In the meantime important events had taken place on the lode it-
self. Two experienced workmen, John Mackey and J. &. Fair, and
two shrewd business men, James Flood and William O'Brien, hadpur-



1 A. D. Hodges, jr., Amalgamation at the Comstock lode, Kevada : An historical sketch of milling
operations at washoe and an account of the treatment of tailings at the Lyon mill, Dayton ; Trans.
Am. Inst. Min. Eng. 1891, XIX, p. 195-231. Also, J. E. Gignoax, the mannfacture of hluestone at
the Lyon mill, Dayton, Nevada, in A. Williams, Min. Kesources of the U. S.; U. S. Geol. Snrvey,
1883, p. 297-306.
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THE FUTURE OF SILVER. 41

chased the Virginia Consolidated claim of the discouraged owners, and,
after spending $200,000 in trial works, had disclosed the richest ore
hody in the Comstock lode, the ^'BigBonanza." The boldest dreams were
surpassed. The friable rock, the fear of fire, which now and then vis-
ited the vast timber structures of the Comstock lode, finally the greed
of the owners, led to rob-mining. From day to day the yield of this
great ore body increased. In 1876 it yielded through the shafts of the
Virginia Consolidated and the neighboring California mine $30,000,000
in gold and silver, in 1877, $32,600,000, in 1878, only $18,500,000, on
the whole far over $100,000,000.
