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By H. D. Hoskold

This paper is presented in fulfillment of the promise made in my paper, " Remarks upon Surveying-Instruments,"" etc., and much of the material which would constitute an appropriate introductioil here is omitted, because it has been already published by the Institute, in connection with my own contributions- or those of Mr. Scott and others, in vols. xxviii. to xxxi. of the Transactions, and in the special Institute volume on Mine-Surveying Instruments. In these preceding publications will be found, for instance, descriptions of the writer's " miner's transit-theodolite" of 1863,† and his later " angleometer,"‡ both of which were steps of the progress in engineering instruments and methods which originated in the work of Bourns, before 1842, on the " BoxTunnel " of the Great Western railway in England, in which he had to make connections by direct telescopic sights down the shafts. About 1870 the writer devised a practical and much superior plan, and made detailed drawings for an instrument to meet all the conditions he had proposed prior to that year. The detailed plans were communicated to a celebrated optical firm in London; but, owing to their loss (in Paris or Germany, it is believed) and to other reasons, the matter was, for the time, allowed to lapse. Following upon Bourns's idea, my friend, the late Mr. Beansland, introduced, in 1856, a new system and a portable astronomical instrument.§ Such instruments, however, were neither common nor convenient, and did not come into general use among engineers.

Jan 1, 1902

By R. W. Raymond

Jan 1, 1902

By S. B. Christy

Jan 1, 1902

By R. W. Raymond

Richard Pennefather Rothwell, was born May 1, 1836, at Oxford, Upper Canada (now the province of Ontario). His father, Rev. John Rothwell, was a native of County Meath, Ireland, where the family (originally, no doubt, a Scottish one) still holds large estates, under a grant from William and Mary. John Rothwell was graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a clergyman of the Established Church. He married Elizabeth Garnett, of Athearn Castle, Ireland, and subsequently came to Canada. It is said that he was a man of liberal views combined with sterling piety, an enthusiastic sportsman and yachtsman, and a pastor who refused for many years to accept any remuneration from his parishioners. After preliminary education, the subject of this sketch entered Trinity College, Toronto, with the intention of studying law; but a year later he resolved to become a civil engineer, and entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y., where he was graduated, with high standing, as civil engineer, in 1858. He then went to Paris, and entered the Imperial School of Mines, where, by reason of the proficiency he had already acquired in civil engineering, he was able to finish in two years and a half the full three-year course, and to take the degree of Engineer of Mines. In 1861 he took the "practical courses" in mining and ore-dressing at the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony. After traveling in Italy, etc., he went in 1862 to London, where, for the purpose of familiarizing himself with business methods, he entered the offices of W. T. Henley, a manufacturer of wire

Jan 1, 1902

By Charles R. Keyes

During the past decade the genesis of the lead- and zincdeposits of the Mississippi valley has received special attention from many distinguished observers. But their united egorts, instead of settling all disputed questions, have, in many respects, involl-ed the general problem in greater uncertainty than would be thought possible under the circumstances. In place of the harmony of opinion that might be expected, there is unexpected disagreement, largely due to the fact that, instead of giving attention to a possible multiplicity of ore-producing conditions among the different deposits, the attempt has been made to bring all deposits under a single genetic head. To a new observer of the lead- and zinc-deposits of the Mississippi valley, it appears at the outset that all the deposits cannot possibly have had the same genesis. In fact, different modes of origin have been often asserted for the ore-bodies, but the difficulty has been that each writer has referred them either all to one category or all to another, and no intermediate ground has been considered possible. Such a position now appears to be clearly untenable. The opinion that, in the deposits of the region under consideration, the ore-materials represent original depositions, made at the time the rocks themselves were formed, is no longer held by any authority, and therefore need not be considered here. Of late years, a number of writers have attempted to account for the presence of the lead- and zinc-ores on the hypothesis that the metallic materials arose in heated solutions from the

Jan 1, 1902

By S. H. Brockunier

During the examination of a gold-property in Georgia, last summer, I had occasion to study the effect of different chemicals upon the ore; the object being to find a more economical method of extraction than chlorination, as practiced there, had proved to be. Some of my notes and results may be of interest to others. The country-rock consists of mica-schist, hornblende-schist and black slate. The vein-matter is quartzite and schist, containing some stringers of quartz, the whole forming a body from 20 to 50 ft. wide. All of the rocks in the vicinity have become disintegrated to a depth of from 50 to 75 ft., forming the so-called saprolite. I found the workings to represent two distinct classes : I. Open-cut surface-ore: very soft,oxidized and disintegrated; containing much alumina, silica and iron. Average value, $4 per ton. 11. Ore from lower levels : quartzites and schist; very hard ; containing much silica and manganese, some alumina, and from 2 to 10 per cent. of pyrites. Average value, $8 per ton. Class I. was soon dismissed. The only way to make it pay would have been by the use of steam-shovels and a large crushing-plant. The tendency to slime would be the principal difficulty.

Jan 1, 1902

By Eduardo Martinez Baca

Although Mexico has always been justly considered by the whole world essentially a mining country, this reputation is due principally to the richness of the deposits which have been worked. In reality, the majority of the States have been little

Jan 1, 1902

By Walter Harvey Weed

(Mexican Meeting, November, 1901.) Among the many causes of that perplexing featurc of mineexploitation, the unequal distribution of the ore, the influence of the country-rock upon the vein-contents has long beer1 accepted as an important factor in certain districts, but the general application of the theory has not been proved. It is now possible to obtain trustworthy data with which to test the theory, and either to confirm or to overthrow this time-honored

Jan 1, 1902

By Luis Salazar

Internal improvements are the great seals; stamping upon the history of nations their epochs of peace, in which notable enterprises are conceived, and fresh impulses given along the path of progress. Such forerunners of national benefits have never been so notable in Mexico as in the last four decades of the nineteenth century, during which the national faith in the consolidation of peace has been a guaranty of the development of all the elements of national prosperity. Among all the improvements which have been realized with the unanimous approbation of the people, the railroads occupy a preferred place, for upon them depends the expansion of commerce, of agriculture and of mining, the three great factors of the wealth of Mexico. In a country so extensive as the Mexican Republic, where the inhabitants are greatly scattered, and great distances separate the producer from the consumer, the only way to encourage home industry, and the development of commerce, agriculture and mining, is to construct railroads, which shorten distance, facilitate transportation and minimize its costs. The mountainous character of the country makes the navigation of its rivers practically impossible, except very near to

Jan 1, 1902

By Walter Harvey Weed

The Republic of Mexico is traversed by many mountain ranges, and presents a great diversity of climates, soils and geographical features, yet its grander geographic provinces are few and peculiarly well defined. The Gulf plain, the Cen tral plateau, the Sierra Madre, and the lowland or Tierra Cali ente of the western coast are the main features of the geogra phy of the Republic, and in the northern half these provinces are particularly well defined. The Sierra Madre separates the Republic into eastern and western parts, and from the City of Mexico north to the Texas line presents an almost impassable barrier to east and west travel. On the north, the first wagon road pass from east to west is at El Paso del Norte, the site of the Texan city of El Paso. Southward for many hundreds of miles the Sierra Madre, traversed by well-worn trails, over which all travel from the west coast to the interior must pass, is a stupendous barrier to social and commercial intercourse. The Sierra Madre is commonly described as a range or con geries of mountain ranges. In fact, it is, in Chihuahua at least, a great plateau, fringed by mountains on the east, trenched by deep canons in its center, and bordered by a wild and rugged complex of mountains carved out of the plateau on the west. Professional duties took me across this region from Parral westward to the Gulf of California via Guadalupe y Calvo. As it includes some of the great ore-deposits of Mexico, and its geological features have never, so far as I am aware, been described, I have prepared a diagrammatic section made from my observations on a horseback trip across the Sierra, and added such notes as seem to be of general interest.

Jan 1, 1902

By Walter Harvey Weed

The notes given in this paper, the result of observations made during recent brief professional trips to the northern States of Mexico, are offered as a slight contribution to the geological knowledge of a region little known, but long famous for its rich gold- and silver-mines. They are not detailed geological studies, but they contain, I believe, the salient facts. The following districts were visited: 1. Santa Eulalia (silverlead) ; 2. Parral (silver-lead); 3. Las Vigas (copper); 4. Jimenez (copper); 5. Guadalupe y Calvo (gold); 6. La Cumbre (gold); 7. Palmarito (silver); 8. Cananea (copper); 9. Sierra Pinitos (gold); 10. Sierra Azul (gold). 1. The Santa Eulalia Silver-Lead Deposits. Seventeen miles SE. of Chihuahua is the mining district of Santa Eulalia, to which that city owes its origin and long prosperity. Discovered in 1703, this district has been, and still is, one of the great silver-lead producers of the world. For 86 years after its discovery, the total output upon which the crown tax was paid amounted to $112,000,000. Worked until within the last 20 years by the most primitive methods, without machinery of any kind, the deposits continued to yield a vast treasure of silver; at present the yearly tonnage far exceeds that of former times. A broad-gauge road runs from Chihuahua up the valley of a small creek to the village of Santa Eulalia, which is situated within the borders of the mountains of that name. A few miles out of Chihuahua a narrow-gauge railway, owned by the Chihuahua Mining Co., branches off to the mines. This road ascends a smooth but steeply-rising plain to the base of the mountains, and winds about the slopes until the mines are

Jan 1, 1902

By William H. Radford

Having worked some rather lorn--grade gravel during the past season at a small profit, I give the actual figures, in the hope that other mining engineers interested in this line of work may be thereby induced to do the same, in order that we may all get more data on this little-ventilated subject. The property here referred to is situated in one of the northern counties of California, where hydraulic mining is still permitted by the courts. The water-right belonging to the mine is a good one, furnishing water during about nine months, whenever there is an average rain-fall, and a fair proportion of the precipitation is in the form of snow. The ditch, about 11 miles in length, is cared for during the rainy months by two men, and during the rest of the year by one; and the water cost last season, delivered at the mine, 0.69 cent per miners' inch. The season commenced in November, 1899, and ended the last of July, 1900. During this time, 655,657 miners' inches (an inch equals 1728 cu. ft. in 24 hours) of water were used for piping, and for sweeping the bed-rock at the end of the season. From actual surveys, this amount of water washed down 1,251,399 cu. yds. of material, consisting of pay-gravel lying on the bed-rock, and varying in thickness from a few inches to 8 ft., and practically barren top-material, consisting of mountain slide, carrying considerable broken rock, clay, and soil. The banks varied in height from 50 to 130 ft., the average height being 63 ft. The grade of the sluices was 7 in. to 12 ft., the boxes being paved with block-riffles 12 in. deep. Long bed-rock cuts extended from the heads of the sluices to within a few feet of the banks, and were kept practically to grade as the work advanced. At first, electric drills were used on this work; hut as it was found that heavy blasting shattered the rock too much, and caused slips, these drills were

Jan 1, 1902

By William P. Blake

The ancient city of Guanajuato, the capital of the State of that name, has been built up and sustained chiefly by the milling industry based upon the veins of the Veta Madre and La Luz. It is distant about twelve hours, by rail, from the City of Mexico. Its elevation above the sea is about 6300 ft., and it has a salubrious climate. The population, at the date of my visit in 1891, was estimated at from 80,000 to 100,000 persons. The place is justly celebrated for the antiquity, depth and extent of the mines, the magnitude of the deep shafts, and the enormous total yield of the district in silver and gold, which is comparable with that of the Comstock Lode in the United States. Several important public institutions are located at this center. The State office for the records of claims and of the statistics of mining and production is known as the Deputacion de Mineria. The Mining College, with its fine collection of ores and minerals from the mines of the region, is highly interesting to mineralogists. A mint for the coinage of silver, but not of gold, coins from four to twelve millions of' silver dollars annually. The silver received at the mint is melted in an open-hearth furnace, and is ladled out and cast into long and thin bars, which are rolled down to the proper thickness for the blanks. The bars contain some gold which is not parted. There is an export of dore bars to Germany, amounting in value to from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 annually. There were, in 1891, upwards of forty reduction-works in and about the city where the silver ores were treated, chiefly by the ancient patio method. In these works were 65 Chilean mills, 301 arrastres of large size, and 936 of smaller dimensions. There were 36 steam engines, but mule-power was generally used at the ar-

Jan 1, 1902

By J. Clayton Nichols

The principal mines of this region are 7 miles SE. from Gusa, and about 4 miles in a direct line from the seacoast. Gusa is a small town on the north coast of Mindanao, 4 miles east from Cagayan, the capital of the province of Misamis. The mines are reached by steep, narrow trails over ridges varying in altitude from 1100 to 1600 feet above sealevel. The whole region is covered with a thick growth of tall grass, except a few spots on the sides of some of the hills, where there are patches of timber and jungle.

Jan 1, 1902

By Ellen H. Richards

The water-supply of a country may be considered from three points of view: (1) its abundance and availability for agricultural purposes; (2) its chemical properties in their relation to manufacturing purposes; and (3) its quality and quantity as affecting domestic consumption. This paper concerns only those characteristics which may affect manufacturing and domestic uses. The so-called sanitary analyses deal not only with the common mineral elements found in water, but with organic matter and with those substances which, by their presence, indicate changes taking place through the agency of living organisms. Since these living organisms are frequently accompanied by others, capable, as are believe, of causing disease, the products of their action are looked upon with suspicion even when, as in the case of nitrates, that action may have taken place at a time long past. Therefore, upon the quality of the water-supply depends much of the history of a country, when rightly read, as well as much of its promise for the future. Thus, the hardness," or content of calcium and magnesium salts, gives a means of distinguishing at once between the waters traversing only igneous or other siliceous rocks and those coming from calcareous deposits. The presence of decomposing organic matter and intermediate products betrays a use of the water as the public carrier of refuse, which renders doubtful its fitness for domestic supply. In certain regions, one of the most valuable historical records is made by the relative amount of chlorine in the different waters. In the absence of rock-deposits carrying salt,, the chlorine present in rain and snow, and hence in mountainstreams and springs, appears to be derived from the air-borne, finely divided salt spray resulting from the beating of the ocean waves on the coast. If this be true, then the amount of chlorine found in a given water not contaminated with chlorides

Jan 1, 1902

By Edward Halse

Normal banded structure,* exhibiting bands or layers of mineral symmetrically arranged from the sides to the center of the vein, appears to be by no means common in the Republic of Mexico. When the bands of quartz form interlocking crystals in the center (" comb-structure "), the evidence that the filling has taken place in an open space is complete. This also applies in the case of any mineral the fibers of which are perpendicular to the walls, and which presents here and there, in a central line, cavities or vugs lined with crystals (geodes); but it does not follow that the whole width of the banded vein represents that of the original open fissure. The opening and filling may have been slow and gradual processes, advancing

Jan 1, 1902

By H. C. Lay

No one who knows the conditions of altitude, difficulty of access, shortness of working-season, etc., under which the work of the U. S. Geological Survey in the Rocky Mountains is carried on, can fail to be impressed with the magnitude and accuracy of the results obtained. Yet, in the necessarily brief time given to any one district, maily minor features must remain unregistered. The purpose of this paper is merely to place on record observations, made during nearly eighteen years, of local phenomena in themselves unimportant, which, however, if collated with similar memoranda from neighboring regions, may lead to something of value. The Telluride quadrangle in southwest Colorado is a tract of fifteen geographical minutes on a side, the NW. corner of which is in Long. 108º W., Lat. 38º N. Topographically it is essentially a lofty horseshoe, some of the peaks of which rise more than 14,000 ft. above tide, the interior (with an average altitude of 9000 ft.) being the eastern edge of the rolling Colorado-Utah plateau, and, in its turn, deeply cut by the canons of the San Miguel river and its tributaries. The range-summits are mainly igneous rocks, partly intrusive (such as massive " stocks" and laccolites, left bare by superior erosion), but mostly bedded volcanics of an average vertical thickness of 3500 ft., which change with changing height from andesite to rhyolite. The lowest series of these volcanic rocks, known as the San Juan formation, lies conformably upon the sedimentary San Miguel conglomerate, which dips gently east., and is attributed provisionally to the

Jan 1, 1902

By H. D. Hoskold

It was not for the purpose of asserting any superior knowledge or authority, but simply of clearing up, in greater detail, some points casually mentioned in Mr. Scott's able paper, that the writer entered, some two years ago, into the discussion which that paper initiated. In such matters there is always room for differences of judgment, as well as for additional data, which may modify or complete the conclusions even of the best authorities. Those who are immersed in the duties of practical administration or work in the field, and who, being remote from the great scientific national libraries, are obliged to rely on their private collections, and to supplement them by their recollections of earlier studies, labor under special disadvantages in such a discussion; and it must be to the scientific and engineering world a matter for gratitude that Mr. Lyman has been willing to give the benefit of his advantages in this respect. Mr. Lyman would, however, doubtless at once disclaim the conclusion that his masterly summary constitutes " the last word " on this subject, and welcome further evidence, comment and criticism, such as the various contributors may continue to offer. This, therefore, is the motive, and must be the excuse, of the introduction by the writer of the following observations. The Miners' Dial.—Many years since, the writer employed a miners' dial, older in type than Fig. 12,* but without any attached spirit-level, made by Thomas Jones, a pupil of the great Ramsden. Jones was one of the old London makers and opticians, and enjoyed great reputation for accuracy in the con-

Jan 1, 1902

By Harrison Everett Ashley

Prof. Hofman's diagrams, Figs. 5 and 7 of his paper, which are reproduced as Figs. 1 and 2 of the present contribution, confessedly fail to show comprehensively the properties of the silicates investigated. Each curve is carefully discussed, and the author has evidently drawn all the conclusions that can be thus reached; but he says :* "The curves do not show, as was hoped, any simple connection between silicate-degree, percentage of lime, and minimum of formation-temperature." There is, therefore, in this case, an excellent opportunity of

Jan 1, 1902

[Secretary's Note.—The following official tables, prepared by the government of the State of Nuevo Leon, and presented to the Institute at the fifth seseion of its Mexican meeting, held at Monterrey, November 26, 1901, present in compact form a general summary of the mineral and metallurgical industry of the State for the preceding calendar year, together with a statement of the railway-shipments of ores from January 1 to October 31, 1901, which, in the absence of direct official mining and metallurgical statistics (not yet available for that year), clearly indicates an increased activity and productiveness of these industries. In other words, the mines are reported to have yielded in 1900 a total product of 83,960,169 kilos of ore; whereas, the railway is reported to have carried, in 10 months of 1901, a total of 108,318,647 kilos of ore. At this rate, the railway-shipments for 1901 mould amount to nearly 130,000,000 kilos. It is, of course, possible that the railwaystatistics include other freight than ores, or that they include duplications, such as would be involved in the record, first of certain ores transported, and afterwards of the " base bullion " produced therefrom. An accurate comparison is therefore impossible ; yet, after making all reasonable allowances for such items as have been named, it seems safe to infer that the mining and metallurgical industry of this State accomplished in 1901 a substantial progress.]

Jan 1, 1902