GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES. 697
mined
by the Toltcc Gem Mining Co., which cut into a perfect oval gem of
rather pale blue, measuring 32 by 45 millimeters and weighing 203
carats. The best turquoise ranged from pale pure blue to fairly dark
nearly pure blue. A quantity of off-colored greenish-blue and some soft
pale-bluish semiturquoise was observed around the workings The best gem
turquoise was hard and had a dense texture. Besides fine pure gems,
some very pretty matrix was obtained during mining.
NEVADA.
The
Wood turquoise mine, near Crescent, Nev., also called one of the Toltec
mines, was opened by J. R. Wood, of New York, about the same time as
the other deposits of the Toltec Gem Mining Co. in California. The
mining was conducted by Milton Mundy, now of Hart, Cal. The remains of
prehistoric workings, with stone hammers scattered about them, served
as a guide for modern development. Parts of these ancient workings and
a few broken stone hammers can still be seen near the recent
excavations. The region is rough, rocky, and desert with the
characteristic vegetation consisting chiefly of cacti and sage brush.
The mine is 3 miles S. 75° E. of Cresent, in a gulch-broken valley
south of Crescent Peak. Openings have been made over an area about a
quarter of a mile wide and half of a mile long and extending north up
on the side of Crescent Peak. The elevations at the different openings
range from 5,100 to 5,400 feet, Crescent Peak being 6,001 feet above
sea level. Two principal groups of workings were made, one on the side
of Crescent Peak and the other along both sides of a gulch draining
southwest about one-third of a mile to the south. A camp had been
established on a ridge between the two groups of workings and a few
hundred yards southwest.
There
were two sets of workings in the south group, one on the southeast side
of the gulch and the other about 100 yards northwest across the gulch.
On the southeast side of the gulch a tunnel has been driven east into
the hillside 150 feet, about 15 feet above the bottom of the gulch and
about 75 feet below a small rocky knoll. There were branching tunnels
and stopes connecting with an open cut about 50 feet higher. This open
cut was 60 feet long and 10 to feet deep, with short tunnels and a
shaft feeding a chute into the tunnel below. Other smaller tunnels and
pits were made on the hillside and near the summit of the knoll where
there were several small ancient workings.
On
the northwest side of the gulch 3 principal workings were made within
an area of about 200 feet square, the upper one an open cut 20 by 40
feet across and 15 feet deep, another, 50 feet lower down on the
hillside, an open cut 50 feet long and 10 feet deep with short tunnels,
and the third 25 feet still lower down, a tunnel 240 feet long driven
northwest under the other workings.
In
the group on the side of Crescent Peak the principal workings consisted
of an open cut 50 feet long and 20 feet deep, a tunnel 100 feet long
driven into the side of a gulch under and about 20 feet lower than the
cut, and an inclined shaft 200 feet deep on a dip of 50° NW. Other
workings were a 75-foot tunnel across the gulch to the east, a 25-foot
shaft on the ridge about 100 yards to the east, an open cut 30 feet
long in the east side of another gulch about 200 yards to
