The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-06-25

these are the rlcneSt mines, or course you
want me to describe them particularly
Well, the gold is almost entirely in the
il" leads" Of what is called "decomposed
quartz" The general course Of these leads
is North west and South east or nearly that,
and they run for many miles-being tracea-
bic over the hills by the knowing ones, by
On occasional "blossom.' Old Californians
are nonplusscd, and declare that it is en-
tirely different from anything :hoy ever saw
or heard of before. Start at the bottom of
deep ravine, and you follow them up -
over tremendous hill and down again into
another gorge, then up up! up!
again, over another hill, and 50 on, 20
ono knows yet how far. As far
as the digging has progressed, they became
richer the deeper you get, and the miners
suppose that they go to the bottom Of those
hills, and perhaps much deeper. These leads
are generally from eight to twelve inches
wide, although there is one discovered -four
feet wide, which they call the " Mammoth
Lead" think there are nearly thousand
men actively engaged in prospecting that
region, and probably, so far, not one in ten
has had any success not however, because
there are not ':leads' enough, but because
in their in experience they have not yet had
time to find them.
If they pcrsevere many of them will doubt
less succeed. But l should not be at all
surprised if grand stampede of disap-
pointed men should take place up there in a
week or two. You may be Il little astonish-
cd at this, but will explain. Many of these
men seem to exercise no discretion in hunt
ing claim; they 90 upon the bank Of n
stream, or on the hillside, and dig n hole two
or three feet deep, take out pan of dirt.
and wash it, and the chances are that they
hardly ever get the color; for between these
leads speak Of, you may dig dozen h lies
and perhaps scarcely raise the color twice.
then, instead of digging away right and
left, till they find a lead, they sup and off, >
to another place, and try again, with sim
liar result !: pursuing such course, the
chances of striking lead are not more
than one in hundred, and | doubt not
many of them will get tired of trying and
quit the country in disgust. Some of them
may stick their stakes at the "Jackson dig
gings, eight miles from Gregory's, where
the yield is not near as large, but the gold
is coarse and more generally distributed.
We found number Of men thercwho appear
ed to be pretty well satisfied with the result of
their labors; among whomwas Mr.. M'DoNALp
Of the Bluffs, to whom | delivered letter.
His company Of four men showed US at noon
last Monday, what they had just taken from
their sluice as the product of half day
labor. 1t was coarse gold, some of the pie
ces, think - cents, and there was at least
as we judged ten dollars Of it. These dig
gings are on Clear Creek, and many are Of
opinion that the bed of this stream ~ in the
mountains is very rich. | think it has in no
instance been tried yet, but probably will be
soon. Then there are the " Buckeye dig
gings' and the Chicago diggngs,' both on
Clear Creek, yielding coarse gold, not pay.
ing largely, but think yielding good wages.
, Now, Mr.. Editor, each individual reader of
the Nonpareil has 4 vollcy of questions
ready to pour into me were within shoot
ing distance. If | were face to face
with them | would try to answer them as
we'll as could, but as am away out here
and shall not see them till fall, l will en-
lcavor to anticipate few of their questions.
Says one, why did 4 number of men who
had wintered ON Cherry Creek and staid
there till nearly the lst of June: come back
to the frontier with reports of no gold to
pay?' They started for home Il little too
soon. Why did Curtis, Starring and Dick
Cour.wright, come home with such glowing
accounts and not 60 back as they professcd
to be preparing to do? | suppose that they
scented tho van Of the rctreating army, and
were afraid of being lynched on the road,
and have no doubt they would have been,
or ut least Curtis and Cartwright. Humid
reds of men were cursing them bite ly, and
swearing vengeance if they could catch
them. Ten miles beyond the South Platte
crossing, met A. W. Pitts Of Dixon, Ill.
who wished me to tell Cartwright, that if
he ever showed his face in Dixon again, tn" y
would hang him. Another reader asks if
these claims pay so largely some days and
get richer as they are dug deeper, why do
they not average more per day? In some
places they lose the Lead and have to drift
for it, in others, they get against solid rock,
and have to pick their way through, as there
has been scarcely any blasting done yet
These difficulties will in great degree be
obviatcd by experience and the yield will
consequently be larger.
Well, | will answer no moro imaginary
questions now, but talk of some thing else.
You want to know something about the
tramp we had. For twelve miles from
Auraria we had good road and then we
began to climb. That was Saturday after
noon, and from that time till yesterday NOR
ming we had it up hill and down hill nearly
all the time, of course, there were some gen.
tie slopes, and some level spots, but they
were like angels visits. But then we got
ample compensation for stretching our mus
Giles and trying our backs and legs, in the
wild grandeur of the scenery, the variety Of
trees and birds, and flowers, and the clear
cold, water, that came roaring and sparkling
down the deep ravines. At night when We
camped, We built 'tip top bough houses of
pine branches, and monstrous fires of the
dry pine wood, 'lyins around loose nearly
all over the two middle ranges of mountains
between the front range and the fourth,
which last is capped with snow. We saw
but little game as most Of it keeps away
from the road, but the hunter of the party,
FRANK SrEpNAN, who has a splendid double
barreled rifle, and is Il capital shot, s.roled