Nevada and the territories lying around it have a wealth of silver unknown, and doubtless inexhaustible. The copper mines of Lake Superior have become famous throughout the world; and the iron mines of the great Mississippi valley and the Atlantic slope may yet supply the world with the most useful and most generally needed metals.
Probably the richest mines yet known are those situated on the famous Comstock lode, in Nevada.
From 1862 to 1865, including both these years, the mines on that lode yielded about forty-eight millions of dollars, and since that time the return has averaged more than twenty millions of dollars annually. The produce of silver from the Comstock vein is about one fourth of the entire amount furnished by all the silver mines in the world. It exceeds the aggregate produce of all European countries, and equals that of the entire western coast of South America.
A French engineer, who visited Nevada some years ago, wrote of it as follows:—
“Its extraordinary productiveness has made the Washoe region more famous for its mineral wealth than many places where silver ores have been found, and mined for centuries. It has attracted an enormous civilized population. It has built cities in the desert, and roads across high mountain ranges, accelerated the union by steam of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America, created a new branch of mining industry in the Pacific states, and given successful employment to large amounts of capital.”
The original mine of the Comstock vein is known as the Gould and Curry. It originally belonged to two men whose names it bears. Gould sold out his share for a pair of blankets and a bottle of whiskey. Curry disposed of his interest for a horse and two thousand dollars. One of the mines on the same vein was bought one day for two thousand dollars, and six weeks afterwards was sold for nine hundred thousand. Some of the most remarkable mining speculations ever known in the history of the world have occurred in Nevada.
A long story could be told of the various countries of the world, and of the productions for which they are famous; but it is hardly necessary in this place, and very likely would become tedious. Scarcely any part of the globe can be mentioned where some mineral of value is not found, and the various substances seem to be distributed in such a way as to develop intimate relations among the various members of the human family, and to draw nations nearer and nearer to each other.
MINERAL EXCHANGES.
England exchanges her iron and coal for the produce of other nations. Spain sends her quicksilver. Chili sends her copper. Mexico and Peru send their silver, and receive in return the articles which they need, and other nations can spare. Other countries send their minerals to distant markets, and receive in return the products of the countries where those markets exist. America, with her mines, is comparatively in a state of infancy; but the day will come—and it is not far distant—when she will be the great supplying centre of a large portion of the globe.