in the collections sent from California. The principal claims upon the Comstock were so represented, and in no other way. The eastern portion of the State, including the mines about Austin and some districts south of it, were represented by a magnificent collection of their richest ores in large masses, under the superintendence of David E. Buel, esq. These ores weighed in the aggregate several tons, and were contributed by various mine owners to an executive committee for the representation. Although they reached Paris at a late date (in July,) their value and importance was such as to gain them a place in the Exposition and a recognition by the Imperial Commission in the form of a silver medal. The following brief notices of the principal mineral districts of the State have been compiled chiefly from the writer's notes and the statistical publications mentioned below,2-7 to which reference may be made for further details. STOREY COUNTY. Virginia district-Comstock lode.-The first quartz claim was located in the Virginia mining district on the 22d of February, 1858, by James Finney, generally known as "Old Virginia," from whom the city of Virginia and the croppings have taken their name. In June, 1859, two men, while washing for gold below these croppings, made an excavation to hold water upon the hill-side, and uncovered rich silver ore upon the ground now belonging to the Ophir Company. A man named Comstock was employed to purchase the claim, and thus his name has been given to the vein. As soon as the true nature of this ore was ascertained, miners flocked into the Territory, and claims were located upon the supposed course of the vein for a distance of about six miles. The subsequent developments have shown this vein to be one of the largest and richest ever discovered, ranking with the celebrated Veta Madre of Guanajuato, and the Veta Grande of Zacatecas, Mexico. It is evidently what is termed a true fissure vein, and may be followed to a depth which will be limited by the costs of mining rather than by the absence of vein. The elevation of this vein above the sea is about 6,000 feet, and it This committee was composed of the following named gentlemen: Messrs. M. J. Goodfellow, B. J. Burns, E. A. Sherman, J. R. Murphy, W. F. Leon, W. H. Clark; and they were charged with the duty of preparing a Descriptive Report to accompany the representation of Eastern Nevada at the Paris Exposition of the world's products." 66 La Nevada Orientale, Géographie Ressources, Climat et Etat Social; Rapport addressé au Comité local pour l'Exposition de Paris, par Myron Angel. Paris: Juillet, 1867. [Distributed at the Exposition by David E. Buel, esq.] 3 Annual Report of the State Mineralogist of the State of Nevada for 1866, addressed to the honorable the Board of Regents of the State, by R. H. Stretch, State Mineralogist. 'Langley's Pacific Coast Business Directory. 8vo; San Francisco, California: 1867. Nevada Territorial Directory. 1863. "Review of the Mining, Agricultural, and Commercial Interests of the Pacific States for the year 1866. Compiled by J. H. Carmany. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Company. 1867; 8vo. 'Annual Report of the Surveyor General of the State of Nevada for the year 1865. comes to the surface on the eastern slope of a porphyritic mountain, which has been named Mount Davidson. Its course or direction is nearly north and south, and its general dip or inclination is towards the east. In width it varies from a mere seam to over 200 feet, and it is often broken up into several parallel branches which include large masses of the "country" rocks. It is remarkable for its large selvages of clay, filled with broken portions of the vein and walls, much worn and rounded by the attrition to which they have been subjected by the movement of the adjoining surfaces. Only the harder, and, in general, the more barren parts of the vein show upon the surface as "croppings." These present an irregular, brecciated appearance, have a brown color, and afforded free gold to the first miners in some places. Some of the richest bunches of ore below are found to the eastward of the heaviest croppings, and, in general, the richest ore is quite soft and granular, being broken up so as to resemble crushed sugar or salt. A mass of quartz of this kind, over 30 feet wide, in the Ophir mine, in 1861, was found to be impregnated with sulphide of silver, stephanite, and native silver and gold. A harder stratum or layer of the vein contained galena, blende, and iron pyrites. Excavations along the line of the vein have extended by shafts to a depth of 700 to 800 feet. Several long tunnels have been run to drain the vein, the principal one being the Latrobe, commenced in 1861, and now about 3,200 feet long, which drains the mines at the north end of the lode to a depth of about 600 feet. A new tunnel, to be 20,278 feet long, and to drain the lode to a depth of 2,000 feet, is projected by Mr. A. Sutro. It is estimated that this work will occupy three or four years for its construction, and cost about $2,000,000. The principal mining upon this vein is at Gold Hill and Virginia City, within a linear distance upon the vein of less than 8,000 feet, but explor ations have been made over a length of about four miles and the exist ence of the vein proved. The following tabular statement gives the names of the different claims upon the line of the vein, in the order of their succession from the north southward, with the length of each in feet, the depth to which they have been worked, and other data:2 After Donald Davidson, esq., of San Francisco, one of the first to ascend it. |