Search Documents

By James Park

The principal gold-bearing formation is of volcanic origin, consisting of a great accumulation of andesitic lavas, tuffs, breccias and agglomerates of lower Tertiary age. These rocks everywhere bear evidence of having been subjected to the prolonged leaching-action of thermal waters, doubtless accompanied by steam and acid vapors. They are found in all stages of decomposition or alteration; and in many mines the hard blue andesite can be seen to pass by a series of almost insensible gradations into a soft, or fairly hard, greyish yellow or blue

Jan 1, 1900

Jan 1, 1900

By Ernest R. Woakes

Cana, originally called Santa Cruz de Cana, is situated in the province of Darien, in the Republic of Colombia, S. A. The river Cana is a tributary of the Tuyra, which flows into the Gulf of San Miguel, and thence into the Pacific Ocean some 80 rniles S.E. of the City of Panama. • The Espiritu Santo mine lies on the S. side of the Cana river at the foot of the Espiritu Santo range. The plateau of Cana has an elevation of 2000 feet above sea-level, and the mine is about 200 feet above the plateau. The map of the Darien accompanying this paper is the only correct one in existence. It was made by Lucien N. Bonaparte Wyse for the Panama Canal Co., and has been copied fur the present use, with permission, by Mr. L. G. Inglis. The dotted line on this map shows the route from the coast to Cana. As this mine was one of the most celebrated at the time of the Spanish occupation, it is only natural that there are a great many traditions and writings concerning its former workers and production. Dampier mentions it, though he does not seem to have been nearer to it than El Real de Santa Maria, the port on the Rio Tuyra, about 50 miles by road from Cana. Senor Vicente Restrepo's work, entitled Estudio sobre las Minas de Oro y Plata de Colombia, translated by C. TV. Fisher and published in New York in 1886, is, perhaps, the best treatise on Colombian mines. He has devoted a great deal of attention to the subject of the Espiritu Santo mine, and has had access to all that dealt with it in the archives of Bogota. It will be interesting to quote a few pasaages from the above work, which seemed like a romance to the writer of this paper some years ago, when he first came across the history. Being actually in Cana at the time, and knowing the present company had

Jan 1, 1900

By Clemens Catesby Jones

The substance of this paper, now amended and altered in form for its present use, was the basis of a private report prepared under professional engagement.* A private report is necessarily objective, and deprived of the scope and technicality of a scieintific treatise—which accounts for the prevalence of drawings and succinct mathematical statements rather than full descriptive details in a paper reproduced from data, of which all the original working-notes have been destroyed. In a practical sense the Hudson river valley clay-deposits owe their present existence to the protection afforded by the rock-formations on which they are supported, and, instead of being uniform in depth or continuity, are subject to the irregularities of the rugged masses which preceded and are now concealed by them. The only available information concerning these deposits contained in previous public reports or maps furnished at best a mere photograph of the surface, and as now apparent this was misleading or unreliable. It was the object of this investigation to determine in a practical manner the location, form and extent of all the clay-deposits at present existing in the lower Hudson river valley, and to ascertain with a

Jan 1, 1900

By William P. Blake

It is scarcely necessary to point out the important functions of water in the mining operations of man, especially in the State of California, where sluicing and hydraulic mining have been practiced on such a grand scale as to arouse the opposition of the agricultural interests. But the role which water and ice have played in mining or excavating on their own account is not so apparent. The alluvions of existing rivers, and the higher gravel-beds left by ancient streams, are doubtless the result of running water; but how far these gravelly materials owe their origin primarily as rocky debris and fragments of veins to glacial erosion, it is difficult .to determine. Yet we see on every side in our higher mountains unmistakable evidences of the cutting, crushing and eroding effects of glacial ice. We note that mountain-summits have been reduced in height and shaped into rounded and dome-like summits. We know that the general contour of the hills of New England, of the Highlands of the Hudson, and of the mountains of northern New Jersey, is due to glacial carving. The same is true of the Laurentian hills of Canada and of the mountains of all northern regions. And we recognize in the vast deposits of so-called " drift," which are spread out over the surface of the northern States, the chips and debris from the glacial workshops. Thus we cannot avoid the conclusion that there was an enormous amount of cutting and excavating in glacial times, and that vast quantities of veinmaterial and of ores and metals must have been liberated by ice-action.

Jan 1, 1900

By E. T. Dumble

DuriKg explorations made for the Pacific Improvement Company in the early part of this year, deposits of natural coke, of such extent and excellent quality as to be worthy of record, were found in the Santa Clara coal-field. This coal-field lies in the neighborhood of La Barranca, a small town, 95 miles northeast of Ortiz, on the Sonora railway. The coal-beds are exposed in the drainage-basin of Calera creek, which empties into the Yaqui river opposite Toniche; and the old mining town of Turahumari is nearly at the center of the field. Without going into a detailed geological description, it Will be sufficient to say that the entire area is underlain by rocks of Triassic age, much disturbed in places, and cut through and covered by eruptive rocks of various kinds and ages. The coal-beds occur in a series of interbedded sands and clay, in the upper half of the sedimentary Triassic rocks. Below them is a great series of quartzitic sandstoiles and very sandy slates, and above them are other sandstones, and the eruptive member of the group, viz., the Lista Blanca formation', described in my paper on the " Geology of Sonora," presented at the New York Meeting of February, 1899.* Speaking very broadly, these sands and clays, with their included coal-beds, dip about 30 degrees S.E. This gives their outcropping edses a 3J.E.-S.W. direction. The general dip

Jan 1, 1900

By W. L. Watts

The existence of petroleum in California has been known for many years. From time immemorial the California Indians used this mineral, in the form of asphaltum, for various purposes. In the early history of the State the Catholic fathers utilized it for roofing their missions and other buildings. It is said that in 1855 or 1856 Andreas Pico distilled petroleum on a small scale for the San Fernando Mission. He obtained his crude oil from Pico canon, near Newhall, in Los Angeles county; and he was probably the first refiner of petroleum in this State. In 1856 a company commenced work at the La Brea ranch, in Los Angeles county, and tried to refine the crude oil. In 1857 an attempt was made to produce illuminating-oil from crude petroleum at Carpenteria, in Santa Barbara county; and there are records of similar attempts in other localities previous to 1860; but none of them were successful. The first scientific report on petroleum in California was made by Prof. B. Silliman, who published his researches in 1865. He spoke favorably of the possibility of obtaining petroleum in remunerative quantities in this State, and gave the results of his experiments in the fractional distillation of California petroleum. The next decade was marked by a considerable oil-excitement in California; and a great many companies mere formed for the purpose of petroleum-mining and for distilling crude oil. In most instances these companies did not meet with success; but it must be remembered that the pioneer oil-miners did not

Jan 1, 1900

By C. W. Purington

Jan 1, 1900

By R. P. Rothwell

Instruction by correspondence is certainly one of the most important and useful of modern educational methods. The paper on the " Scranton International Schools," by Prof. Stoek (Buffalo meeting, October, 1898),* gives an elaborate description of a single private enterprise in this direction, ignoring all others, and cannot be said to present a fair or impartial view of

Jan 1, 1900

Jan 1, 1900

By James Douglas

The Copper Queen mine was opened in 1880 by Messrs. Martin, Ballard & Reilly, and the first copper-furnace was blown-in on August 20th of that year. Prior to that summer nothing but prospect-work had been done on the copper Queen and on a number of adjacent claims. In fact, it was a small deposit, not of copper-ore, but of cerussite, which still remains undeveloped, on the western slope of the Queen hill, which

Jan 1, 1900

By D. P. Mitchell

Western Australia is the home of much that is new and interesting in the gold-mining industry. Some of the gold deposits are outranked for size and value by nothing yet discorered, while the value of the ores is, in many cases, rivaled only by their complex character. As in all parts of the world, many of the ore-bodies occur in ways which tax the skill of the miner in following them; and among these the writer considers the case of the East Murchison United more interesting than the average. This is one of the leading gold-mines of the colony in point of production, and is situated near the town of Lawlers, in the East Murchison district. The country for several miles around the mine is mainly granite, and the line of outcrop on which this mine is located can be traced for a long distance. As will be seen from the accompanying plan (Fig. I), there are, at the water-level, two nearly parallel veins running slightly north of west. Structural Features.—The most striking peculiarity of these veins, and the hardest to understand, is their tendency to send out horizontal stringers or side-veins. These vary in size from a veinlet an inch thick to a veil] several feet in width, and they extend with great persistence into the wall-rock on either side of the vein. This tendency is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The usual signs of a movement of the wall-rocks, such as a ribbon-structure of the quartz and a well-defined gouge or seam of clay along the walls, are in many places lacking, while in other places they appear strongly marked. They seem more in evidence below water-level than above. It is a commonlly accepted idea that when a gold-bearing vein loses in width, it often gains in value. In this instance, however, the direct opposite is the case; for in many stopes it has been possible to leave the narrow portions of the vein to act as pillars, and to extract only the wide portions, which are

Jan 1, 1900

By Edward W. Parker

One of the most important features of the coal-mining industry of the present day is one that is common to the majority of industrial enterprises—the substitution of mechanical methods for hand-labor.

Jan 1, 1900

By Charles H. Snow

The engineer has often to penetrate difficult or unknown regions. Mineral, irrigation, boundary and railway problems frequently necessitate journeys through, or long residence in, localities whence sustenance cannot be drawn. The selection and conveyance of provisions, outfit and implements thus become a matter of the first importance. Scientific skill, even of the highest order, is powerless unless supported by the proper appliances and foods. The advance of civilization favors the engineer, in that it is constantly enlarging his facilities and thus reducing his difficulties. Notwithstanding this fact, many are yet brought face to face with the problems considered in this paper. Distinction must be made between parties which are to be in constant or even occasional touch with a base of supplies, and those which will be for a long time dependent on their original outfit. Again, the requirements of a party on the march are different from those of a fixed camp. The district, season, cliinate, size and personnel of party also influence the character of the outfit. A party that is to be detached from its base of supplies for some time requires a greater variety of food than if it is to be gone for a short time. Much less in proportion need be taken where the journey is not long, so that privation is confined to a limited period. The ability to establish a fixed camp permits a larger outfit than would be possible if the camp mere to be moved from day to day. Transportation, climatic and other conditions are thus so varied that lists prepared for one work could hardly be applied to any other without some modification. Lists that have proved successful in some instances may, however, serve as bases to be added to, or otherwise altered, for the case in hand. The mistake usually made is in providing too large an outfit. Every emergency cannot be provided for; so that it is well to take, not what may be needed, but what cannot be spared.

Jan 1, 1900

Jan 1, 1900

By Edward Halse

The tin-deposits of Durango, Mexico, have been ably described by Mr. W. R. Ingalls in a paper published in our Transactions in 1895.* While the occurrellces of tin-ore in other parts of the Republic are similar in many resperts to those in Durango, there are noteworthy local differences which, it is hoped, ma? lend interest to the present paper. The deposits examined by me in May, 1895, are found in the Serrania de Chacuaco, Municipality of Sain Alto, District of Sombrerete. The workings are situated in a range of mountains having a general northwest to southeast trend between Sombrerete and Fresnillo; the most northerly claim (La Desparranlada) being about six leagues southeast of the former town. El Refugio lies about four leagues to the southwest, and El Calabrote eight leagues to the west, of Fresnillo. The claims are from about 8425 to 8775 feet above sea-level, and from 1500 to 1800 feet above Sain Alto, the position of which town is marked in the map printed in Mr. Ingalls's paper. In order to reach the claims, one uses the carriage-road from Sain Alto to the small tin-colony of Las Cuevas; from the latter place to the mines there is only a rough mule-track. The mountain range consists of a rugged, weathered, gray granite rock, remarkable for large grains of quartz, and is flanked by masses of rhyolite and rhyolite-tuff of upper Tertiary age. The whole formation is broken up by narrow and steep willding arroyos and deep barrancas, mainly the result of denudation, and it appears to be a southeasterlj extension of the tin-bearing belt of rocks north of Durango City. Here and

Jan 1, 1900

By H. M. Chance

The recent discoveries of important new gold-districts in limestone, granite, sandstone and porphyry have awakened the more intelligent class of prospectors to a realization of the fact that ally rock may be gold-bearing; that from the appearance of a rock it is impossible to judge whether it carries gold or not; and that gold-ores may occur in any geological formation. As a rule, the professional prospector limits his search to ores and conditions with which he is more or less familiar, and to formations which he regards as favorable to the occurrence of such ores. Hence it often happens that while the very thing he is searching for is in plain sight, he fails to recognize it, and some other individual, possibly less intelligent but more lucky, stumbles blindly upon it. Beginning with the discovery of the California placers by the finding of gold in the tail-race of Sutter's saw-mill—a tale so often told that nearly all have read it in some form—and following the discovery of district after district down to the present time, one is forcibly impressed by the fact that many of the important districts have been discovered by accident; that many such discoveries have been made by unskilled or inexperienced prospectors, and some by persons having no knowledge whatever of prospecting. Thus, the recent Klondike discoveries are said to have been made by a poor salmon-fisherman, who, with his Indian wife, was hunting, not for gold, but for good fishing-grounds; the Comstock lode is said to have been accidentally discovered, and the Ragged Top district in the Black Hills and the Pearce mine in Arizona* are recent notable instances of the same kind.

Jan 1, 1900

By Charles Catlett

Some years ago the writer was struck by what might be called the remarkable vitality of the Virginia furnaces during the panic of 1893; and attention was called to the fact in the American Manufacturer of February 8,1895. From the second half of 1892, which was a period of maximum output, to the second half of 1893, when the full effects of the depression had been reached, the output of pig-iron had fallen off in Illinois 85; in New York, 66; in Ohio, 51; in Tennessee, 44; in Pennsylvania, 28; and in Virginia only 15 per cent. It seemed a reasonable inference that the State which had thus shown its marked ability to meet hard times could make and market its product with a larger margin of profit than any of the other States. This was true at that time, and to a certain extent the reasoning still holds good; but my mistake was in not fully realizing the marked effect of the Mesabi development, combined with reduced economies in transportation, and the consequent advantage to those furnaces which were so situated as to utilize these new commercial factors. The effect of these factors is seen in comparing the second half of 1894 with the second half of 1892. New York had dropped off 44, Alabama 23, Tennessee 21, Illinois 19, and Virginia 16 per cent., while Pennsylvania had increased 5 and Ohio 10 per cent. While there is no question of the great economy which has been made possible for certain interests which are peculiarly situated with reference to the ores of the Northwest, it is yet too early to say what furnaces not so fortunate will have to pay for their raw material. Already an increase of twenty cents per ton of ore has been announced, based upon increased cost of production.

Jan 1, 1900

Jan 1, 1900

By W. A. Doble

Opinions differ as to whether the water-wheel almost universally known as the Pelton type belongs to the impulse, the tangential, the reactive, the jet or the percussion class, or to a cross between two or more of these classes. The fact is, that for an almost infinitesimal part of a second the axis of the jet of water strikes the bucket of this wheel at a true tangent to its base-line. The percussion of the water, striking the bucket, imparts an impulse to the wheel, causing rotation; and generally the bucket is so shaped that the direction of the jet is

Jan 1, 1900