THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   367

CHAPTER XII.

BY G. McM. Ross.

            The story of the Comstock, for the purpose of the present book must be an impersonal one, and an epitome. The men and women who have taken part in its development cannot be named, not even those whose wit and wisdom have entertained and amused a world ; the great jurists who have added luster to their profession ; the soldiers who have added glory to their names ; the financiers who have successfully managed vast enterprises, the engineers whose skill, practice and tireless energy overcame obstacles supposed to be insurmountable, and who, in their old age, seem to be planning the downfall of time ; the great geologists who have visited, studied and written of the Comstock ; the bold and reckless men who, as best they could, grasped and held fortunes greater than their wildest dreams could have outlined, whose fiercest spirits were not daunted when their bodies went down to a cold and loveless death, whose last moments were not comforted by an honest tear.

            The statesmen who failed to convince their countrymen that those wise and good men who framed the Constitution of our country were right and that they were gifted with a strange prescience when they declared in that immortal document that "no State shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts," it would seem, must have foreseen the Comstock's production of gold and silver.

            The few metallurgists who gave all of their energy, the best of their minds, and the better part of their lives to the evolution of a process that would extract the values from our ores ; the mechanics whose combined skill gave to the mining world machines and ideas that enabled a development greater and faster than the world had ever seen ; the miners whose splendid manhood made it possible to meet unheard-of difficulties ; the noble women who in every phase of life performed their parts ; none of these can be named.

368      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

            The effect of the Comstock's product upon the social and economic life of the Nation and upon the world cannot here be stated, or its cost in blood and tears be estimated; all that can be done is to tell the story of its past, its present, and to outline its possible future.

            The discovery of the Comstock was a natural consequence of the prior discovery of gold in California. To whom the honor of the discovery rightfully belongs will probably never be known. This is equally true of germs and of continents, and must remain true while men are held together in a civilization such as ours, where "the Creator showers upon us His gifts, more than enough for all; but, like swine scrambling for food, we tread them in the mire, while we tear and rend each other."

            From the eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, whose peak is 7,900 feet high, in the year 1850 might be seen trains of emigrants moving westward. Those who had learned the limit of physical endurance of man and beast rested after their weary march across the desert along the meadows skirting the Carson River before undertaking the crossings of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the last barrier between them and the land of gold. The young and vigorous men of these trains discovered that their camps were made in a plain below a splendid mountain range that could be reached through two canyons—one to the north, the other to the south. Through these two canyons the natural erosion of the mountains had been carried for ages. The lighter soils had been carried by melting snows to the plains below, while the coarser rocks and gravels remained where they were, protected from the rush of waters given up by cloudbursts that were not infrequent visitors to the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The canyons leading from the Comstock thus became natural concentrators of the values removed from the outcroppings of the lode by erosion. Gold could be seen and partly recovered by the most superficial means and indifferent labor. As early as 1850 gold was recovered from the canyons leading to the Comstock, and without cessation work has continued on these placers to the present moment, and is likely to continue as long as this part of the continent is inhabited by man.

            The most northerly canyon forked within two miles of the lode, forming the Six-Mile and the Seven-Mile canyons, ends at a point on the lode just below a massive outcrop. At the end of this canyon, free gold and silver sulphides were found by prospectors in 1859 (on the 8th of June). Prior to this date from the mouth of the south canyon the placer miners

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   369

had followed the gold up through Gold Canyon, through where Silver City now stands, on up to Gold Hill, so that the Comstock Lode had been reached from both canyons by 1859.

            The value of the silver sulphides was not discovered at once, as to all of the prospectors it was an unknown black metal. When the value of this rock was disclosed silver mining sprang into being and moved forward so rapidly that in a few years, through its vast product, the ideas of the world were so changed that a relentless war was started and has since been maintained against the use of silver as money. That such a war is without just cause can be learned from the fact that in the year of the greatest production of silver the mines of the world did not produce more than enough to make but one small silver button for each inhabitant of the earth. Present literature indicates that the money question is being more thoroughly and scientifically studied than in the past, so that a return to right reason and obedience to the Constitution may be expected in the monetary system of the United States. When this has been done the world will stop laughing at the "greatest nation on earth," as we have been engaged in the fantastic attempt of discrediting one of our greatest material blessings, and at the same time calling upon the nations of the earth to help us care for our silver, as we have more than we can manage. While we are less than six-tenths of one per cent. of the population of the earth, we produce at least half of the world's silver—but lack the genius to properly care for it.

            The rich gold and silver ores were shipped to and sold in San Francisco, while experiments were being tried on the Comstock and in San Francisco on all sorts of processes and devices for the recovery of the values in gold and silver contained in the Comstock ores. The mining companies themselves undertook the reduction of their ores with an equipment whose magnificence was only equalled by its inefficiency. To this first work can be credited the imperfect and costly treatment of the Comstock ores that has lasted until the present day. Shrewd, hard-headed, practical men built mills for the reduction of Comstock ores, and as a result of their joint efforts the Washoe Process was evolved. When this process had been established as the one best adapted for the reduction of the ores, the profits derived from milling were so large that powerful milling companies were formed, and any efforts at the milling of their own ores by the mining companies were effectually discouraged.

370      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

THE WASHOE PROCESS.

            The Washoe Process is the Americanized Mexican Patio process and is used for the extraction of gold and silver ores in the following way : The ore is crushed in wet-crushing five-stamp motors (any other device may be used) to a fineness ranging from twenty to forty mesh; the crushed ore is settled in square tanks, set on the pan-floor levels ; the finest of the slimes is settled in reservoirs outside of the mill. The crushed ore, when settled, is charged into fast-running grinding pans holding a charge ranging from one to two tons ; the pans are either steam-jacketed or arranged to take live steam into the charge ; the ore is kept at such a consistency as, with the motion in the pans, will keep the quicksilver, which is added to each charge of ore, in suspension in the charge. Chemicals are used in the process, usually bluestone and salt, and the ore worked hot. The treatment lasts from three to six hours in the pans that are finally discharged into settlers (a slower-motion pan to which large quantities of water are added) to insure the settling of the quicksilver with its charge of gold and silver in such way that the pulp or ground ore will not settle ; the pulp or ground ore is slowly discharged from the settlers, the quicksilver recovered and strained to secure the gold and silver amalgam, which is usually ground in a clean-up pan to remove all impurities, re-strained, and retorted ; the resulting crude bullion is melted into bars of nearly fine gold and silver.

            The mill arrangement and equipment is as follows : For ten stamps of 900 to 1,000 pounds each, four standard two-ton pans are required, with two settlers and a slow-motion clean-up pan, retort, assay office, etc. The actual horsepower required will be sixty, but to provide for extra rock-breaking service, a modification of the process, etc., it will be well to provide seventy-five horsepower for the work. Such a mill will treat from thirty to forty tons of ore per day at a cost ranging from $3 to $7 per ton, depending upon the loss of quicksilver, cost of water, power, etc. In the treatment of the ore such a mill will use 50,000 gallons of water per twenty-four hours ; about fifty per cent. can be settled and used over again when water is scarce and expensive. The following modifications of the Washoe Process have been introduced : Plate and battery amalgamation is being used successfully. The free gold contained in the gold and silver ores is amalgamated and recovered from

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   371

the mortars and upon silvered copper plates that are used before the ore reaches the settling tanks ; the ore is (after passing over these plates) treated in the same way by the Washoe Process as the ores first referred to.

CONCENTRATION BEFORE AMALGAMATION.

            In ores containing heavy sulphides it has been found that, by removing these sulphides before treating the ore in amalgamating pans, a higher percentage of the values is recovered at a reduced cost. Any type or kind of concentrator can be used for the work that will remove the sulphides.

THE COMSTOCK'S PRODUCT.

            With this process established, the production of gold and silver bullion from Comstock ores was rapidly increased. In 1860 the yield was : Gold, $550,000; silver, $200,000. In 1861: Gold, $2,500,000 ; silver, $1,000,000. By 1864 the production had reached : Gold, $6,400.000; silver, $9,600,000. By 1869 the output of gold and silver had dropped to $7,405,578. From 1870 to 1877 there was a steady and rapidly increased product—in the last-named year, that of the greatest output, $14,520,614.08 being gold and $21,780,922.02 being silver, or a total of over $3,000,000 per month in gold and silver from the Comstock mines. From 1879 to 1895 the output varied from $7,000,000 to $1,000,000. From 1896 to 1899 there was a steady decrease in output, that of 1889 being less than $200,000 a year. Since then there has been a gaining output reaching about $2,000,000 a year. The total output of the Comstock mines in gold and silver to the end of 1902 is probably very close to $371,000,000. Of this sum there was about 6o per cent. silver, the remaining 40 per cent. being gold. These values were recovered ; the losses are estimated at between $60,000,000 and $80,000,000. Of this loss modern methods would have saved 70 per cent.

THE MINING OF COMSTOCK ORE.

            The discovery of the silver sulphides having been made by placer miners, it was some time before the nature of the Lode was understood. The first ore was found in small westerly dipping veins that on being fol-

372      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

lowed developed into great masses of ore that turned when nearing the easterly dipping footwall and the vein or fissure followed this wall to a depth of 3,200 feet below the surface. The great value of the Comstock ore created intense excitement throughout the world, so that in a short time after the discovery of the silver sulphides the mining world was fairly represented on the Comstock by men interested in some phase of mining. Added to them were the speculators and gamblers. The result of their combined efforts was to cover the surface of the earth with hundreds of mining locations, as the speculators and gamblers soon discovered that mining claims had a speculative value. These wild and reckless men were models of modesty and propriety when compared to their natural successors in modern mining districts. On the Comstock the main lode was soon outlined and reduced to ownership by many companies. Of these twenty-eight have maintained their organizations to the present time. The ore bodies of the main lode were so much larger and richer than anything found in the outlying mines that attention and work soon concentrated upon the mines of the main lode, notwithstanding the fact that to the east and west of the Comstock Lode ore of value was found in quantity which, under conditions less exciting than were brought about by the development of the main lode, would have been successfully worked, as is surely will be in the not distant future.

            The high wages that were paid to the miners and mechanics on the Comstock was the magnet that attracted the most skillful of these men from the ends of the earth. The managers were thus enabled to meet the unusual difficulties of mining large bodies of ore, handling large quantities of water, and opening up new ground where the temperature was unusually high. All of these difficulties were fairly met, and, while it took nine years for the placer miners of Gold Canyon and the Six-Mile and Seven-Mile canyons to trace the gold they had found in 1851 at the mouth of these canyons to its source, the Comstock (the full circle of the distance from the mouth of Gold Canyon up to the Comstock and back through Six and Seven-Mile canyons can be walked by any vigorous man in one day), the quartz miners of the Comstock had penetrated the Lode to a depth of 3,000 feet within twenty years of the discovery of silver sulphides on the surface. Within that time the simple hand windlass had been superseded by more and more powerful machinery, until direct-acting hoisting engines of a thousand horsepower were being used. These

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   373

engines were designed for work to a depth of a mile below the surface. A tunnel was started and connected with the Lode from a point in the valley of the Carson River four miles distant, thus forming a new base of operations 1,600 feet below the surface. Powerful pumping machinery was installed at various points along the Lode, one such installation costing $1,000,000. During these years of intense activity the Comstock mines, or group of mines, were controlled by individual owners or by small numbers of men with headquarters in San Francisco. The mines were irregular in size and in the number of shares that represented individual properties. The shares of these mines were regularly bought and sold, the controlling ownership often changed. The policy of those in control was always the same : to make the most money possible out of the properties in the shortest possible time, either by manipulating the stocks or by working the mines, or by both. While the management of the mines was, as a rule, brilliant, the spirit of the gambling speculator, not that of the reasonable business man, dominated the situation, and when the time of "Borrasca" came, as come it must after every Bonanza—the time in the Comstock's history when, after a splendid dash at attaining great depth, and but a partial development of these depths, that failed to bring forth a Bonanza, while being threatened on every side by known bodies of hot water—a retreat was ordered, and 1,700 feet of opened and partly developed depths were abandoned, and the hands upon the Comstock's dial were rudely thrust back, for at least a quarter of a century. The reason and excuse for this was the fact that no unity of interest had ever been acknowledged by those in control of the various mines or groups of mines on the Comstock, and even science failed to give a reasonably definite statement of what might be expected of the Comstock in depth.

            The United States Geological Survey had devoted the time of its most eminent employees to a study of the Comstock; many great geologists of the world had in their time examined and reported upon this great lode, yet their combined work was not enough to prevent the abandonment of the lower levels. The keenest regret was felt by those who understood the mechanical conditions and possibilities of the various installations. A pump had been installed and operated under conditions that at that time had never before been encountered by an engineer, yet the pump was so perfect and efficient that, had a united effort been

374      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

made by the principal mines of the Comstock, this pump could have been operated and the lower levels need never have been abandoned.

            A vertical depth of 3,300 feet was reached before the lower levels were abandoned. It was several years before the water again rose to the level of the drain tunnel, 1,700 feet above. During these years many millions of dollars were extracted from ore bodies that formed the margins of the old Bonanzas of the Comstock. It is one of the remarkable features of these ore bodies that they begin and end in quartz bodies—quartz being the gangue or matrix in which the ore is found, the ore forming a rough central core or lens surrounded by quartz, carrying but little ore. In Bonanza days, and during the mad rush to extract a great number of tons per day, the heart of the Bonanza was literally torn out of its quartz body, and in every instance where a Bonanza was found and mined it has paid to mine the ground again. It is also true that, in several instances, a greater tonnage was extracted during the second period of mining than during the first, even when it was not possible to mine the ground thoroughly. Had a more conservative and rational system of mining been adopted, there can be no doubt that many of the Comstock mines would have continued to pay dividends and would have remained on a paying basis for many years to come, and that the bullion production, instead of being less than four hundred millions of dollars, would have been at least double that sum.

            By the year 1898 the conditions on the Comstock were cheerless and nearly hopeless. Many of the mines were practically abandoned ; ruin and decay were the prominent features. At this period, a few men, to whom failure and defeat were unknown terms, with tireless energy and boundless faith in the Comstock, worked at, and succeeded in getting together, the loose ends of the many interests that centered in the Comstock and in convincing those in control of these interests that to save the Comstock from complete abandonment a united effort must be made to recover the lower levels of the Lode. These men were so far successful that a provisional and temporary union of all Comstock interests was formed by twenty-eight mines entering into and forming the Comstock Pumping Association. The operations of this association were successful. The original plan succeeded in recovering 400 feet in depth of the flooded levels, in the discovery of an ore body, and in the re-establish-

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   375

ment of sufficient confidence in the Comstock mines to warrant a general resumption of work along the Lode.

            The device used for draining the Lode is a modified hydraulic elevator designed to use water under a head of 2,000 feet and over. Using water under such great pressure brought forward problems in hydraulics that are not yet solved. The advantages of the system are so great as to economy of space and first cost that every feature of the system deserves the most careful study, with the view of attaining final perfection and highest possible efficiency. Before a hundred thousand dollars had been expended in this system, more water was discharged into the drain tunnel at one time by it than had been discharged by the five million dollars worth of pumps formerly in operation on the Comstock Lode. Shortly after this system had been in fairly successful operation it was decided to operate the mines of the Comstock by electric power. A company was formed that secured contracts for power paid in advance of delivery and the power plant was built. The plant is now in successful operation, delivering power that is used in mining, pumping, milling ore, and for lighting, from a generating station at a point on the Truckee River thirty-three miles distant from the Comstock Lode.

VIRGINIA CITY.

            Virginia City is situated on the eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, overlying the Comstock Lode, at an average elevation of 6,000 feet above the sea. It is a modern city in all that the term implies ; electrically lighted, and supplied with an abundance of the purest and softest of mountain water. The wants of the community are supplied by dozens of keen competing merchants. Communication with the outside world is had through the best equipped and maintained railroad in the country, and by perfect telegraph and telephone service. The spiritual wants of the community are fairly met ; the fraternal wants are supplied in superabundance ; the educational facilities are what the people demand ; the brokerage and banking facilities are of such magnitude and so far-reaching that visitors to the Comstock while on the ground can buy the controlling interest in one of the mines and arrange for its payment by telegraph transfer ; the climate and scenery are to the normal person ideal. A sunrise as seen from Virginia City, looking eastward along the pathway

376      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

of the sun, has been aptly described as the "Purple Gate," as distinguished from California's Golden Gate as lit by the setting sun. One can see this sunrise on the "Purple Gate," and, leaving Virginia City before it sets, behold it rise again on the morrow on the Golden Gate.

THE FUTURE OF THE COMSTOCK.

            This statement is not intended to be prophetic. The author has knowledge of Comstock history, and of the strange freaks it has produced in the lives of men and in the condition of things. In these actions and reactions, Bonanzas and Borrascas have played almost equal parts. The Bonanzas have deluged men with more money than they could count ; the Borrascas have wafted our men and women to other scenes where fame and fortune became theirs. He also possesses information as to the fate of prophets, and will, therefore, submit the facts, hoping to assist the reader to paint his own picture of the Comstock's future.

            The most striking fact in the history of the Comstock is revealed by a study of the working maps. While it is true that a vertical depth of 3,300 feet has been reached on a vein with an average dip of 45 degrees to the east, and that hundreds of miles of tunnels and drifts have been run, it is equally true that barely 20 per cent. of the lode above the 1,600-foot level has been prospected, that today good ore is being extracted within a few feet of the surface at many points, and that millions of tons of ore will yet be profitably worked from the croppings of the lode. Below the 1,600-foot level 7 per cent. would be a very liberal allowance for the prospected or developed ground of the Comstock Lode.

            The second fact is that no modern complete milling plant for the reduction of ores exists on the Comstock. It is true that first-class modern work has been done, and that ores are now being reduced at a fraction of former costs, but the credit for this work is due to individual effort, and not to the direct action of any mining company. The data now available is conclusive as to what percentages of the values of Comstock ores can be recovered. The unaltered ores, treated by plate amalgamation and concentration, yield from 60 to 80 per cent. at once. Of the remaining 20 to 40 per cent. of the value, there can be recovered 60 to 70 per cent. by cyanide treatment. Of the other Comstock ores nearly equal results can be obtained and at not greater cost.

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   377

            Our neighbors in California and to the east are treating ores in this way, crushing, amalgamating, concentrating and cyaniding the tailings in quantity for $1 per ton of ore treated.

            The third fact is that the Comstock has been most generous in "casting her bread" of men and treasure upon the waters of the world's affairs. What was prophesied of old must be true in this case. The patient, unselfish students of geology and mineralogy throughout the world are recording the results of their labors. The men engaged in the active work of mining and reducing ores are coming together and comparing results and methods.

            From these facts, it is reasonable to assume that the law governing the occurrence and recurrence of ore bodies will be decovered and the discovery published for the benefit of mankind. The low costs of mining and milling, so general throughout the world, will at least be duplicated on the Comstock. Those in control of the mines will become students of the great Lode and give it at least the attention that the successful horseracing man gives his stable.

            Those who have the best information of the Comstock Lode can safely say that there is no mining field known in the world that offers inducements so great and lasting to the student, the capitalist, the mining engineer, or the speculator. If the man exists who combines in himself the best of these qualities, the Comstock is the field provided by nature for the full development of every faculty with which he has been endowed.

            For several years past, an important mining investigation has been conducted by the greatest combination of capital that the world has ever known. The gentleman in charge of the investigation that embraces the western half of the American continent and who worked in the mines of the Comstock Lode in the early days of its development, on a recent visit said : "I meet old Comstockers in nearly every mining camp or district that I visit, and I am prepared to say that I know of no mining camp or lode whose revival and success would call forth such universal and hearty congratulation as that of the Comstock."

            It need only be added that the fissure veins carrying silver sulphides of the same type and character as found on the Comstock have been worked for a thousand years, to warrant a final and cheerful picture of the Comstock's future.

            The gross yield of the Comstock during the past eight years is as fol-

378      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

lows : 1905, 515,771; 1906, 631,285 ; 1907, 258,538; 1908, 501,230 ; 1909, 825,117; 1910, 746,382; 1911, 513,809; 1912, 1,268,492.

            When in 1904, I wrote the history of the great Comstock Lode, it was necessary that the story should be impersonal, due to the fact that I held an official position as manager of several of the Comstock mines and that there was then living, men who had been and were then interested in the control of the Comstock situation. Since 1904, death and time, have pursued the even tenor of their ways, so that there is now no reason for an impersonal story.

            The names of engineers, in charge of the work, the manufacturers of the modern machinery used in the effort to recover the lost levels, the active San Francisco stock brokers, who still think that they are competent to act as directors of mining companies, and the optimistic capitalists from other mining regions who have done their best to improve old Comstock methods and discover new Bonanzas, the names of all these good people and things could be given, graphically and in detail without injury or offense, but our modern world calls for results, and as the combined efforts of the good people and the modern machinery have accomplished so little in the last eight years, there is now no reason or excuse for a personal story.

            Since 1904 practically no work has been done on the Comstock proper ; in the mines at Virginia City all of the work being confined to the nearly vertical spurs that were found in the Con Virginia, the Ophir, and the Mexican ; these spurs were followed north, along a northeast course, while the Comstock Lode has a course north and south, so that the further north that these spurs were found, the greater the distance in a westerly line to the Comstock proper; except in the Con Virginia, no contact has been found or shown between these spurs and the Comstock Lode.

            In the Gold Hill portion of the Comstock, no important new development has been made ; the work has been largely along the margins and in the ground of the old Bonanzas and on the main Lode.

            The production has varied between $750,000 and $2,000,000 annually. For the year 1912, the production will probably be about one million.

            In the history of Nevada, the diminishing yield of the Goldfield District, and the increasing yield of the Tonopahs, still leaves the Comstock as Nevada's greatest gold and silver mine. What was said of the future of the Comstock in 1904, is true today. The opportunities are still there

THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE   379

and but little changed; the effort to unwater the great lode has not yet succeeded, there being several hundred feet of the old levels still under water.

            There are indications that the man, or men, who will restore the Comstock to a profitable producer of gold and silver, are either now on the Comstock or that they are not far away.

            Some ten years ago there was established at Virginia City, a mining school branch or extension of the University of Nevada presided over by an instructor provided by the University ; the students were a self-governing set of men who paid their own expenses and arranged the class work so that the practical miners working underground on any one of the three shifts of men required to maintain continuous twenty-four hour underground service, could receive instruction from the professor in charge. The subjects taught were such that would enable any of the students who could successfully master them, and pass an examination at the University of Nevada to secure a degree of mining engineer. With slight modifications, the class has continued since it was started and it is now in successful operation, presided over by Professor D. T. Smith. Many of the students of this class have become successful mining engineers and managers ; they have been successful also as prospectors and as miners working for themselves. A company of these students has successfully opened, worked, and finally disposed of, at a good profit to themselves, a mining property just east of the Comstock Lode. The men of this class writing to me on the subject of this school in October last, expressed themselves as follows :

            "It is with hearty good will and sincere appreciation for the service you rendered us in conceiving, and what is more important still, making that conception an actuality, in the Comstock Class of Mining and Metallurgy now known as the Virginia City School of Mines, that we send you this testimonial of our esteem.

            "You desired to give the common miner a chance to improve his condition and surround him with an environment that would encourage and help him to become an assayer, surveyor or manager of a mining company.

            "A man of less energy and resourcefulness than yourself would have been daunted by the obstacles thrown in his path.

            "It was a new idea in America; this invitation to the 'groundhog' to lift up his eyes and see the acorns on the tree of knowledge; to reach

380      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

the lower branches if he would and strive for the topmost branches if he could; and its practicability was derided by some, and doubted by many.

            "Its feasibility is no longer a matter of doubt, and its former students are holding important positions from Alaska to Central America."

            This letter is signed by forty-six miners. The excuse for introducing the subject is the fact that at Virginia City, Nevada, on the great Comstock Lode, was established the first successful school for working miners in America, and for the further reason that their experience may be taken as a safe guide for vocational education.