allowed to take up sufficient gold to give it the consistency of
paste. It is passed through a chamois-skin folded into a bag, and
twisted like a piece of wet linen. The quicksilver, being separated
from the gold, passes through the pores of the skin in the form of
silver drops, and is caught in a basin beneath. The gold must now be
separated from the paste, and the amalgam left behind resembles a ball
of tin. Quicksilver dissolves gold just as water dissolves sugar, but
the quicksilver can be driven away in vapor, and the gold will remain.
The amalgam can be made to give up its gold in the same way that a
solution of sugar and water can be made to yield sugar candy. In this
way gold may be considered the sugar candy of the miner.
The balls of amalgam are placed in an iron retort, which is heated in
a furnace. At a high temperature the quicksilver boils, and ascends
in the form of vapor towards the neck of the apparatus. The neck of
the retort opens into a tub of water, which condenses the vaporized
quicksilver, and causes it to fall to the bottom.
When the operation is concluded, the quicksilver is at the bottom of
the tub, and the ball of gold is in the retort. With the quicksilver
driven out, the gold has a porous and spongy appearance. It is
remelted in crucibles, and then cast into bars. If the operation is
properly conducted, hardly any of the quicksilver will be lost. I
have known instances where miners have used a quantity of quicksilver
twenty or thirty times over, with hardly any appreciable diminution of
its weight.
A great many quartz mines have been opened in California, Colorado,
and other portions of America. Some of them have returned much
less money to their stockholders than to the men who organized
the companies. During the height of the mining fever, it was
comparatively easy to organize a company, where a man had any
reasonable supposition that a mine existed. All through California
quartz mines were opened, but those which have paid a profit to the
operators could almost be counted on the fingers’ ends. The most
profitable centre of quartz mining is in the vicinity of Grass Valley,
a short distance from the line of the Central Pacific Railway. Most
of the mines opened there have been profitable, though there are some
which never made any money.
The richest and most famous of the Californian quartz mines is the one
known as Hayward’s. Its early history was one of disaster, but for
several years it has been paying a steady and handsome profit to its
owner. I remember, on my arrival in San Francisco, a resident of that
city told me of Hayward’s case.
“Hayward,” said he, “used to have a hard time of it, but now he takes
things easy. He spends most of his time in San Francisco, and once in
every fortnight he goes up to the mill, and orders them to ‘clean up.’
They clean up; the gold is retorted, and he brings it down here. He
has a clear income of ten or twelve thousand dollars a week from the
mine, and appears to enjoy himself.”
[Sidenote: STORY OF MARIPOSA.]
Probably the most famous mines of California, and those which
have swallowed up the most money, are the Mariposa. Mariposa is a
Spanish word, meaning “butterfly;” and there never was a more gaudy
butterfly, to catch the eye of a speculating public, than the Mariposa
of California. General Fremont obtained a grant of land on which
the mines are located, and he organized a stock company, which was
expected to return an enormous revenue; somehow the golden promise did
not turn out brilliantly, and those who invested became heavy losers.
Mariposa went down, and carried with it a great many confiding men.
By and by it came up again, and a new speculation was started. More
money was invested, with pretty nearly the same result as before; and
so it has gone on up to the present time; and once in a while there is
a speculation in Mariposa. Somebody wins a great deal of money, and
somebody loses a great deal.
[Sidenote: VISITING THE MARIPOSA MINE.]
My only visit to the Mariposa mines convinced me that they are good
things to make money out of, provided they could be operated to a
great profit. There were five large mines on the Mariposa grant. Only
one of them was at work, and at this one the superintendent politely
refused to allow us an opportunity for inspection. He said they were
taking out a fair amount of gold, but he thought their amalgamating
process was not perfect; and consequently the shareholders could not
expect a large dividend. It is possible he would have granted us
permission to descend into the mine; but as two men had been killed
recently in one of the tunnels, and a man, not long before, had fallen
down the shaft, we concluded it was altogether too good a place for
accidents, and one that we did not care to inspect.
[Sidenote: A SEA CAPTAIN AS A MINER.]
The ways of the quartz miners—that is to say, of the owners of the
mines—are something wonderful. Thousands of mines have been managed
by men no more competent to superintend mining than to construct a
new solar system. Some years ago I made the acquaintance of a sea
captain who had retired from the service, and concluded to go into
business. He had begun life as a cabin boy, having run away to sea.
He next sailed before the mast, and had gone through all the grades,
until he was qualified to be master of a ship. He had a brother-in-law
who was a director in a mining company, and the directors, in their
infinite wisdom, concluded that this retired sea captain, whose sands
of life had not altogether run out, would make an excellent mining
superintendent, as he was good for nothing else.
[Illustration: MINERS AROUND THEIR CAMP-FIRE.]
On what reasoning they based their determination I do not know. He had
never seen a mine in all his life, and could not tell the difference
between a piece of granite and a fragment of gold-bearing quartz.
I met him one day, and he told me he was to start on the following
morning for the scene of operations, where he would take charge of
a mine. I lost sight of him for several months, but one day met him
on Broadway, looking as if he had just been sentenced to the
penitentiary. I asked how his mining speculation was getting along,
and he begged me not to talk about it.
“I told them,” said he, “that I did not know anything about mining;
but they shipped me out there, and told me to manage the craft the
best way I could, and they knew I would get along all right. When I
got there, a shaft had been made twenty or thirty feet down, and the
mill was nearly completed. I was determined not to let on to the men
there that I did not know all about the business, and when the man
in charge of the works came to me, I told him to go ahead,—that he
was doing everything all right. I hurried the mill up, and, as it was
approaching completion, I went to the mouth of the shaft, looked at
several heaps of rocks, pointed out one, and told them to crush that
first. I saw the fellows sticking their quids in their larboard jaws,
and supposed that it indicated that I knew what I was about.
“We went to work, and run the mill for a week, and the foreman asked
me if he had not better clean up. I told him I did not think the mill
looked very dirty, and guessed I would not clean up for a while. Fact
is, I did not know what cleaning up meant. I visited a neighboring
mine, got acquainted with the superintendent, who knew just about as
much of the business as I did, and precious little more; but from him
I found out what it was to ‘clean up.’
“I thought I would let the mill run another week, and so I did. Then
we cleaned up, and there was not a particle of gold to be found.
I told the foreman he had not arranged things properly; that the
quicksilver ought to be on the other side of the riffle, so as to
catch the gold when it fell over. I bought blankets, and sheep-skins,
and everything else, but could not accomplish anything.
“I used to go down in the mine occasionally, and somehow, every time
I went there, there was always an accident—not a serious one, to be
sure; but they would dump me out of the bucket, or run against me, or
turn a hose on me by accident, or do something. I was getting into
trouble every day, but it never happened in such a way that I could
accuse anybody. The country was not fit for a dog to live in, and I
soon got tired of it.
“The company got tired of it too, and I kept writing such discouraging
letters, and, besides, the sheriff came on me, and seized everything;
so that they finally told me to come home. I left the place suddenly,
took the stage coach, and started east.
“I had a back seat in the coach, and right in front of me were two
men who were talking about the mines. They spoke of various things
that did not interest me much, but finally one of them referred to the
Ready Return Mine, which was the one I had been running.
[Sidenote: TRICKS ON A GREENHORN.]
“One of these fellows laughed, and said, ‘I wish we had gone to see
the Ready Return Mine. Jim Jackson says it is the funniest thing
alive. There is a sailor there, superintendent of the mine, who does
not know any more about mining than you do about the Ten Commandments.
He came out there, pretended to be very wise, and set the boys to
crushing wall rock—nothing but the meanest wall rock—with not an ounce
of gold in a thousand tons of it. Well, they let him keep on, as there
was not any gold there any way; and I reckon he has about spent all
the company’s money, and will have to bust pretty soon. They have
a good deal of fun with him, and play all sorts of tricks on him.
I wish we had gone there, and seen the fellow. When the mine busts
completely, they are going to lower him down the shaft, under some
pretext, then haul up the bucket, and let him stay a day or two, to
teach him something about mining.’
“When I heard this,” said my aquatic friend, “I made up my mind that I
had had enough of that business; and then I knew how those fellows had
been gagging me. You won’t catch me at a gold mine again.”
[Illustration: GROUND SLUICING.]
[Illustration: HYDRAULIC MINING.]
LVII.
COPPER AND COPPER MINES.
ANTIQUITY OF COPPER.—USE OF IT AMONG THE ANCIENTS.—OLDEST
COINS.—THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.—COPPER MINES OF ENGLAND AND OTHER
COUNTRIES.—NATIVE COPPER.—HOW IT IS WORKED.—OVERTHROWING A MASS.—A
LUMP WEIGHING EIGHT HUNDRED TONS.—MALACHITE.
One of the first metals known to man was copper. It is related in
Scripture that Tubal Cain was “an instructor of every artificer in
brass and in iron.” In the book of Job we read that “copper is molten
out of the stone.” It is recorded in Egyptian history that the Emperor
Cheops worked a copper mine in Sinai. The ancient Egyptians were
familiar with copper, and the Syrians, Phœnicians, and also the Greeks
and Romans, used a great deal of it in the manufacture of monuments
and statues of bronze. The Colossus of Rhodes, after lying in the sand
for nine hundred years, is said to have required nearly a thousand
camels to convey its pieces away. The ancients seem to have worked
copper mines very extensively, and their facilities for making large
castings were quite equal to those of modern times.
Copper was known in America to the races that inhabited this continent
before the Indians had any knowledge of it, as appears from the
various utensils of copper found in the ancient mounds of the Western
country and the extensive mining works along the shores of Lake
Superior. The Mexicans and Peruvians had many tools of copper, and it
is a curious fact that these tools are almost identical in composition
with the tools found at Thebes and other points along the Nile. A
chisel found in a silver mine in Peru contained ninety-four per cent.
copper, five per cent. tin, and one per cent. iron.
Copper was used for money at a very early period. Some coins are in
existence supposed to be twenty-five hundred years old. They contain
from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of copper, and the residue is
made up of tin, lead, and zinc.
[Sidenote: EXTENT OF COPPER MINES.]
The mines which supply the copper of commerce are situated in almost
all parts of the world. Many of them are worked by English companies,
and made tributary to the great smelting establishments at Swansea,
in Wales. It is easier to carry ores to the localities where coal is
mined, than it is to carry the coal to the copper mines. The great
value of many copper ores admits of their transportation from the
interior of countries to the sea-coast, and their shipment thence by
sea to the place where they can be reduced with the greatest economy.
In America there are many smelting works on various parts of the
coast, and at some interior points, but none of them are as extensive
as the English ones.
Many copper mines are worked on the Andes, particularly in Chili
and Peru. Central America and Mexico contain many mines, some of
them of great value. Copper deposits are scattered throughout the
United States, all the way from New England to California, though
comparatively few of them are valuable. There are copper mines of
great value and world-wide celebrity in Cornwall, England. Other
parts of the British Isles produce this metal. There are valuable
copper mines in Germany, Sweden, and Norway, and the mines of the
Ural Mountains of Russia are among the richest on the globe. In 1830
the copper production of Great Britain was more than half the entire
copper production of the world. Copper mining in other parts of the
world was not extensively prosecuted; but subsequently the industry
increased so rapidly that twenty-five years later the amount of copper
produced in Great Britain, though not less in quantity, was only one
fourth of that of the entire globe.
Occasionally circumstances give a great impetus to copper mining. For
instance, in 1866, the war between Chili and Spain cut off the copper
supply from the former country, and gave a great impetus to copper
mining elsewhere. In California several copper mines were opened, and
were making an enormous profit for their owners, when suddenly the war
between Spain and Chili came to an end, the Chilian mines were opened
again, and the copper mines of California diminished greatly in value.
Copper is found in various forms; sometimes in sulphurets or oxides,
and crystallized in various ways. In some parts of the world it is
found in a pure state.
[Sidenote: A HOLE IN THE GROUND.]
Copper mines are very much like other mines, and do not require a
special description. They may be tersely set down as holes in the
ground; and one hole in the ground, so far as light and darkness go,
is very much like another. I remember that on one occasion, while
travelling in a distant part of the world, I endeavored to urge a
friend to accompany me to visit a curious cave. He shook his head
doubtfully, and said, “O, it’s nothing but a hole in the ground;
what’s the use of going there?” A few days later, I had arranged an
excursion into a silver mine, and urged him to join me. He declined,
with the remark, “What’s the use of going into it? it’s nothing but a
hole in the ground.” Again, when a mining excursion was in progress,
he declined to be of the party because the place was in a hole in the
ground, and he did not wish to get beneath the surface of the earth
until he was dead.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A COPPER MINE.]
It may be said of a copper mine, as of a coal mine, an iron mine, or
anything else of the sort, “it’s nothing but a hole in the ground;”
but if you should ask, as my friend did, “What’s the use of going
there?” I think in many instances the owners could point to fine
houses and heavy bank accounts, to show you, beyond a doubt, that
there is a good deal of use in visiting the mine, or, at all events,
in owning it.
[Sidenote: HEAVY DIVIDENDS IN COPPER STOCK.]
Copper mines, some of them at least, are very good things to own,
while others are very good to let alone. Many a speculator has come to
grief by dabbling in copper stocks, while many another speculator has
made a great deal of money by it. Copper mining is very much like a
lottery; there are prizes, and very valuable ones, and there are also
a great number of blanks. In Cornwall, the Great Consolidated Mines,
as they are called, made a profit in twenty years of three millions
of dollars, and their product in one year was half a million dollars.
In the next eight years the dividends dwindled down to a very small
figure, owing to the expense of working, and for six years afterwards
no dividend was declared; then, immediately after, rich deposits were
found, and enormous dividends paid. An idea of the extent of these
mines may be formed when it is known that the aggregate length of the
underground workings is more than seventy miles.
One company in Cornwall paid in five dollars on each share, and its
stock consisted of one thousand shares. In the first three months of
regular working the amount cleared was seventy-five thousand dollars.
In the following year it cleared one hundred thousand dollars. Five
years later the dividends amounted to seventeen hundred dollars a
share, and each share was worth two thousand dollars. This was a very
fair profit on an investment of five dollars.
In another mine the shares originally cost twenty-five dollars each,
and a few years later they were worth five thousand one hundred and
seventy-five dollars a share.
One copper mine in Australia was opened in 1845. The whole amount
of capital paid in was sixty thousand dollars, and the dividends
up to March, 1850, were nine hundred thousand dollars. None of the
dividends were less than fifty per cent. on the capital, and some
were at the rate of two hundred per cent. Half a million dollars
remained undivided, so that in five years the total profits amounted
to nineteen times the whole amount of capital invested.
The copper region of Lake Superior contains almost the only mines
that produce this metal profitably worked in the United States. The
existence of masses of native copper had been known for a long time,
but nothing was done towards mining in that region until the Indian
title was extinguished, in 1842. Immediately after this the country
was rapidly taken up by adventurers from the Eastern States, and
mining operations were begun. The state geologist, Dr. Houghton, had
examined the country, and located the productive region on the range
of the Trap Hills commencing on the south coast of Keweenaw Point.
From Keweenaw Point the Trap Hills run in two or three parallel
ranges, extending westward more than one hundred miles. There are
other trap formations presenting some mineral indications, but most of
the profitable mines are in this narrow belt. A great many mines have
been opened, but comparatively few of them have been found profitable.
[Sidenote: HOW COPPER ORES ARE FOUND.]
Copper ores are found in various conditions, but there are no mines
in the world where there is so much of it in the native state as in
the Lake Superior region. The largest masses stand upon their edges
in the vein. Sometimes they are many yards in length and several feet
in breadth, and their thickness varies from an inch to more than a
yard. Silver is associated with copper, sometimes in occasional lumps
unattached to the copper, though generally the two metals are in
contact, as if the silver had been deposited with the copper, without
forming an alloy with it. I believe no alloy of the two metals is ever
found there, and consequently they can never have been in a fused
condition in contact. The lumps of silver vary in weight from a few
grains to several pounds.
Masses of copper of great size have been found. One was discovered
several years ago containing at least five hundred tons, and other
masses are said to have contained more than eight hundred tons.
[Sidenote: BLASTING COPPER MASSES.]
The work of cutting out one of these masses sometimes occupies several
weeks or months. The mass fills the entire vein, so that the rock must
be removed on one side; the mass is thus left as a wall, its upper
edge extending into the roof and its lower edge into the floor. When
the side is laid bare, the mass is attacked at one end by introducing
charges of powder, and as fast as room is obtained, and cracks are
opened between the copper and the rock, the size of these charges is
increased. The usual form of blasting under such circumstances is by
what is known as the “sand blast.”
Powder is poured loosely into the openings in large quantities, and is
then covered with dry sand. It is lighted by means of a safety fuse,
which gives the men time to escape. The first blast will be in a small
cavity, and as the cavities are enlarged more powder is introduced,
until sometimes several hundred pounds are spread in the crevice and
fired at once. In several instances one thousand pounds of powder have
been burned at a single blast. When the mass has been thrown down in
this way, the work of cutting it so that it can be removed begins.
Two miners strike in turn upon a long steel chisel held by a third,
and thus gradually cut a groove across the copper. This work is
repeated until the mass is cut through, and sometimes it requires an
entire month to make a single cut. The mass is reduced into pieces
weighing five or six tons each, which can be hoisted up the shaft, and
it will then be cut into little morsels weighing not more than two or
three tons each, so that it can be easily handled.
To give an idea of the extent of this kind of work, it may be
stated that some years ago a mass of copper was uncovered on which
nearly three thousand pounds of powder were expended before it was
thrown over so that it could be cut. When it was thrown over it was
forty-five feet long, and its greatest thickness was eight feet.
Several months were required for cutting it up so that it could be
removed, and it was estimated from its measurement to weigh more than
five hundred tons. This mass copper usually yields more than ninety
per cent. of pure metal.
[Illustration: A COPPER MINE OF THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGION.]
[Illustration: DRILLING IN A COPPER MINE.]
The copper mines of Lake Superior are generally very profitable, where
they pay at all, but investments in them should be made with great
caution. Many copper companies have been organized, and the stock has
been put upon the market and sold, when the mine had no existence
except in the brain of its originator.
[Sidenote: MALACHITE AND ITS USES.]
A very valuable substance found in copper mines is that known as
malachite. Specimens of it are found in the Lake Superior district, in
Australia, and sometimes in England. The greatest quantities of it—in
fact the only quantities of any importance in the whole world—are in
the Ural Mountains, in Russia. In the mine of Tagilsk, a pretty town
of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, situated in the Ural Mountains,
there is a valuable copper mine which produces immense quantities of
malachite.
Malachite is a protocarbonate of copper, and by analysis yields
seventy-one per cent. of protoxide of copper. It is distinguished for
its beautiful green color, variegated in many ways, its fine texture,
and its ability to receive high polish. It is used for jewelry, and is
converted into tables, vases, and many articles of great beauty.
In the mine of Tagilsk, about thirty years ago, an enormous mass
of malachite was discovered, and several years were required to
remove it. If it could have been taken out in its natural state,
it would have been the greatest curiosity of the known world. The
whole weight of this mass was estimated at seven hundred and twenty
thousand pounds. Sir Roderick Murchison examined this mass before
it was touched by the wedge or hammer, and his description is quite
interesting. He says,—