Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1859-06-30

ic"'o 'ho innoo III oisSusi, allSr SuOie
trial, declaring there IS no gold here in
paying quantities. 1t should be remem-
bered that the discoveries made thus far
are the result of but five weeks labor.
In nearly every instance the gold is es-
timated BY the miners as worth $40 per
ounce, which, for gold collected by quick
silver, is certainly high valuation, though
this is undoubtedly of very great purity.
The reader can reduce the estimate if he
sees fit. We have no data on which to
act in the premises. 't-S@s -
We cannot conclude this statement with
out protesting most earnestly against re-
newal of the infatuation which impelled
thousands to rush to this region month
or two since, only to return back before
reaching it, or to hurry away imm ediately
after, more hastily than they came. Gold
mining is business which eminently re-
quires of its votaries capital, experience,
energy, endurance, and in which the high
est qualities do not always command sue
cess. There may be hundreds of ravines
in these mountains as rich in gold as that
in which. we write, and there probably are
many; but, up to this hour, We do not
know that any have been discovered.
There are said to be FIVE thousand peo-
pie already in this ravine, and hundieds
more pouring into it daily. Tens of thou
sands more have been passed by us on our
rapid Journey to this place. or heard Of as
on their way hither by other routes. For
all these, nearly every pound of provisions
and SUPPLIES of every kind must be hauled
by teams from the Missouri river some 700
miles distant, over roads which are mere
trails, countless unbridged water courses,
always steep banked and often mirey, and
at times so swollen by rains as to be utter
ly impossible by, wagons.
Part of this distance is desert, yielding
grass, wood and water only at intervals Of
several miles, and then very scantily. To
attempt to cross this desert on foot is mad
ness, suicide, murder. To cross it with
teams in midsummer, when the water
courses are mainly dry and the grass eat
en- up, is possible only to those who know
just where to look for grass and water, and
where water must be carried along to pre-
serve life. A few months hence proba-
bly, by the middle Of October-this whole
Alpine region will be showed under and
frozen up, SO as to put stop TO the work
ing of sluices if not to mining altogether.
There, then, for a period of at least six
months, will be neither employment, food
nor shelter within five hundred miles, for
the thousands pressing hither under the de-
lusion that gold may be picked up here
like pebles on the Sc shore, and that when
they arrive here, even though without pro-
visions or money their fortunes are made.
Great disappointment, great suffering, are
inevitable; few can escape the latter who
arrive at Denver City after September
without ample means to support them in
a very dear country, at least through a
long winter. We charge those who man
age the telegraph not TO diffuse part Ct
our statement, without giving substantially
the whole; and we beg the press generally
to unite with us in warning the whole peo-
pie against another rush 10 these gold
mines, as ill-advised as that of last spring
Ia rush sure to be followed like that BY
stampede, but one far more destructive of
property and life.
Respectfully, HORACE GREELEY, /,
>, - A. d. RICHARDSON,