The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1860-04-05
Communicated.
MOUNTAIN CITY, March 5th, 1860.


Whoop- ee Alex! Spring is here and
Enoch is not dead, robbed, murdered, or
starved to death, as Charley and some
others predicted; nor shut in by the snow,
as you all thought. But hold. may be |
am following halloo, before l am out of
the woods. for the deepest snow came in
March, last yeai, but soon went away, ex-
cept in the dtifted places. AT this time
we are having as fine weather as have
ever seen in old Marshall, and double the
most pleasant winter have spent since
leaving California, you are all humbugged
about the cold winters, / had no occasion
to put on my overcoat during this last
winter / was out hunting the coolest
day this winter, and suffered no cold; but
several got frost bitten that day in Decem
ber, for instance. six of us hunters met at
cabin to stay over night, and five out Of
the six got their toes frosted, more or less.
Enoch was the oaly one that escaped, and
he never will freeze alive unless tied. We
had two good cold days and some others
pretty tight, but in general nothing to In
diana. The snow is all off except the
north hillsides and drifts. The melting
affords water for the miners to operate in
working out the precious stuff.
The gulches are frozen too much to
work to an advantage, but considerable is
being done in them. and many that went
to the States and other places, to winter,
will be surprised to find their claims work
ed out for them; great many were jump
ed that were not represented. The prin.
cipal work this winter has been opening
leads. or edes. and getting out quartz for
the mills. We lack one hundred quartz
mills, for the demand, and they are pay
ing institution. sure. We have three here
but only two in operation, and they are
doing splendid business. The other
will be in operation this week; it is calcu-
lated to do double the business of the
others. Two others above Boulder City,
some tweutyf five miles north of here, are
nearly ready 20 work. The bulk of gold
will be from them this year. Not many
gulches pay. as yet discovered, but the
quartz Will beat California and the loGes
presume. vii! excel the world, as yet
discovered. The Gunuell lead excells
anything yet found, even the Gregory
Ii has creylce about two feet vide, and
The dirt out of it yields eight dollars per
bucket, half barrel sawed in twain. Then
the quartz yields as high as six hundred
per cord. These figures with me are con-
sidcred the highest, although the Noun
tain City News has an account of Sl7OO
out of two cords. They always know
much more than the miners.
Consider able excitement prevails here
about new discovered diggings from eight
to twelve miles from here, under the snow
range; hundreds are rushing there thro'
the snow, and many return with flea in
their ear. The most part believe them
goad, some think them the best discover
ed, that is the gulches, and ali admit them
to be good, but too much snow to work
them to advantage. Hundreds are flock
ing in from the valley where three fourths
that could get away. went to winter, think
ing they could do nothing here. They
attended theatres. gambling houses, and
grog shops, and wintered their money out
before the winter was out. The Denver
ties had no more use for them then they
pnt to the mountains. to the banks for
money to buy grub which always issues
when proper application is made. 1t iss-
ues rather small sums. but good the world
over, that is more than you can say abou.
your banks. Among the the returnin.
prodigals there are goodly number OF
ladies to cheer the hearts of the mners.
Hundreds are wading the snow to the Tar
ryall digging at the head waters of tie
Platte, Arkansas and Blue Rivers where
Kidwell, Shirley, and thousands of 9th
ers got bit bv the humbug and cut foi
the States to get cured. But those tha,
staid got well cured. There are good
diggings there. and no mistake--the rich
est and coarsest gold yet discovered in
these regions. l saw in the Lafayette
Democrat an account of coarse gold some
whore else, that ours is fine scale gold.--
For the information Of those that never
in gold country, will state that | never
saw, neither in Georgia, California nor
here, scale gold from the natural earth.
but invariably in streams of water. or
where the water has run, that wore it. OF
the tumbling of rocks that mashed it
Tarryall is pretty much ali coarse gold,