California mines and minerals . interconnected branches. But there is no authority for 60 CALIFORNIA MINES AND MINERALS assuming that the various veins of the belt represent but oneperiod of Assuring, faulting and filling. There may have beenseveral distinct periods, and upon this depend some importantquestions of identity and the propriety of applying the term MotherLode to the main vein as the feeder of all others of the section. The Quartz Bodies.— The main vein always carries a stronggouge either on the foot or hanging wall. The quartz bodies formingthe ore shoots occur in lenticular masse
California mines and minerals . interconnected branches. But there is no authority for 60 CALIFORNIA MINES AND MINERALS assuming that the various veins of the belt represent but oneperiod of Assuring, faulting and filling. There may have beenseveral distinct periods, and upon this depend some importantquestions of identity and the propriety of applying the term MotherLode to the main vein as the feeder of all others of the section. The Quartz Bodies.— The main vein always carries a stronggouge either on the foot or hanging wall. The quartz bodies formingthe ore shoots occur in lenticular masses from a few inches to fiftyfeet or more in thickness, from one hundred to one thousand feetlong in strike and often of greater extent in the direction of the are irregularly distributed along the line of the great these bodies the line of fissure is marked by gouge matter,smooth walls, etc., and is easily followed. The walls are more or lessribbed and polished — evidences of motion. •lEasir JfsS. A green mineral, known as mariposite, colors great masses of theveins, and characterizes a large portion of the lode, notably in Mari-posa, Tuolumne and the south end of Calaveras counties, to someextent in El Dorado, but not to any important extent in Amador. Concerning the trend of the ore shoots in depth, various localrules are put forward, but all that may be said in a general way isthat they go down on the dip and are longer in that direction thanv^ith the strike, but are otherwise quite irregular in outline. The Ores.— The ore bodies are mainly quartz, more or lessmixed with stringers of slate or bunches of greenstone. They are attimes partly colored with mariposite, and usually include some seamsof calc-spar. The ores contain free gold and gold-bearing sulphurets — mostlyiron pyrites, with more or less copper and arsenical pyrites, and THE MOTHER LODE 61 occasionally galena and zinc-blende. In large quantities the orescarry from $1 to $25 per
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