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Updated: June 12, 2025
It occurs embedded in or incrusting the trap, and also with calcite and apopholite. The only sure place to find it is at the southwest side of an opening through the pile of drift rock under the trestle work of the tramway, between shaft No. 1 and the dump, and within a few feet of a number of wooden vats sunk into the ground seen just before descending the hills and near the edge.
This beautiful mineral has been found in fair abundance at times in Shafts No. 1 and 2 in pockets, and seldom in place, most of it being taken from the loose stone at the mouth of the shaft, and it may generally be found on the dump. It is readily mistaken for calcite by the miners and those unskilled in mineralogy, but a drop of acid will quickly show the difference.
A ladder about thirteen feet long is used for attending the lights, and may generally be borrowed, and access to the remainder of this pocket thus gained. Datholite is also very characteristic in appearance, and can only be confounded with some forms of calcite occurring near it.
The minerals occurring at the tunnel are as follows, with their descriptions and locations in the order of their greatest abundance: Calcite. This mineral occurs in great abundance in and about the tunnel, and from all the shafts. It can generally be obtained, however, in excellent crystals, which, although perfect in form, are opaque, but often large and beautiful.
The thin sheet of yellow calcite crystal thus broken was the same as that seen in great abundance in the now perfectly dry eighth level. The gradually decreasing volume of water has left a smooth yellow coat on portions of the walls where irregularities or slopes were favorable, and at least one such place is vividly remembered if once seen.
Here on a number of blocks of trap it may be found, a greenish white incrustation about as thick as a knife blade; it also may be found on the main dump, and is sometimes found in plates one-eighth of an inch thick, of a darker green color, upon calcite. Its easiest distinguishment from the other minerals of this locality, with which it might be confounded, is its great hardness of from 6 to 7.
Now, we'll just dig out that mass of calcite and carefully cover it up, so that in the exceedingly unlikely event of any other prospector passing this way, there will be little or nothing to attract his attention; and to-morrow, before we resume our march, we will determine the exact position of this spot by astronomical observations and make a note of it in our diaries, so that we can find the place again.
It is generally of a flesh red color and often in very perfect crystals, in some instances an inch and a half in length; as its hardness is 6, it can be readily distinguished from calcite, which it much resembles, but which has only a hardness of 3, and dissolves with effervescence in acids.
A long narrow passage, formerly a "tight crawl," but later opened up by heavy blasting, must be traversed before we come to the Snow Ball Room, beautiful with round spots of untinted carbonate of lime, as if fresh soft snow had been thrown by the handful over walls and ceilings, with the additional ornamentation of calcite crystals.
This chamber proved to be a little gem; small but high, and beautifully adorned with calcite crystal.
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