(By Jack Bell.)

Rawhide, Nev., March 12. - A conservative opinion given by all of the mine owners, lease operators and mining engineers of the district say that the strike in the Grutt Balloon Hill lease on Queen estate is even richer than the world-famed Mohawk when that famous body of ore was broken into. The shoot was encountered in a northwesterly crosscut 67 feet in from the bottom of the 127-foot shaft. The face which is being broken four feet wide shows a solid mass of ore. The vein is a true north-and-south and shows the wonderful enrichment for seven and one-half feet. It was struck on the hanging wall side and the footwall has not been encountered as yet. The following is what has been taken down and sacked during the past 24 hours: 99 sacks, each weighing 100 pounds, which gives a controll assay of $1,250.00 per ton. At first glance the breast seems to be a mass of red oxides striped and laminated with black talc. The black talc is solid horn silver, the rest of the mass is horn-silver and gold combined. Ever since the strike yesterday morning the dump has been besieged by hundreds of sightseers. It has been found necessary to build a fence about the shaft to keep away the crowds as it was found impossible to carry on the operations of the mine with safety to the hundreds of people crowding around the shaft. In all it is the most wonderful of all the wonderful high grade strikes ever made in this district or any other place in the mining West. Every mining man in the camp has been permitted to inspect the remarkable discovery and enthusiasm throughout the district is a thousand above par tonight. General Manager Barrett states that the importance and richness of the discovery is far in excess of the hundreds of tons of high grade taken from IKearns No. 2. The story of the "shoestring" leaser, with all its varied hardships and pathos is here again shown. For months and months L. L. Looney and Lon Honeywell, both of Los Angeles, Calif., have been pegging along, sometimes with a full cupboard and more ofttimes with a bare larder, have scratched and scraped from every source at their command to keep the lease alive. By the work of their own hands with long years of mining experience, with the untold sufferings of desert and mining life, they have at last reached the goal which every prospector, miner, leaser and operator hopes to attain. There is not a man connected with mining in the entire district but that has shouted his congratulations for the lucky men. It is conservative to say that since the discovery of the ore these men are actually netting from the production of the mine not less than $4,000.00 per day. It is without any reasonable question the most remarkable strike of high grade that has ever been recorded. The owners are rushing development as fast as possible to determine the exact position and extent of the high grade. Three shifts are already at work breaking down and sacking ore, which is, of course, taken down on canvass sheets. This lease is situated on the Balloon claim, just one block east from the main street in the heart of Rawhide.

Even with the phenomenal strike on the Grutt Balloon Hill the Marigold lease on block 10 of the Wild West claim on the Coalition estate stirred up the entire community again this afternoon when it was found that they had opened up two feet of the gold-silver ore that created the great sensation last week. The fissure is widening and the shoot continues to widen with it, and is at its present width still widening at the bottom of the 11-foot winze at the 130-foot level. A rich streak lies on the hanging wall side of the shoot and extends the full length of the bottom of the workings on the hanging wall showing an average of two and one-half inches of gold quartz that will average about $30,000.00 per ton. The two feet outside of the rich shot assays from $900.00 to $1100.00 per ton. The drift at this point has been sent north 30 feet where a four-foot face gives screenings of $127.00 per ton. The Marigold is proving faster than any other mine in the entire district. If the richness continues as it has done in the past 48 hours in the developing winze it will prove one of the most sensational properties in the mining world. A ten-ton shipment of the high grade that the owners say should net them not less than $1200.00 per ton goes forward to the Hazen sampler Wednesday next.

The next most-talked-of property on the streets tonight is Bethania Mines. The true fissure on the Queen Bethania Mining Company's lease on block 6 on Bell hill now shows a width of 5 feet that samples $25.60 for its entire width between the perfectly defined walls. The hanging wall is porphyry, the foot wall an andesite. Rich stringers cutting across the face of the drift show free gold distributed plentifully through the oxidized quartz. As a high grade milling proposition this is by far the biggest and most permanent ore body in the camp. At the present time there are five sets of leasers breaking down a good grade of milling ore on this estate. They are the Gold Reef, Little Four, Rawhide Queen Bethania, Daniels and Bridges, Stevens, Shelton and Van Pelt. The Gold Reef is a Los Angeles company. They have install[ed] a machine hoist and have it in opoeration on April 10th, under contract made with the Bethania Mines company under a long extension and reduced royalty. The Little Four lease is still sinking on the big shoot at the mouth of their adit tunnel and is hoisting at the rate of 5 tons of good grade milling ore daily.

The rich shoot that was the sensation for so many weeks on Kearns No. 2 was picked up today after careful prospecting by General Manager John H. Barrett of the Queen company, at the 100-foot level. He states that the ore is of the same richness as the shoot farhter up.

Kearns No. 1 of the Queen estate has a shipment of 60 tons awaiting teams. This ore samples better than $100.00 per ton and the shipment will go forward as soon as transportation can be secured as they have not an earthly chance of having the ore treated in camp on account of the tonnage at the mills ahead of them awaiting treatment. The mill facilities are inadequate to take care of even a part of the ore already on the dumps although running night and day to their full capacity. And even with the 100-ton mill building by King-Heisner the production will be more than double the supply two mills can take for.

Leases that suspended operations for a short time started to work today. There are over 100 leases in active operation producing ore of a grade that will mill in the district. The crying need of the camp today is more mills and more teams for transportation. It is wonderful the strides the camp has taken in the past 10 days. The outside money stringency or hard times has absolutely no depressing influence in the district at this time. The camp is making good beyond the expectations of those most optimistic of the town.