Each class of mines requires different treatment. Those which yield such rich ores that every ounce is worth careful handling are rare and the best practice is to take the course usually recommended by boards of directors not skilled in mining and get ore, not with such eagerness, however, that mining operations are so conducted that future work must be more and more expensive ; but get ore without too much regard for future operations, because such mines usually do not last long; and though some do continue to great depth it may be taken as a rule, to which there are some exceptions, that very rich mines do not last so long as others, and the best practice is to make a drive for all that can be had in values without great equipment. When such a proposition is presented it is fair to take a chance on it, if the capitalization is not high ; but where a rich ore is reported running into the hundreds or even thousands to the ton and a great equipment is proposed, that proposition is safe to let alone, because the chances are that the ore obtained will not be worth the cost of the equipment. Of course, there are exceptions, but chance rules in mines and the chances are that a very rich mine cannot be a big mine and therefore a big equipment will be out of place.

The second class, those mines which yield good ores, require very different treatment, and from the viewpoint of a stockholder, the following steps should be taken as good mining practice.

At the beginning of the proposition, while the mine is still an undeveloped prospect, the shares should be sold at a low rate, and the money obtained applied to work of development; not to the purchase of machinery or to arrangements for selling ore, but to development work and nothing else. The shares should advance in price as this work progresses, and the presence of ore bodies is established and ore reserves are blocked out; that is, opened by first sinking down a shaft near the vein, and at a certain depth cross-cutting by digging a tunnel from the bottom of the shaft to where the vein should be; and then finding the vein as expected, drifting, that is, tunneling along it; then an assured expectation can be entertained that the vein found on the surface and encountered again by tunneling from the bottom of the shaft extends from the surface down to where it has been encountered, all ore, a body opened up and ready to be taken out. This practice may be varied, but the principle is the same, the operations should be to prove up a large body of ore before going to the expense of erecting machinery. Sometimes the mine is so formed that the shaft can be run directly on the vein itself, a very satisfactory method of proving ore when it can be done to advantage ; but usually the shaft is placed near the vein and no attempt is made at burrowing, that is, following the irregularities of a mineral formation for the sake of always working in the ore. This is not now well regarded, although it was the ancient practice.

In other mines, where the mineral deposits are found high among the mountains, the situation admits of tunneling to reach the vein, rather than sinking down a shaft beside it, but the principle is the same, the object being to open up and prove the presence of the ore from the top, or outcropping of the mine, to the Jjlace at depth where the vein is cut; and having established that an abundance of the ore is there, the next step is to equip the mine with machinery to treat the ore. Good practice is to make careful test, and when a plan for treatment has been satisfactorily proven the plant can be purchased with assurance that the mine will be successfu1

Where a proposition is presented under conditions of operation as here outlined, it is a fair risk to take a chance, provided that the price is right. At first, before the mine is opened, the share should be very cheap because everything is risk, and if enough shares are not sold the mine may never be opened up at all. Then, as the work proceeds, there should naturally be a gradual advance 'm the price asked for the shares, particularly so if proofs of mineral to be found at depth are brought to light; until, when the ore is found at depth there should be a material advance; and when the ore bodies have been drifted on, and proven as to extent a good price should be asked for the shares. Finally when the equipment has been put in place and the mine is set to earning dividends a high price should be asked and will be had, because then everybody wants the investment; and those who took the risk at first, and would have met a total loss if ore had not been found at depth now have their reward.