Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/62

54 The following estimate of the world's product of silver in 1873 is based upon returns for Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, and for other countries upon the most recent available accounts: Great Britain and colonies, $1,000,000; Sweden and Norway, $250,000; Russia, $500,000; Autria-Hungarian monarchy, $1,600,000; German empire, $3,000,000; France, $2,000,000; Spain, $2,000,000; Italy (Sardinia), $500,000; Mexico, $20,000,000; Central and South America, $8,000,000; Canada, $900,000; United States, $36,500,000; total, $76,250,000. According Humboldt and Danson, the value of silver produced in Mexico and Peru from 1492 to 1803 was $4,152,650,000. The production in Europe during the same period was about $200,000,000. For the period from 1804 to 1848 Danson gives $1,244,380,794 as the production of Mexico and South America, that of Europe and Asiatic Russia for the same period having been about $325,000,000. For the period from 1848 to 1868, Prof. W. P. Blake, in his “Report on the Production of the Precious Metals,” gives the following estimate of the silver product: United States $73,000,000; Mexico, $380,000,000; South America, $200,000,000; Australia, $20,000; Europe and Asiatic Russia, $160,380,000; total, $813,400,000. From 1868 to 1875 the product of silver may be approximately estimated at $163,000,000 for the United States, $140,000,000 fur Mexico, $56,000,000 for South America, and $63,000,000 for the rest of the world. (None of these estimates include the produce of Japan, China, and central Asia, of which nothing is known.) We have then, as the grand total of the silver product from the discovery of America to the present time, $7,150,000,000.—Mines. The silver produced in Great Britain is extracted from an argentiferous lead, to the amount of 550,000 to 700,000 oz. annually (in 1872, 628,000 oz.). The celebrated Kongsberg mines in Norway, discovered in 1623, have been worked almost continually since. The ore occurs in parallel belts of rock, intercalated in gneiss and crystalline schists, and impregnated with sulphides of iron, copper, zinc, and sometimes lead, cobalt, and silver. Fissure veins traverse these belts occasionally, and are argentiferous at the intersection only. Beautiful specimens of native silver occur. The total product of the Kongsberg mines from 1624 to 1864 was 1,817,510 lbs. troy of silver, of which 1,332,485 lbs. was produced before 1805 and 463,498 lbs. after 1815, the intervening period being one of discouragement. The yield for the 30 years preceding 1865 averaged $350,000 annually. The silver mines of Sweden are at present insignificant, and the total product in 1871 was officially reported at but 975 kilos. The silver mines of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are principally comprised in Hungary, Transylvania, and Bohemia. The Schemnitz district in Hungary (the seat of a

celebrated school of mines, founded in 1760 by Maria Theresa) is traversed by a group of veins in porphyry, associated with syenite, &c. The ores comprise numerous argentiferous minerals, of which silver glance and galena are the chief. The Schemnitz mines were first opened more than 800 years ago, and have been worked to a depth of more than 1,200 ft. Near Schemnitz are the mining districts of Kremnitz and Neusohl. The Joachimsthal mines in Bohemia are very ancient, very deep (nearly or quite 2,000 ft.), and have been very productive, but now yield an insignificant amount of silver. This district belongs to the Erzgebirge, a chain of mountains composed of crystalline rocks, on the border of Saxony, in which kingdom it includes the four mining districts of Altenberg (tin), Freiberg, Marienberg, and Schwarzenberg. The official statistics of Saxony show that the total product of silver in these districts in 1872 was 48,753 lbs., and in 1873 43,354 lbs. The Freiberg district is by far the most important, containing nearly 100 mines, many of which are more than 1,400 ft. deep, producing almost the whole of the above amounts. Previous to the 10th century it was a wilderness. The lead ores were discovered in the tracks made by wagon wheels, and in 1169 the veins were opened. They are very numerous, but comparatively small. In 1873 only 24 mines were producing silver ore, and of these only 6 paid dividends. The Himmelfahrt, which is now the leading mine, in 1873 yielded 11,912 metric tons of silver, copper, and lead ores, valued at about $430,000. In 1874 it produced about 7,100 tons of dressed ores, sold to the furnaces for about $328,000. The total yield of this mine to the end of 1874 had been 527,103 kilos of silver (worth about $23,000,000), besides lead, copper, zinc, sulphur, arsenic, and nickel. The chief other productive mines near Freiberg, with the value of their total product (including lead, &c.), as paid by the smelting works, for 1873, are as follows: Himmelsfürst, $202,500 ; Vereinigt Feld, $114,750; Churprinz, $74,000; Alte Hoffnung, $61,000; Gesegnete Bergmannshoffnung, $60,750; Alte Hoffnung Gottes, $52,750; Junge hohe Birke, $45,450; and Beschert Glück, $34,600. The principal silver mines of Prussia are in the Hartz, formerly belonging to Hanover. The product of Prussian smelting works in 1872 was 162,553 lbs. of silver, worth about $3,600,000; in 1873, 231,920 lbs., worth about $5,000,000. The total product of silver from the smelting works of all Germany was as follows in the years named:

A considerable portion of this increase is due to the importation of rich silver ores from