More crystals, galena
Old silver mine, the tailings of which prove rich pickings.
A little crystal vug, the cubes are galena (lead silver ore), some quartz, the tiny triangles with cut off edges are (I believe) sphalerites.
a seam of tiny, translucent quartz crystals
Lead ore under the microscope, blues, purples, other colors associated with copper.
Tiny cubes of galena under the microscope
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Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition: Cassius ft. Cat Power Pharell Williams | Go Up
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Quartz on Galena
A small but entertaining hike today - the weather too unpleasant for any long term or overnight panning - but a short walk yielded some good finds. Great finds, actually, and already I'm planning to go back. Up logging road, only a couple short kilometers, watching the exposures, when you hit the snow (still low on the mountain) park, then get out and walk.
Stop, an old mine, dug only a dozen or so meters into the rock, walls still covered with quartz crystal plates, small points, but you need a flashlight, hammer and chisel to go in and try and recover them...but a good sign...
Further up the road, more garnet in Schist, still looking for the black Tourmaline's and Staurolite's. If I've found reference to them in the area they can't be too hard to find, but still 80 percent of the mountain is inaccessible and covered in snow...
Other adits, mineshafts, mostly caved in at the entrance, but if you attempt it with a lot of climbing/slithering and substantial apprehension at overhanging rock it can be done, many have water flowing through them, slight dripping calcite stalagmites, watery pools for floors, there's a world of (mis)adventure to be had up here...
Finally, a great tipple dump, landslide, exposure, here finding dozens of great quartz crystal specimens, more than I can carry, boulders with vugs, some druzy, some up to an inch in length, milky white and clear, I settle on a few photographs of the one below:
Not an "attractive" specimen, but interesting - good quartz points on the right hand side, and the black reflective material on the left is Galena, or Silver/Lead/Tin ore.
Detail of quartz points.
Yeah, it could use some serious cleaning, but it'll never be "beautiful", nonetheless it's great as an indication of what's up there. Other finds included abundant pieces of quartz, smokey quartz, a plate of amethyst, and some good specimens of Peacock Ore (or Bornite). I've not touched the tip of the Iceberg...
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Prospecting Phrases: Etymology
A few of the phrases that derive from prospecting.
"See how it all pans out" - meaning, of course, that until you've done the work you won't know the result. Don't anticipate.
"Flash in the Pan" - From the web: "a thing or person whose sudden but brief success is not repeated or repeatable."
"All the glitters (glisters) is not gold "- Many sources, self explanatory, many things that appear valuable aren't.
"Good as gold" - used to describe something of value.
"The Acid Test" - I didn't know this. Apparently it derives from the early gold rushes to testing if gold was real by dissolving in a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid. If it dissolved, it was real.
"Working the Hole..." I've heard this one a bit in various prospecting videos. I know, I know, I'm not going to elaborate...
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