equal was ever known before. There is no other authentic record of the extraction in a single year of more than $23,000,000 in gold and silver from one vein, which was the product of the Comstock in 1874. And the total estimated product of this lode from 1861 to 1874 inclusive was more than $169,000,000, or about the same as the yield of the score of veins at Potosí for the first 15 years after their discovery in 1545. The bullion from the Comstock lode has averaged about one third gold in value, or say 0.02 in weight. As a consequence of the excitement (almost equal to that attending the discovery of gold in California) which followed the success of the Comstock mines, the districts of Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and finally Utah and Colorado, were overrun with prospectors. The mining districts of Owyhee in Idaho, and Unionville, Reese River, Belmont, Pioche, White Pine, and Eureka in Nevada, have been the scenes of successive excitements, and are still productive. In Eureka district, as in the principal districts of Utah, and some of those in Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and California, argentiferous cerussite and galena are smelted, to produce work lead containing silver. This industry has suddenly grown to large dimensions in the west, as may be seen from the following table of the product of work lead:
| WHERE PRODUCED. |
1873. Tons. |
Gold, silver, and lead, value. |
1874. Tons. |
Gold, silver, and lead, value. |
| Nevada | 12,812 | $5,043,235 | 11,516 | $3,865,419 |
| Utah | 9,566 | 2,901,191 | 15,474 | 4,332,720 |
| California | 4,000 | 920,000 | 5,095 | 1,680,000 |
| Montana, Colorado, | ||||
| &c. (estimated) | 300 | 144,000 | 375 | 180,000 |
| Total | 26,678 | $9,008,426 | 32,460 | $10,058,139 |
The Washoe (Comstock) ores and those of Pioche and Owyhee, as well as of many minor districts, are treated by the Washoe process; those of Reese river, Belmont, and Unionville, in Nevada, and of Georgetown, Colorado, receive a preliminary chlorinating roasting. From Colorado and Utah considerable quantities of rich ore are shipped to American and foreign smelting works. Silver mining in Arizona, near the Gila vein, has been rendered unprofitable hitherto by Indian warfare, now apparently ended. The total product of the United States since 1848 is estimated by R. W. Raymond, commissioner of mining statistics, as, follows:
| 1848-1858, inclusive, | |
| $50,000 per ann. | $550,000 |
| 1859 | 100,000 |
| 1860 | 150,000 |
| 1861 | 2,000,000 |
| 1862 | 4,500,000 |
| 1863 | 8,500,000 |
| 1864 | 11,000,000 |
| 1865 | 11,250,000 |
| 1866 | 10,000,000 |
| 1867 | $13,500,000 |
| 1868 | 12,000,000 |
| 1869 | 13,000,000 |
| 1870 | 16,000,000 |
| 1871 | 22,000,000 |
| 1872 | 25,750,000 |
| 1873 | 36,500,000 |
| 1874 | 38,200,000 |
| Total | $225,000,000 |
The Atlantic and Mississippi states produce little silver. The amount found with the native copper of Lake Superior is not considerable; but over $2,000,000 has been obtained at the smelting works in Wyandotte, Mich., from the ores of the Silver Islet mine, on the island of that name, on the N. side of Lake Superior. The galena of the Mississippi valley is usually poor in silver, and that of the Atlantic slope is but moderately argentiferous, with an occasional exception, as in the recently discovered deposits near Newburyport, Mass.
SILVERSIDE, or Silver Fish, the common name of the small marine spiny-rayed fishes of the family atherinidæ, characterized by a protractile mouth, without notch in upper jaw or tubercle in lower, small crowded teeth on the pharyngeals, the first branchial arch with long pectinations, two dorsals most commonly distant, and ventrals behind pectorals; the eyes are very large. In the genus atherina (Linn.) the body is elongated, and a broad silvery band runs along each side. The dotted silverside (A. notata, Mitch.) is from 3 to 5 in. long, greenish brown with black points on the edges of the scales, and the fins translucent; the dorsals are contiguous, the second reaching as far back as the anal; it is found from New England to South Carolina. It accompanies the smelt in spring and autumn into our rivers, and is popularly called capelin. Several other species, about 4 in. long, are found in the waters of the southern states and West Indies. More than 20 other species are described by Cuvier and Valenciennes in vol. x. of the Histoire naturelle des poissons (1835); they are much valued as articles of food; they swim in shoals, and are easily taken in nets; the flesh resembles that of the smelt, whence the A. presbyter (Cuv.) is often called sand smelt; many species, salted, are sold as sardines, and some are called anchovy.
Dotted Silverside (Atherina notata).
SIMBIRSK. I. An E. government of European Russia, bordering on Kazan, Samara, Saratov, Penza, and Nizhegorod; area, 19,108 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 1,205,881. The surface consists generally of a plain, with hills toward the east. The government is drained in the east by the Volga, and in the west by its tributary the Sura. Gypsum, alabaster, limestone, sulphur, and naphtha are found. The soil is fertile, producing grain, hemp, flax, hay, and tobacco. Leather, woollen and linen cloth, tallow, potash, and glass are manufactured. The inhabitants belong chiefly to the Greek church, but there are a few other Christians, and a large number of Mohammedans. II. A city, the capital of the government, on the
