THE GREAT BONANZA. A WALL OF GOLD AND SILVER.

Evening Star, Issue 3735, 11 February 1875, Page 3

THE GREAT BONANZA. A WALL OF GOLD AND SILVER.

We have in New Zealand seen men lifted from comparative poverty into affluence by some sudden stroke of luck? Who can forget the intense excitement caused bv the rhh mt-turn of the Caledonian mine But all these things fade into mere nothingness in comparison with the wonderiul discovery made in the o’d Comstock lode at California. Pacts are always hard hitters, as are pointed out by the ‘New Zeal nd Herald’s’ corres u-indent. “ Up to last June the total yeld f'-om the Comstock lode during some fouitec-n years was 200 OdO.HOO dollars Now, in me strike in the Consolidated Virginia and California mines there has been opened up a aass of hp'lioo, silver and gold, value! at >ver 300,000,000 doll.rs. If it extends hrough the Ophir, as it appears to do, the gross value wi 1 be marly 50‘.000 000 d >lare. To-day the mine is selling a. the rate f >f 10,000 dollars p-r inch front. 'the <re has been cut on ihe I.oooft level and carried down to the 1 s'iOfr., giving in two mines alone a body < f almost solid silver >nd cold measuring 1,200 feet by 400 feet Think ot it and weep. The <»phir will robab’y have an equal amount. Near’y ■very foot of this wealth for it is as real as •fin the bank—is owned by San F-ancisco Can anyone attempt to picture the remits of m expenditure in this City of 500 000J00 dollan-? The three min- s I have named could be sold for a sum equal to the entire value of the wh-de City of San Francisco Now for specialities. Flood and O’Brien, who were five y ars ago running a small bar, are now worth over 30 000,000 dollars. They own 60,000 shares in Consolidated Virginia alone. They have already realised some 20.000,000 dollars, in addition to vast sums made in other mines ft is fairly estimated that within three years this firm will be worth 100,000 000 dollars At least fifty men have read ed one million each by the great find, and there are hundreds who have made from 100,000 dollars to 400.000 dollars, and there is no sign of any break in the excitement. This wealth is not on paper; it is real, tangible money No such discovery has the world ever heard of, and it must have a great influence in building-up the great San Francisco of the future. The capital stick of the onsolidated Viryrda is represented by 100,000 shares, at 100 dollars e.*ch They ‘are sollin-i to day at 600 dollars each. Other mines are in proportion. The percen age of gold in the new discovery is about 33 per cent., or onothird of the fund. Ail these Comstock mims are deep sinkings, most of them being worked at a depth of 1,500 feet The Ravage is down 2,200 feet, ami is preparme to sink to a depth of 5.000 feet 'I he largest pump at work is a 22 inch stroke. he mills are pretty much the same as those employed on the Thames, but are driven chiefly by water-power. They range from twenty to 100 stamps per mid. Th< re are twenty of these in operation, but they are inadequate to the demand. Just now thn*e eighty stamp mills are being erected on the works of the Comstock. Amalgamating has reached the highest point of science attainable. and very-high salaries are paid to the amalgamators. The stone is a “livegrev quartz, much crystalised the ore very tine, bur, exceedingly rich, in imny cases yielding 2,0- 0 dollars per ton. The j resent out-turn of the Consolidated is 400 tons per day.” *