lode
is nearly due east and west. Although the rock is the same, the color
of the turquois is superior to that found at the old mine, and a number
of other mines have been opened in this vicinity. Thousands of stones
were obtained during the two years' operations. Many of them are of
fine blue color, quite equal to the best Persian, and material has
been obtained choice enough to insure a sale amounting to fully
$200,000. A single stone has been sold for about $4,000. The
discoveries have proved especially valuable at a time when the Persian
mines have almost ceased to yield.
Two
new localities for turquois have been discovered in the Burro
mountains, near the old Paschal smelting works, about 15 miles
southwest of Silver City, in Grant county, New Mexico. This discovery
resulted in the forming of an eastern company, which is finding fine
material.
This
company, organized in October, 1891, under the name of the Azure Mining
Company, under the laws of the State of New York and incorporated, has
a number of turquois mines in New Mexico, but up to the present has
paid especial attention to but one mine, the Azure. This has been
steadily worked and several thousands of dollars' worth of turquois
have been sold. The colors range from a deep sky-blue to a blue with a
faint tint of green, the fine material being limited in quantity. The
stones produced at this mine always have a tint of green, due either to
a partial change in the mineral or to a local variation. They are not
by any means an ideal turquois blue, but they furnish good
merchantable material, and if they continue to keep their color it is
believed that they will eventually drive out of the market the Egyptian
and the poorer quality of American stones. Up to the present time the
output of good turquois has not much more than paid for the expenses of
the enterprise. After selling the turquois for seven months the owners
claim that thus far they do not know of a single stone that has changed
color.
The
turquois traverses the rocks in seams and streaks, one mass of which
measured 8 inches in diameter and was one-eighth to one-fourth of an
inch in thickness. A heap of debris 50 feet in height and quantities
of small fragments of weathered turquois show that this locality, like
the other New Mexican ones, was extensively worked by the aborigines.
About
12 miles from this deposit is an Indian graveyard. In every grave that
has been opened a few polished or irregular-shaped turquois beads have
been found.
As
to the use of turquois by the aborigines, the writer observed some
interesting facts in New Mexico recently while witnessing the annual
"festa," which is held on August 4 in honor of the patron saint of the
Indians of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, a point lying about three miles
west by south from Wallace Station, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe railroad. This " festa " is attended by many Indians of the 6442 min------35
