Page images
PDF
EPUB

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,

Washington, D. C., February 28, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the Director of the Mint upon the statistics of the production of the precious metals in the United States for the calendar year 1884.

Very respectfully,

H. McCULLOCH,

Secretary.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Hon. J. G. CARLISLE,

3

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

BUREAU OF THE MINT,

Washington, D. C. February 28, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the statistics collected, and my report and conclusions thereon, in respect to the production of the precious metals in the United States during the calendar year 1884.

While it might have sufficed to have published merely the results of these investigations embodied in the estimates of the total product of gold and silver during the year, it seemed desirable to trace the bullion known to have been converted into coin or manufactured into bars and exported or used in the arts back to the district or mining region from which it was derived.

This work necessitated the accumulation of statistics as full as possible of the treatment, movement, and final disposition of the bullion from its extraction from the earth in the form of ore or native metal to its delivery to the Government for coinage, or to private parties for export or other use. Supplementing this with direct information as to the actual yield of the most important mines, and with careful and generally reliable reports from correspondents and mint officers in regard to the condition and progress during the year of mining for the precious metals in the principal localities, States, and Territories producing gold and silver, it is believed that sufficient data has been obtained to justify an estimation of the yield of the various counties as well as of the States and Territories.

It would be a gratification to me to publish all the detailed information obtained in regard to the actual product of individual mines, so that the accuracy of my conclusions could be tested by the data upon which they are based. But most of these facts were confidentially disclosed, and not to be made public except with express permission.

I am again under obligations to the officers and gentlemen in the mint service designated to assist in this statistical work, and to mine owners, to bankers and dealers in bullion, agents, managers, and other officers of mining, express, and railroad companies, as well as to those engaged in smelting and refining bullion, for their ready co-operation and valuable statistics, without which I should have been unable to bave determined with any degree of confidence the approximate yield of the different counties and mining camps of the several States and Territories. I have as far as practicable, in the appropriate place, when their statements or communications are used or embodied in the report, given proper credit.

The collection of statistics in regard to the gold and silver mines of the South Atlantic States was given in charge to Prof. George B. Hanna, assistant United States assayer, at Charlotte, N. C.; and the statistics of the production of Colorado, Montana, and Idaho, to the officers in

5

charge of the United States assay offices located in each. The superintendent of the mint at San Francisco was directed to procure information and report upon the production of the States and Territories of the Pacific coast, except as to Alaska and Nevada, the latter being placed in charge of the superintendent of the mint at Carson. These officers, with the co-operation of their clerks and assistants, have very satis factorily performed the work assigned them, and have furnished valuable information and detailed reviews of mines and localities, which have formed, with other data, the basis of the final revised estimates of local production. Special contributions and descriptions of mining regions, for which due credit is given, have been received from mining experts and correspondents and incorporated with other material in the body of the report, or presented in separate articles.

In the preparation of this report it has been found necessary to revise, condense, and modify the material received, and often to omit portions of the communications and detailed reviews, in order to reduce the size of the report; but statistical matter and estimates of actual production have been, as far as possible, retained, even when others considered more accurate have been adopted or prepared from fuller data in my office.

Very respectfully,

HORATIO C. BUCRHARD,

Director.

Secretary of the Treasury.

Hon. HUGH MCCULLOCH,

« PreviousContinue »