The weekly ledger., 1857-05-16


wet. Accept my arm and allow me to be
your guide. Oh no ladies will not scare the
miners; do not fear any such resut,at leasti
these diggings. Now for jump, well done
you cleared that ditch like deer, or dear |
should say 1t is branch of the Michigan
Bar Ditch. Yes you are right, and.if those
who have the capital to construct such works
would turn their attention to and cause them
to be built, they would not only reap rich
reward pecuniarily, but would confer a great
blessing on thousands of miners who are now
idle for the want of water, and say nothing
of the good it would do California
Take for example this place, last year there
was not over ten miners at work, the ditch
company brought in small branch of their
ditch for the purpose Of surface mining,
what is the consequence, miners came flock
ing in, the surface diggings are in operation,
miners prospected the hills, struck rich deep
diggings, richer than they had dared hope to
be enlarged ana hundreds will find employ
ment for years to come-these are facts, not
idle speculation, facts proved by practice, nor
is this the only place where it could be found.
Yes It's a pleasant place to work. just far
enough up in the mountains to make it seem
beautiful, and grand scenes to see there in
the east the "snow capped Nevada to the
South the dark brown Mokelumne range
looms up, on the North the Costumes hills
mark the line of vision and to the west the
Sacramento valley stretches of as far as the
eyes can see. AT times from this very spot
you can see the smoke of the steamer going up
or down the river Yes, it is a pretty place,
and especially at this time of the year. when
the hills are covered with their green carpet
and dotted with those pretty flowers. Oh,
these flowers are beautiful, aud in their silent
though eloquent language, they whisper words
of cheer to the to-worn miner and bid him
falter not but be of good cheer, for there are
loved ones anxious for his coming; or per-
chance they will call to mind memories of
loved and lost ones-memories of the time
when youth and joy went hand in hand to-
gether These flowers bid him hope-for
like them all that is lovely must fade and die,
but still like them, in this far-off land, will
live and bloom again in land where flowers
never fade
Here we are at "Old Mller's7 cam-the
first on our route Take care-do notgo too
near the bank, or over you go. He has just
commenced stripping here; he run a tunnel
for eighty feet before he struck the pay dirt;
he set sluices in his tunnel to this shaft, where
you see the water pouring down as he ground
sluces of the top off, The dirt drops in
the sluices and is discharged from them in a
large ravine at the base of the hil and he
has no more trouble with it. He will soon
bt down to his pay dirt Success to him.
The next is the rich, or ''star" claim, as it
is called, owned by Castle, Conway and Lud-
low, who paid four thousand dollars for it
few weeks ago, but could not now be bought
for ten thousand. The last washing they took
out eleven hundred dollars. 1t is not fairly
commenced yet, and cannot be worked out
for years to come.
Next we come to the "Yankee Boys"-
They are not yet down to the pay dirt, but
are working with an energy that speaks well
for them, and they have every prospect of be-
ing rewarded for their labor
Next comes the Ritter e. Nourse claim.
They have not finished their tunnel yet, but
are working at it night and day
Here is another, and still another-all un-
der way and all OF them having an equal
chance of success
And here is the Hydraulic Claim" Take
care, or that big cave will cover you up
Hurrah! Young thunderl what noise it
made. 1t scarcely looked possible that that
little stream of water would undermine aud
cave so large body Of dirt. And is it not
so in things appertaining to man? If we
concentrate our whole force on any one OBJ
ject we are sure 20 accomplish it. This claim,
like the rest, is not fairly opened and the
owners are sanguine Of making good wages,