An examination of the lists shows that most of these who have these are not miners, and that the proportion of those who have large inc greater in the agricultural districts and in the towns than in the mines matter of curiosity, the list of incomes of Nevada county for 1865 is h pended, with the names of those who derive their incomes from quartz with an asterisk, and those who derive their incomes from placers mark a dagger. list is marked by a gentleman well acquainted in the county, but a hose whose names are not marked may be miners. It appears that out ames, 42 of those are quartz miners and 40 of placer miners. It must embered, however, that Nevada is the most prosperous and the most ve mining county in California, and that the proportion of large incomes he miners is greater than elsewhere. 23.-DIFFICULTY OF GETTING GOOD CLAIMS. t which should never be overlooked on the Atlantic slope by persons ak of mining is, that a good claim cannot be had by merely making an get one. It costs as much effort generally as it costs to get a good ' more. If the claim is open and its value is established, it can only be at a high price. If it is not open, years may be spent in opening it, and may prove to be barren at last. That has been the experience of thouA list of the expensive tunnels and shafts undertaken in California and would include numerous failures after years of time and scores of thouf dollars had been devoted to the labor. These things are not written, few want to publish their own failures or to read about those of others; umber of those who own mines famous for their rich yields had to strugg for years, barely paying expenses and exposed to the jeers or the pity acquaintances for their obstinacy in sticking to claims that could never, said, be made to pay. It is unjust to the miner to assume that he is he public property without compensation. In most cases he has more id for it by his labor, and although it may not yield him a good income, more than a fair return for his enterprise and industry, and he should be to enjoy it as a proper encouragement to others to devote themselves levelopment of other mines. Many, indeed, think that even with unreI liberty to take the precious metals from the public lands, and with entire ion from taxation, the pay of the miner is less than that of any other industrious and intelligent body of laborers in the country. 4.—COMSTOCK LODE THE MOST PRODUCTIVE IN THE WORLD. ough some rich argentiferous veins have been discovered in California, and Arizona, they have not been developed sufficiently to enable us to ch of them; and our remarks on the condition of silver mining on the ust be based chiefly upon the business as conducted in Nevada. During the last three years there has been no increase in the production, but eral condition is very satisfactory. The Comstock lode is now the m ductive mineral vein in the world. A strip of land six hundred yards w three miles long yields $12,000,000 annually. There is no parallel to ancient or modern times. The other richest silver mining districts of the century, such as Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Sombrerete, Durango, Chi Alamos, Real del Monte, Potosi, Cero Paseo, and Chañarcillo, do not more than about $20,000,000 each annually, and the Comstock lode is 1 tributing more silver to the commerce of the world than any other for The total number of men employed in the mines and mills to obtain th is about 5,000, giving an average annual yield of $2,500 for each. T not so rich nor so abundant as it has been in some Mexican lodes, but yield has been obtained by employing more machinery. The genera of the Mexican mines has been to employ men to carry the ore up o mine on their backs, and to transport it from the mine to the mill on 1 pulverize it by mule power, and to stir it during amalgamation by 1 with the feet of men or mules. If water invaded the works it was ho hand or by horse whims. Thus a Mexican mine required a hundred m the work that can be done in a Nevada mine by twenty, and it was di make room for a hundred men to work within such narrow limits. Eit were continually in the way of one another or most of them discharged work advanced with corresponding slowness. The leading mines at Virginia City are marvellous for the extent works and the rapidity with which they extract and reduce the ore. 1 gold mines of California, high as their product is, are small affairs w pared with the vast works of the chief silver companies of Nevada. 25.-COMSTOCK MINING COMPANIES. S. H. Marlette, surveyor general of the State, in his official repor year 1865, gives the following list of the mining companies on the C lode, with the accompanying statistics and remarks: Greatest depth 4 15 t5 dead work' (i. e., shafts, wings, tunnels, and excavations not in pay he Gould & Curry company equals about 12,750 lineal feet, (about es,) with an average cross-sectional area of thirty feet, or about 14,167 rds. companies enumerated above have excavated about 28 miles of tunnels , and about 5 miles of shafts, wings, and inclines, exclusive of stopes imneys, which will amount at least to as much more, giving a total of 57 miles. longest tunnel penetrating the Comstock lede is the Latrobe, 3,200 ngth in a straight line, besides various branches, which was commenced ary, 1861, aad is still being driven ahead. The above-mentioned comave forty-four hoisting and pumping engines, which will probably between thirty and forty horse-power, and give an aggregate of more 00 horse-power. The mines of the Comstock employ seventy-six mills ing their ores, with an aggregate capacity for crushing 1,800 tons daily, which are fourteen miles from the mines, the ore being transported on re is consumed annually by these companies about 22,265 cords of wood, of not far from sixteen dollars per cord, and a total cost of more than A of a million of dollars; and they use about 15,540,120 feet, board * Evidently an error, and much too large. 56 Blake's breaker, large size, 14 Hepbu 7-feet tubs, and 7 7-feet settlers. 12 Wheeler pans and 2 large settlers. 16 pans, 8 settlers, and 1 grinder. 24 16 Varney pans, 6 settlers, and 1 grin 20 1 breaker, 16 Wheeler pans, and 8 set 16 1 breaker, 12 Wheeler pans, 6 settlers, a 1 breaker, 8 Wheeler pans, and 4 sett Working only 36 stamps, (Freiberg furnaces, 24 amalgamating barrel men; full capacity of mill, 750 ton 60 2 Blake's breakers, 8 furnaces, 20 ba ney and 4 Wheeler and Randall pa It appears from this table that there are 331 Knox's pans, 226 pans, 190 Hepburn's pans, 58 Varney pans, 94 plain pans, 24 pans, 213 settlers, 37 agitators, 12 grinders, 59 barrels, 77 tubs, an centrators in use at these mills. Under the head of amalgamating though not strictly in place, the breakers are mentioned. The li 62 mills, 1,226 stamps, 919 pans. The total amount of ore reduced is given at 53,787 tons, but the capacity is considerably greater. The pan, which is the chief instrument used in the amalgamation o ores of Nevada, is of cast iron, two feet deep, and from two to se diameter-usually four and a half; to the bottom are fastened dies pieces of iron which form a false bottom, and can be replaced by o worn out. A shaft rises through the centre of the pan, and to it a shoes or pieces of iron which are to run round over the false botton the pulp. Many of the pans have chambers at the bottom for stea to keep the pulp at a heat of about 2000. The above is a description of the general features of the plai Wheeler pan, and the Varney pan. The Wheeler pan has curved the bottom, running from the centre to the rim, to hold the quicksilv sides above the mullers are fastened boards so shaped as to throw the centre. But for these boards the pulp would move as fast as sixty revolutions per minute, and might run over at the sides, and w brought into proper contact with the quicksilver at the bottom; throwing the pulp to the centre the current is broken, the heavy m to the bottom to be ground and be mixed with the quicksilver |