j Tales From the Hills I
SAMPLING.
By Ernest N. Patty, Dean of Alaska Agricultural College and Head of the
School of Mines.
A mining engineer scouting for a
mining company, learning of the,
high-grade strike on the Pauper’s!
Dream .vein, had paid Larry and Jack I
a visit, .to look over their prospect j
two weeks before. He had carefully ]
. sampled the vein as exposed in the
■ tunnel and had promised them his j
. assay results.
Ncls had been to town and had just;
■ brought their mail up to the cabin.
Larry and Jack were puzzled over the:
blue-print which the enginee sent'
* them It shewed a sketch map of \
their, tunnel with the assay values |
and ..vpin. widths plotted at the points:
. along the tunel where the samples
.. were cut from the vein.
i^Tbat engineer didn’t give us any
- the best of it by his sampling;” there
< was. a trace of anger in Jack’s voice.
“If these engineers had to develop
■ these prospects from day to day I’m
thinking they wouldn’t be so cold
blooded when it comes to cutting a
saumple. His figures show an aver
■ age of $18 per ton for the vein along
the entire length of the tunnel and an
- average of $46 since we struck the
shoot f high-grade. I’ll bee he didn’t
, get atiy more gold into his samples
than he. could help. Now look at hsi
.-sample No. 17, which shows an assay
of $86—that is close to the point
. wbeve. we got that high-grade speci
men that assayed better than $2,000
. to the ton. How do you explain
that?”
“Jack, you remember that the high-!
. grade _specimen we cent in for assay \
wasn’t much larger than a walnut, j
- You remember that we said at the
time we would send it in, not as a
: Sample, but just out of'curiosity as
to how high it would assay. I’ve j
. .reached the conclusion that prospect-:
ors generally ‘kid’ themselves by:
sending in picked specimens for assay, j
* W-hen we start stoping we won’t be
. breaking out specimens to send to the i
mill, but we will be breaking dwn the
>. entihre vein for mill feed. The en
gineer in cutting his samples was try
ing to arrive at an average of the ore
..that would go to the mill. He cut
his samples from wall to wall just as
we would stope it.”
“Yes, you talk grand, Larry, but do
you remember when he was sampling
near the raise, where there is a two
foot rib of granite sandwiched in the
vein? When he started to moil across
this rib of waste you started hopping
around so lively that 1 thought you
were going to hit him on the head
with a piece of drill steel. If ever I
saw a wild Irishman, you qualified.”
Larry smiled ruefully. “I was sore
. all right, for I hated to see that waste
getting into the sample. I don’t sup
pse though we would attempt to sort
that rib of waste when we start min
ing.”
“Let’s grant for a moment that the
engineer got a close average on what
the vein carries. Now if we stoped
this veiil from end to end, our mill
feed would average about $18 per ton,
and on rock like that we would just
about break even. If, nthe other
hand, we stoped only the high-grade
shoot, we would be getting $50 ore,
which would net us a nice profit.”
“Yes but, Larr.y, we haven’t much
tonnage of the high-grade developed i
yet,” Jack interposed, cautiously.
“If the high-grade stays with us
until next season. Jack, we should get I
enough blocked ut to warrant putting
in a mill. It looks like some hard
work, partner, before we start ship
.ping any bullion. In the meantime
we might steal a wrinkle from that
• engineer and sample our new work."
“And, Larry,' responded Jack, with
- a shjt.grin"?N¥o will have a check on
the naxfeanagineer who comes up here
to sample. I would like to catch ne
vi»f ..those fellows giving the mine the
worst of it. Let’s see just how he cut
those samples.”
Larry grabbed a moil and a single
jack. It’s like this, Jack; first he
cleaned down the fein to get a fresh
exposure; then he took his carbide
lamp and blackened two marker lines
across the vein to define the width of
the sample he was going to cut. Thesp
lines were five or six inches apart, I
judge. Then do you remember how
he shook off the canvas, laid it on the
floor of the drift and began cutting a
channel square across the vein. Those
channels he cut were about six inches
wide and about an inch deep. When
he finished the sample he had about
ten pounds of hroken quartz on the
canvas. What I don’t see is why he
broke up all the big pieces ss particu
larly before he divided the sample. I
suppose, however, he was a particular
cuss and was afraid some of the big
pieces would change his average one
way or the other. After he had the
samples all broken down, he mixed it
by rolling it on the canvas; then he
flattened it out and marked it out into
four pieces like he was cutting a pie.
He thre waway two opposite quarters
and began crushing the residue finer.
Then he repeated the mixing and cut
it again pie-fashion and retained the
final two quarters of the pie for his
samples.”
“Wait a minute, Jack,” Larry re
sponded. “Remember'i how he took
out that fancy note biook and did a
lot of writing—not to ‘mention meas
uring the width of eaci sample?”
“Yes, I guess that takes in all of
the steps except putting the number
on a piece of paper and wadding it
into a tight square and finally putting
it on top of the sample) as a marker.
I don’t see why we couldn't sample
our vein the same way? Most of all,
it takes a good strong right arm.”
“Now that we have this sampling
racket threshe dout,” grumbled Jack,
“I don’t like the way that engineer
turned us down. He says here-at the
bottom of the letter that we have .a
good prospect but he does not believe
it is large enough to interest his com
pany. Why do you suppose he tacked
that on? Something told me we
shouldn’t have eaten that last can of
grapefruit the night we celebrated. If
we could have fed him up a little fan
cier probably he would have stayed
on a few days longer and had a bet
ter look at the property. I suppose,
however, hat is just a game those
.fellows have to throw us off the track
regarding the value of the property
so we won’t ask too fancy a figure.”
“No, Jack,” said Larry, with a puz
zled frown, “I believe he meant it.
You know these big companies are
now after the big tonnage mines even
if they are low-grade. This big scale
producion is better suited to their or
ganizations than small rich mines. It
is like this: A big department store
in Seattle isn't interested in a little
peanut stand i nan adjoining town.
Probably an individual can make
money wih the peanut stand, hut. a
big company, with its overhead costs,
would lose money on such a small
venture.”
“I don’t seen any chance of this
property ever turning into a big ton
nage mine. We might get her up to
the point where she could turn out
100 ons a day, but even that is too
small to interest the big boys. When
we get ready to finance-this property
we will have to try other means, and
if'we don’t watch out I suppose some
smart shyster will skin us out of i.”
“Well, Larry, suppose this proposi
tion does make out to be a Home
stake,” added Jack, ‘’what, would you
do then?”
Larry spat decisively.' “Jack, there’s
no question about it. I’d hunt for
some country where they don’t wear
rubber shoepacs and where they don’t
call ilrie dapples fruit.”
(Note: This article concludes the
first series of “Tales From the Hills.” j
Judging from the response they have'
received, marly prospectors have i
found them worth while. We will
step aside for a time while Jack and j
Larry continue development work on
their property. If his development
work shows up well, you will, hear
more about their problems later on—
for then they must raise capital to
put the mine on an operating basis
and select proper mill equipment.)
MR. EINSTEIN, SUCH WORHS!
The full translation of Einstein’s
famous new theory has now appeared
on this side of the Atlantic—but un|;
less you’re a specialist in mathematic
ics don’t rush to the nearest bookstore
to buy a copy. You’d.be idsappointedL
Here is a brief excerpt from thh
new theory: *
“The v-compnnentt.s of the s-th leg
of the n-leg will accordingly be If*
beled as subscript s.-raised to the
power v, while the appertaining fixed
lower determinants will be labeled as j
subscript s h subscript v.
“The losal n-legs are all placed
‘parallel’ and equal veltors ar esulb
as have—with reference to their local
n-leg—equal co-ordinates.”
That’s a sample. Unless you can
assimilate things like that, don’t.,
bother to buy the- hook.—rEx
Turned- Tables.
“Shdt that door! Where were you
brodght up—-in a barn?”
The man addressed complied meek
ly and silently. The first speaker ob
served that he was in tears and, going:
over to the man, he apologized.
“Oh, come,” he said, soothingly,
“you shouldn’t take it to heart be
cause I asked you if you were raised
in .a barn.”
“That’s it, that’s it,” sobbed the ■
other. “I was brought up in a bari,
and it makes me homesick every time i
I hear an ass bray!”
Information of the present where
abouts of Charles K. White is desired.'
He is supposed to have come to A las '
the Governor’s office, at Juneau,
ka. Please send any information to j
L?‘. dci cmfw mfwy mfwy fwyp w,
NOTICE OF HEARING OF FINAL
ACCOUNT.
Notice is hereby given that the un
dersigned has filed his final report and
account as administrator de bonis non
of the estate of Joe Kermond, de
ceased, and that such report will be
heard and considered by the Probate
Judge of Otter Precinct. Fourth Divi
sion of Alaska, at his office at Flat,
Alaska, on the 10th day of June A. D.
1929, at the hour of two o’clock in the
afternoon of said day.
All persons having objections to
such report may be heard at said time
and place.
CHARLES E. TAYLOR,
Administrator de bonis non Es
tate of Joe Kermend, deceased,
tate of Joe Kermond, deceased.
First pub., March 30, 1929.
TABLE OF DISTANCES BE
TWEEN NENANA AND FLAT
__
Miles
Nenana ._. 00
Tavern Roadhouse . 17 Vi
Knight's Roadhouse . 2314
Nineteen-Mile Roadhouse . 68
Diamond Roadhouse . 76
Roosevelt . 8P
Lake Minehumina.. 116
Trappers’ Cabin . 132
Lone. Star Roadhouse . 160
Telida Roadhouse .. 169V4
Slow Fork Roadhouse .*.. 387
East Fork Roadhouse .) 206
Berry’s Landing Roadhouse .227 V4
Big River Roadhouse .241
McGrath . 263
Takotna . 280
Bill Goset-Roadhous!.. 291
Ophir ... 30P
McCafferty .'306
Brown Croek..shelter cabin .318
Fritz sheltevrcabin . 338
First Chance!Shelter cabin . 346
Schermeyer 3L-.H. . 360
Iditarod.....376
Flat ........ 384
Bonanzza sheter cabin, 12 miles
from Flat.
Crooked Creek 'shelter cabin, 19!
' miles from Bonanza. j
Babeesch Moosehide Mitte and Boots
Furs Bought and Sold Clothing
All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruit?
Canned Goods of All Kinds Beds and. Bedding
A R. Eldridge - McGrath
TAKOTNA ROADHOUSE
Best of Meals and Room?
' Where Everything Is Homelike and
Where You Are Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES BATHS,
Prop,
Ivar Chilstrom
f **■* ■' i: