Hoisting Works, Shafts, and Mining, Past and Present
The Comstock Lode crops out along the eastern face of Mount Davidson about 1,200 feet below the summit, and just above the western suburbs of Virginia City. To the northward and southward the vein runs along the east side of other and smaller mountains of the same range. The face of Mount Davidson slopes to the east at an angle of about twenty-five degrees, and the vein dips in the same direction at an average inclination of forty-five degrees. It was at first supposed that the vein dipped to the west (into Mount Davidson), and the first hoisting works were erected on or near the croppings, where shafts were sunk and inclines sent down. For the first 400 to 500 feet the vein did pitch to the west into the mountain. Mount Davidson was then supposed to be the great central magazine, or nucleus, of all the silver found near the surface, and claims located on the slope of the mountain below to the eastward found but little favor in the eyes of mining men and would-be purchasers. Suddenly all this was changed, and there was a general “right-about-face.” It was discovered in the Gould & Curry and the Ophir Mines that at a certain depth the lode became perpendicular, then turned and took a regular dip to the east, of about forty-five degrees, following as a footwall the syenite slope of Mount Davidson. It was then seen that the false dip above was caused by the top of the vein being bent over under the pressure of sliding material on the slope of the mountain at and near the surface.