run on the old working. Sixty-five feet of stoping ground have been prepared. Upper level No. 2 is in 48 feet, this being run in twelve shifts. The same parties have a lease on the Valley View. Drift No. 1 is in 110 feet; about 250 feet from this, No. 2 is in 115 feet. The third level, being just commenced, is in only a short distance. No stoping has been done. The pay streak averages from 6 to 8 inches, giving 244 ounces silver and 36 per cent. lead. Character of mineral, galena and sulphurets. Four men have been working and some ore shipped.

Grand View is located on the summit of Silver Mountain, near Ophir, and is now producing from 4 to 5 tons of good ore per day, with a small force of men. Three hundred sacks of ore were shipped to Silverton and four hundred sacks are now ready for the burro trains. The upper drift of the Grand View is in 127 feet and the lower drift 85 feet, a portion of which has been run through slide rock.

The Summit has been worked by 12 men, who have produced some good ore.

About 1,000 feet below the Summit is the Windsor, which is being worked by a shaft down 55 feet, showing a strong vein 4 feet wide, producing galena and carbonized lead, running 200 ounces.

The Gold Eagle is a new discovery. A drift of 125 feet has been run on the vein, showing 2 feet of pay ore, which is being taken out in large quantities and sacked for shipment.

The Globe, on Silver Mountain, has a tunnel of 125 feet, with a pay streak, while the Suffolk, near by, has a 100-foot drift, showing a decomposed vein from 4 to 12 feet wide, with some gangue matter. Ten tons of ore are on the dump of the latter.

The Parnell is a late discovery on Silver Mountain, and has been opened only 6 feet in depth, from which about 10 tons of ore were taken. The Chancelor, Cordillerous, and Saint Jo have had some work done on them.

The Mohawk has a drift of 170 feet; shaft down 100 feet; drift from bottom of shaft 35 feet. Some ore has been shipped, which runs 153 ounces silver and 40 per cent. lead.

The Great Eastern, located at the head of Nevada Gulch, has a drift of 270 feet, and two shafts, one of 30 and the other of 50 feet. The vein is 5 feet wide, with a pay streak 10 inches.

On the Caribou the cross-cut taps the vein 175 feet in, with a tunnel level of 250 feet. At the west end of the tunnel a shaft of 170 feet has been sunk. Down this shaft, level No. 2 has been run 180 feet. The third level runs 310 feet.

The deepest workings are at 360 feet, where the richest mineral is found. The pay streak widens and narrows, but averages 12 inches of good mineral. The mineral is principally galena, running from $70 to $90 per ton. Eight miners are employed and about 3 tons of sorted ore per day extracted. The first class goes to Silverton and the poorer to Ames.

At the Silver Bell work was resumed in July, 3 men being employed and extracting considerable galena ore, which runs 130 ounces. The last shipment went to Rico's new smelter.

On the Cleveland lode, on Silver Mountain, 40 sacks of ore were taken out and a drift is being run.

On the Butler considerable development has been done and shipments have been heavy. A force has been continually at work and succeeded in running a 350-foot tunnel on the cross-cut. In the old working west of this cross-cut the ore extracted during the year has paid all expenses of working, besides leaving some profit. The aggregate amount of developments in shafts, drifts, and winzes is nearly 600 feet.

SUMMIT COUNTY.

While the output of mineral from some portions of this county was insignificant and the total production smaller than usual, the strikes made in the latter half of the year have stimulated mining industries, and prospecting and exploring have been extensively carried on. In the Ten-Mile district, especially around Robinson, explorations have disclosed large ore-bodies.

Gibson Hill, near Breckenridge, is booming because of the discovery of gold lodes. Chihuahua is coming to the front with new producing mines.

The South Park Railroad is offering very low rates to shippers; old mills are being repaired and new ones built; in fact, the whole county seems to have new life enthused into it, and the managers and owners are working hard through this winter to enable them, when the snow is gone and the roads open, to take their ore to market.

A strike is reported to have been made by E. C. Moody at the head of Georgia and American Gulches, near Breckenridge, Summit County. The Boston Mining Company, at Saint John's, have been producing a small amount of ore.

The Blanch mine is being successfully worked, connection having been made with the shaft at a depth of 140 feet by drifting on the vein a distance of 300 feet. The vein is galena, carrying 40 per cent. lead and 35 ounces silver, and showing ore all the way.

Chihuahua district.-Mining is said to be improving. A number of mines carrying high-grade ore are being worked, among them the Pickwick, which is said to have produced $3,000 in sinking the shaft to the depth of 50 feet. The Eliza Jane has also produced some ore. The Maid of Orleans, Rothschild, Winning Card, Chihuahua, Queen, and Edith are said to be promising properties.

The Silver Queen mine, near the summit of Argentine Pass, is working a force of 10 miners, and sinking and stoping are being vigorously prosecuted. A ton of ore a day is being produced, which mill-runs $400 silver. The pay streak averages from 3 to 10 inches of solid mineral, the character of which is gray copper and sulphurets.

The Rochester Queen mine employs a few men. The I. X. L. is thought to be a fine property and has a concentrating mill of 40 tons capacity, worked by a wheel. Owing to litigation it has not been producing.

About 2 miles below Swan City the Ouray Placer Company are making preparations for mining gold placers. They have a saw-mill in operation cutting lumber for flumes, &c., and have built a ditch 14 miles in length.

The Boss mine employs a few men on a vein yielding gold. On the apex of the mountan, at an altitude of some 11,000 feet, is the Ontario, and just below, on French Gulch, the Elephant, employing a dozen men. In Ten-Mile district, at Felicia Grace mine, ore was discovered at a depth of 85 feet in an ore-chute similar to the old Robinson, an adjoining property, which has induced a large amount of prospecting to be done.

On neighboring claims about 100 men are employed. Three of these properties are shipping ore. The ore is sulphide and is from 12 to 18 feet thick, and mills from 40 to 90 ounces in car-load lots. The Felicia Grace has shipped over 700 tons of ore, and is still shipping at the rate of 10 tons per day; the Result about 400 tons, and averages 8 tons per day; the Last Chance 100 tons, and is shipping 3 tons per day; the shipments from Felicia Grace are to the Argo works, at Denver. These

shipments averaged 55 ounces of silver, leaving a handsome margin after the payment of $20 freight and reduction charges and 10 per cent. off the silver. The lessees are now sinking another shaft near the end line of the claim upon the dip of the chute.

Estimate of Herman Silver, assayer in charge of the mint at Denver, of the bullion production of Colorado for the twelve months ending December 31, 1884.

CHAPTER V.

DAKOTA.

The Black Hills of Dakota have added to the wealth of the country during the past year their customary annual yield of the precious metals. No material change has taken place in the character of the mining operations or the amount produced. Nearly all of the bullion obtained from Dakota mines goes directly to the United States assay office at New York, so that it is not difficult to trace and ascertain the product of the Territory.

During the year the deposits of Dakota gold at the New York assay office amounted to $3,010,730, and at the Philadelphia mint to a little over $2,000. These sums represent, within a very small amount, the product of the Territory. The reports of private refiners show that they received from Dakota for treatment between $200,000 and $300,000 worth of gold, and about $100,000 of its silver product. Adding for other gold and silver from the Territory a small amount deposited at the New York assay office and Philadelphia mint as refined bullion and not credited to Dakota, I have estimated the production of the Territory for the year 1884 to have been

Gold..
Silver..

Total.

$3,300,000

150,000

3,450,000

being $100,000 more in gold than in the preceding year, occasioned, principally by the increased production of the Homestake group.

The mines of Dakota, situated in the extreme western portion of the Territory, lie between the north and south forks of the Cheyenne River, comprising Lawrence, Pennington, and Custer Counties, the former containing the largest and most productive mines and supplying all but a small fraction of the product of the Territory. Both placer and quartz mining are prosecuted, the former, however, being quite insig. nificant as compared with the latter. The placer mines that have been worked are located principally in Deadwood, Whitewood, Gold Run, and Bobtail gulches.

The Black Hills Gold Placer Company, organized in 1881, has a flume 16 miles long, which carries the water of Spring Creek for hydraulic purposes. In the same year the Rockerville Rock Flume Company was organized for working the claims on Rocker Gulch.

Last year the Harney Gold Mining Company was organized, which secured all the old claims on Battle Creek. They built a flume 6 miles long, for the purpose of bringing the water of Grizzly Gulch and Battle Creek to their bars. In one place a ditch 40 miles long has been construced for placer working.

Quartz mining is the principal industry. The lodes are of immense. size, containing very low grade ore, averaging only about $4 per ton, but which is so economically treated that ore has been worked at a

profit which runs only $2 to the ton; the expense at present of mining and milling not amounting to $1.

The mills are the largest and best equipped in the world, all of them having from 40 to 200 stamps. The first stamp mill began operations in the Territory in 1877, and in the brief period of seven years, notwithstanding the fact that this country has been inaccessible by railroad, being reached only by stages and expensive teaming, the mills in operation at the present time contain 800 stamps, in addition to which over 400 stamps are idle.

The mills in operation at the present time are the Homestake, 200 stamps; Highland, 100 stamps; Golden Star, 120 stamps; Deadwood, 100 stamps; Terror, 80 stamps; Father de Smet, 100 stamps; Gustin, 20 stamps; Minerva, 25 stamps; Uncle Sam, 15 stamps; Standard, 20 stamps; Oro Fino, 20 stamps; total, 800 stamps.

The silver mines, yet in the infancy of their development, are nearly all located in Lawrence County, in the neighborhood of Bear Creek and Galena. The ore is generally of high grade, but as it has to be shipped by wagon a distance of 250 miles, and then by railroad to Omaha for treatment, it has not been found a very profitable industry. The discovery of tin mines in the Black Hills has occasioned considerable interest, and the fact has been established beyond all question that valuable tin deposits exist in this region. The first discovery was made near Harney's Peak, about 50 miles south of Deadwood, in what is known as southern portion of the Hills. A quantity of the ore was smelted, and it is reported that 5,000 pounds of metallic tin were obtained, samples of which have been examined by competent chemists and also at the assay laboratory connected with my office. The ore is found in hard white spar and in true fissure veins, lying between walls of mica or slate formation.

The Etta is the principal tin mine upon which work has been done. The discovery of mines of mica promises to prove of immense value, not only to the Territory but to the whole country, as the demand for merchantable mica has largely increased and the price correspondingly advanced. The principal supply at present comes from the mines of North Carolina, which have produced about 75,000 pounds per year. It is thought that the product of the mica in this country, by reason of the new discoveries in the Black Hills, will be able to meet the growing demand.

The principal mica mine in the Territory is the McMacken, located about 3 miles north of Custer. The New York mine, located in the same neigborhood, has produced about 5,000 pounds of mica of marketable quality.

Other properties are known to exist, and the following statement, taken from the Black Hills World, shows the amount sold by each and price realized: