New Orleans daily crescent., 1859-06-28
Yep 0fans 9aiy Crescent Tnesaay aaurni gne 49, 1859.

in operation, but the owners inform US that their
prospecting shows from 10 cents to IS to the PAN
As the leads are all found on the hills many of
the miners are constructing trenches to carry water
to them instead Of building their sluices in the ra
vines and carrying the dirt thither, In wagons or
sacks. Many persons who have come here without
provisions or money are compelled to work as com.
mon laborers at from 81 to 50 per day and board,
time necessary to prospecting, building sluices etc.
Others, not finding gold the third day, or dsliking
the work necessary to obtaining 1t, leave the mines
In disgust, after very short trial. declaring there is
no gold here In paying quantities. 1t should be re-
membered that the discoveries made thus far are the
result of five weeks labor.
In nearly every instance, the gold s estimated by
the miners as worth $40 per ounce, which, for gold
though this is undoubtedly Of very great purity.
The reader reduce the estimate If be sees proper
We have no data on which to act in the premises
The wallrock is generally shattered, so that it, like
the veinstone is readily taken out with the pick and
shovel. In single instance only did we hear of wall
rock too hard for this.
OF the vein.stone probably not more than onehalf
is SO decomposed that the gold can be washed from
it. The residue of the quartz is shoveled out of the
suices and reserved to be crushed and washed here
after The miners estimate this equally rich with
that which has rotted so that the gold may be
washed from it hence, that they realize yet, but
half Il gold dug BY them. This seems probable, but
its truth remains to be tested.
1t should be borne in mind that while the miners
here now labor under many disadvantages, which
must disappear with the growth OF their experience
and the improvements of their now rude machinery,
they at the same time enjoy advantages which can.
not be retained Indefinitely nor rendered universal
They are all working near small mountain stream,
which affords them an excellent supply of water for
washing at very cheap rate; and, though such
streams are very common here the leads stretch over
rugged hills and considerable mountains down which
the vein stone must be carried to water, at serious
cost 1t does not seem probable that the thousands
Of claims already made or being made on these leads
can be worked pro6tably in the average as those
already in operation. We hear already of many who
have worked their claims for days (by panning) with
out having raised the color' as the phrase is-that
is, without having found any gold whatever. We
presume thousands are destined to encounter lasting
no gold being prominent feature Of the geology Of
all this region.
Wecannot conclude this statement without protest.
ing most earnestly against renewal Of the nfatua-
month or two snce only to turn back before reach.
ing il, or to hurry away Immediately after, more
hastily than they came. Gold mining is q business
which emnently requires Of its votaries capital ex
perience, energy, endurance and in which the high.
est qualities donot always command success. 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 people already in this ravine and
hundreds more pouring into it daily Tens OF thous.
ands have been passed by us on our rapid jour
ney to this place. or heard of on their way hther
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 roads which are mere trails cross
ing countless unbridged water courses always steep
banked and often mirey, and at times so swollen by
rains as to be utterly impossible by wagons.
Part of this distance is desert, yielding grass,
wood and water only at intervals of several miles,
and then very scantiy To attempt to this des
er on foot is madness, suicide, murder. To cross it
with teams in midsummer when the water courses
only to those who know just where to look for grass
ank water and where water must be carried along to
preserve life. few months hence-probably by the
middle of October-this whole Alpine region will be
showed under and frozen up, so as to put stop to
the working of sluces if not to mining altogether
There then, for period of at least six weeks, will
be neither employment, food, nor shelter within five
hundred miles, for the thousands pressing hther un
der the delusion that gold may be picked up here
like pebbles on the seashore and that when they ar
rive here, even though without provisions or money
their fortunes are made. Great disappointment great
suffering inevitable few can escape the latter
who arrive at Denver City after September without
ample means to support them in very dear coun.
try, at least through a long winter. We charge
those who manage the telegraph not to difuse part
OF our statement, without giving substantially the
whole and we beg the press generally to unite with
to these gold mines, as ill.advised as that Of last
spring-a rush sure to be followed like that by a
stampede, but one far more destructive of property
and life. Respectfully
mm A. p; RIGHARDsoN,