THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD.
Silver was known to the ancients as far back in the dim and distant ages
of the past as any record extends. It was undoubtedly one of the first
metals mined by mankind. In writings, both sacred and profane, mention
is made of silver in the earliest ages of the world.
Gold being a metal that is found native, and silver being very
frequently found in the native state, these were doubtless among the
first metals with which the primitive races of mankind became
acquainted. Native silver being found mingled with various ores of
silver, it was probably not long after the metal became known and valued
that men conceived the idea of smelting these ores and thus obtaining a
larger supply of the metal than was yielded in the native form. In the
Bible frequent mention is made of silver, from the very beginning.
Silver was more highly prized than gold by all the primitive peoples of
the earth. Even the sacred writers speak of it with gusto. To this day
we find that savages and semi-civilized nations prefer silver to gold.
It is the case with the negro tribes of Africa, the Indians of the
American Continent, and with the nations of China and Japan. The human
animal must be educated up to a just appreciation of gold, but silver by
its brilliant white lustre and flash in the light of the sun recommends
itself to him as soon as its sheen strikes his eye.
All metals were no doubt first extracted from their ores by smelting,
yet it appears that the process of extracting silver from its ores, and
gold from its matrix, by means of quicksilver was not unknown to the
ancients. Pliny and Vitruvius speak of quicksilver being used for this
purpose. In ancient times, if Pliny is to be believed, the art of mining
was well understood, as he speaks of silver-mines being worked to the
depth of a mile and a half. If this be true, our modern mines have
little to boast of. To have done such mining the ancients must have
possessed hoisting and pumping machinery, or their equivalents, with
appliances for ventilation equal to if not surpassing any known to the
mining engineers of the present age. There is every evidence that
silver-mines were worked in many countries in the Old World at a very
early day, and not a few are still being worked, in regard to the date
of the discovery and opening of which there is no record. All that is
known is that they seem to have always been worked.
Fuller, in his treatise on silver-mines, says:
“Wherever in any part of the world silver-mines have been worked they
are worked now, unless for some unexplainable cause, such as the lack
of machinery, the existence of war, the invasion of Indians, etc. We
know of no silver-mining regions in the world that have given out.
Mexican mines, worked by the Aztecs before the conquest, are still
worked as profitably as ever; the old Spanish mines opened long before
Hannibal’s time, are still worked with enormous profits; the South
American mines have constantly yielded their wealth for more than
three hundred years, and are as productive as ever; mines in Hungary,
that were worked by the Romans before the Saviour’s time, still yield
abundance of ore; the silver-mines of Freiburg, opened in the eleventh
century and worked continually ever since, yield their steady
increase. So in Norway, Sweden, and Russia, and indeed, wherever
silver-mines have been opened, we believe without exception, they
continue to be worked at the present day, and generally are more
productive than at any time in their past history. For permanent and
rich returns, silver-mining has no parallel in any other business.”
In regard to the yield of the silver-mines in Spain in ancient times
little can now be ascertained. By many persons the Spanish peninsula is
regarded as the Tarshish of old, and through such traditions as have
come down to us it is quite certain that Solomon drew much of his wealth
from the Spanish mines at the time it is said, “it was nothing accounted
of, for the King made silver to be as stones in Jerusalem.”
Among the fabulous stories of the ancients in regard to the silver-mines
of Spain is that of Diodorous, who relates that the shepherds of the
Pyrenees set fire to the forests in the neighborhood of their camps,
when by the burning of the fallen timber the minerals of the earth were
fused and the molten silver ran upon the ground as water in a brook.
Among the modern silver-mines of Spain are those of Sierra de Almagrera,
which were discovered and opened in 1839, and which in 1845 gave
employment to eight thousand miners. The most important silver-mines in
Spain at the present time are those of Hiendelaencia, which were
discovered about thirty years ago and which have been productive ever
since—their average annual yield for twenty years was 31,577 pounds
troy. The whole silver yield of Spain is at present about one hundred
thousand pounds troy per annum.
In Germany, the silver-mines discovered in the Hartz mountains and at
Frieberg, Saxony, in the tenth century are still being worked as
vigorously as ever. Much of the silver-ore worked in Germany is of no
better quality than is thrown away on the Comstock as “waste rock.” In
Norway and Sweden silver-mines known before the discovery of America,
are being worked. The mines of Sala, Westmania, which are yet being
worked were known and worked over 500 years ago. The Cero de Pasco
mines, Peru, discovered in 1630, from which no less than five million
pounds of silver were taken out in forty-three years, are still
productive. The famous mines of Potosi (Cerro de Potosi), Bolivia,
formerly included in the territory of Peru, discovered in 1544, are said
to have yielded $1,200,000,000. The total annual yield of Bolivia at
present is about 450,000 pounds.
The Zacatecas mines, in Mexico, were opened in 1548, and the mines of
Guanajuata in 1558. The principal mines of Mexico are those of
Guanajuata, Catorce, Zacatecas, and Real del Monte. The yield of the
Mexican mines since the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, up to
1860, amounted to $2,039,100,000. The following is the yield of some of
the older silver-mines of Mexico and South America: Sierra Madre mines,
$800,000,000, Veta Madre, $235,934,636; Rio Grande, $650,000,000; Royas,
$85,421,015; Valencia, $31,813,486; Santa Anna, $21,347,210; Biscania,
$16,341,000. These are, in most instances, not single veins, but mining
districts in which there are numerous veins of various sizes and degrees
of richness. They are groups of parallel veins. The Veta Madre, of
Mexico, is however, situated much the same as the Comstock lode of
Nevada. It fills a similar fissure and is in a similar formation.
Although other mines in Mexico contain much richer ores, the Veta Madre
(Mother Vein), has been more extensively worked than any other mine in
that country. It has been steadily worked for over three hundred years,
yet during the three centuries there has been taken from it but little
more silver than has been taken from the Comstock during sixteen years.
Humboldt says the silver sent to Europe from Mexico and South America,
from the discovery of the New World by Columbus to 1809, would make a
solid ball eighty-three and seven-tenths Paris feet in diameter; at the
present rate of production the Comstock lode alone should roll up a
tolerably large ball, as in sixteen years it is estimated the yield of
the vein has been $220,000,000, or an average annual yield of
$13,750,000. This is a good showing when we consider that our people did
not know what the silver-ore was when they found it, and that during the
first two or three years after they began working the ores much time was
spent in trying experiments with all kinds of processes, and with
machinery of an inferior character.
In 1874 the yield of the Comstock mines was $21,940,123,96; in 1874, it
was $22,242,274,95; and for 1875 it will be much greater.
According to recent estimates the total silver product of the world from
1850 to 1875 was $1,025,000,000 and the Comstock mines are now yielding
one-tenth of the entire amount produced in the world. The latest
estimates of German and American authorities give the total product of
all the gold and silver-mines in the world, from the year 1500 to 1874,
as follows: Pounds of silver—364,000,000, valued at $8,175,000,000.
Pounds of gold—17,000,000, valued at $6,450,000,000. Total pounds of
gold and silver—381,600,000; valued at $14,625,000,000. These figures
are probably not very exact. It is a hard matter to get the exact yield
of even such mines as are worked by regularly organized companies, and
almost impossible to get figures at all where gold is being mined from
placers.
It would not be of general interest to trace the progress of mining
events on the Comstock year by year from the discovery of silver up to
the present writing. It is sufficient to say that in 1862-3, up to which
time operations on the lode have been pretty fully described, there
began to be an abundance of tolerably efficient mills, and
hoisting-works that were sufficiently powerful to do the work at the
depth to which the shafts of the principal companies had then been sunk.
Even as late as 1866 the greatest depth which had been attained in any
mine on the Comstock lode was 923 feet. This was in the Chollor-Potosi
mine. The Gould & Curry were then working at a depth of 900 feet,
Belcher, 850; Bullion, 800; Hale & Norcross, 783; Savage, 614; Ophir,
547, and other leading companies at a depth of from 500 to 600 feet.
Ever since the setting up of the first steam-hoisting and pumping
machinery on the lode, and ever since the starting of the first mills
for the reduction of the ores extracted, improvements have been made and
still continue to be made. The mills and hoisting-works at present in
operation would astound the miner and millman of 1862-3, though he
doubtless flattered himself that the mills and hoisting-works of that
day had attained a degree of perfection beyond which there was little
room for improvement.
During these years there were numerous changes in the fortunes of the
companies along the lode. Some that had rich ore upon the surface had
worked down to the bottom of their deposit and had found themselves in
clay or barren porphyry, while others who had started in with no ore on
the surface, as the Hale & Norcross and some others, found themselves in
“bonanza” at the depth of six or seven hundred feet; and when ore began
to grow thin with these last the first companies, by drafting east from
the point where their pay pinched out in clay and porphyry, had again
found ore and in larger and richer bodies than at first. Thus the
bonanza and luck shift, and will probably so continue to shift as long
as the mines are worked. It never but once happened—which was in
1865—that so many mines were at once in barren as to depress business
and cause a feeling of distress in regard to the permanence of the
mines.
No sooner had some of the more timid taken their departure, however, and
raised the cry that the country was “played out,” than longer and richer
bodies of ore began to be found than ever before. Those who had run away
then came back, bitterly regretting the want of faith which had caused
them to leave just at a time when a fortune might have been had for a
mere song. In 1862, the Reese River mines, 150 or 200 miles east of
Virginia City, were discovered, a rush to these occurred, and the town
of Austin was built up; then came the White Pine excitement, and the
towns of Hamilton and Treasure City were built; afterwards Eureka and
Pioche were built by the discovery of rich mines in their neighborhood.
The camps named still flourish, though they have their “ups and
downs”—are sometimes in “bonanza” and sometimes in “borrasca.”
It may be well just here to explain these words. Both are Spanish.
“Bonanza” signifies prosperity, success—that all is well. At sea it is
used by sailors when the weather is fair and they are sailing with a
fair wind—when all is well with them. Among miners it means that they
are working in a body of ore, that they are in luck, and all with them
is prosperous. “Borrasca” means just the opposite of “bonanza.” At sea
it means tempestuous and dangerous weather, bad fortune—all going wrong;
among miners it means that they are in barren rock, that they are in a
bad streak, out of luck. Among miners, borrasca is suggestive of long
faces, sad hearts, and empty pockets, while bonanza shows us faces
wreathed in smiles, hearts that are merry, and purses that are
plethoric. Along the Comstock the mining companies are sometimes in
bonanza and sometimes in borrasca. So long as they are in the great
fissure, however, and have a good width of “vein-matter” they are not
utterly cast down even though they may be drifting in barren rock—they
are liable to run into ore at any time and often do so when such good
fortune is least expected. Some have compared the vein-matter of the
lode to a great pudding into which has been stirred raisins, currants,
and plums; sometimes you find a currant, sometimes a raisin, and
sometimes a plum, while again you are blessed with nothing better than
the matter of which the mass of the pudding is composed.
To multiply examples would be tedious, but an example or two will
probably not be out of place. Although there is ore in the Crown Point
mine, Gold Hill, at the depth of 900 feet, their first great bonanza was
not found until they had attained a depth of 1300 feet. This was a
magnificent body of ore, and yielded many millions of dollars. The very
rich ore was confined to a space about two hundred feet in length lying
just north of the line of the Belcher mine, but the vein contained a
considerable amount of low-grade ore for a distance of about 350 feet
further north. Finally, in 1873, they had worked down through this rich
deposit to the 1400-foot level and there started a cross-cut east in
search of ore. When this cross-cut had passed through the west clay wall
of the vein a deposit of very rich ore was found some feet in width.
Passing through the cross-cut next encountered, a streak of white and
almost barren quartz about two feet in width, and beyond this reached
ore worth from $45 to $75 per ton. This body of ore proved to be
twenty-four feet in width. The cross-cut being continued east across
this suddenly struck a solid wall of porphyry. The whole face of the
cross-cut was in this barren rock, and it was at first thought that the
east wall of the ledge had been reached, but after passing through a few
feet of porphyry a very large body of ore assaying from $250 to $600 per
ton was reached. As the mine continued to be worked this search for ore
was repeated at intervals, and thus far the search has never been in
vain. In 1875 ore was being extracted everywhere from the 900 down to
the 1500-feet level, though much of that obtained in the upper-levels
was of low-grade, yet too rich to be left behind.
In May, 1873, in the Belcher mine, adjoining the Crown Point on the
south, was found the continuation of the same rich deposit worked on the
1300-foot level of the last mine named. Afterwards, other bodies were
found at a still greater depth, and to the eastward, and so the work of
sinking and searching for new bonanza still goes on, while at the same
time ore is being extracted from those already found. In the Savage,
Gould & Curry, Hale & Norcross, Chollar-Potosi, Yellow-Jacket, Imperial,
Empire, Overman, and a score of other mines this is the work which is
constantly going on.
Some persons will no doubt think that if there is a deposit of ore in a
mine it should be found in a short time and with but little trouble, but
miners can see no further into the ground than persons who have their
homes and business on the surface. Place a man in the bottom of a shaft
one thousand feet in depth; then tell him to drift off and find a body
of ore, and he is much the same as a man groping about in a dark cellar.
He knows which way to go to reach the vein, but when once he is in the
vein he may almost touch that of which he is in search without finding
it.
If mining men knew the exact spot in which the rich deposits are
located, it would be an easy matter to sink a shaft or run a drift to
tap them. Thus it happened that it was fourteen years after the
discovery of silver, and the Comstock lode before what is now known as
the “Big Bonanza,”—the chief of all the bonanzas—was found. For fourteen
years men daily and hourly walked over the ground under which lay the
greatest mass of wealth that the world has ever seen in the shape of
silver ore, yet nobody suspected its presence. The ground on the surface
presented the same appearance as the soil in other places in the same
neighborhood, and roads were dug in it, houses were built upon it, and
all kinds of things were done on, in, and about it without anybody
thinking any more of, or about it, than of any other ground in the town.