Mower County transcript., 1869-12-30

is led ont by two of the soldiers into the
courtyard, and two dctonations of arque-
busies are heard.
That was On the night of the 23d of Feb
ruary, 1868.
s'POcket'' Mining.
From Mark Twain's ''Around the World:
In one little corner, Of California is found
species of mining which is seldom or
never mentioned in print. 1t Is called
cket.mining, and am not aware that
any of it is done outside OF that little cor
ner. The gold is not evenly distributed
through the surface dirt, as in ordinary
placer mines, but is collected in little spots.
and they are very vide apart and exceed
ingly hard to find, but when you do find one
you reap 4 rich and sudden harvest There
are not now more than 20 pocket miners in
that entire little region. I. think know
every one Of them personally. have
known ono of them to hunt patiently about
the hillsides every day tor 9 months without
finding gold enough to make a snuff-box-
his grocery bill running up relentlessly oil
the time-and then have seen him find
pocket and take out of it thousand dol
lar, in two dips of his shovel. have seen
him take out 50, 900 in two hours, and 60
aud pay up every cent of his indebtness,
then enter on dazzling spree'that finished
the last of his treasure before the night was
gone. And the next day he bought his gro
ceries on credit rs usual, and shouldered
his pan and shovel and went off to tho
hills hunting pockets again happyand con-
tent. Thissis perhaps the most fascinating
of all. the different kinds of mining, and
furnishes very Handsome percentage OF
victims to the luuatic asylum. Honest toll
aud moderate gains in shops and on farms
have their virtues and their advantages.
When man consents to seek for sudden
riches he does it at his peril. mo charge J
Pocket hunting is an ingenious process.
You take 4 spadeful OF earth from the hill
side and put it in large tin pan and dis
solve and wash it gradually away till moth
ing is left but teaspoonful OF fine sedi-
ment. Whatever gold was in that earth
has remained, because, being the heaviest,
it has sought the bottom. Among the sedi-
ment you will find half dozen shining
particles no larger than pin-heads. You
are delighted. You move off to. one side
and wash another pan. It you find goll
again, you move to one side further, and
wash third pan. If you find no gold this
time, you are delighted again, because you
know you are on the right scent. You lay
an imaginary plan, shaped like fan, with
its handle up the hill-for just where the
end of the handle is, you argue that the ylch
deposit lies hidden, whose vagrant grains of
gold have escaped and been washed down,
spreading farther and farther apart as
they wandered. And so you proceed up
the hill, washing the earth and narrowing
your lines every time the absence of gold
in the pan shows that you are outside of
the fan ; and at last, 20 yards up the hill
your lines have converged to y point-a
single foot from that point you cannot find
any gold. Your breath comes short and
quick, you are feverish with excitement +;
tho dinner-bell may ring its clapper of, you
pay no attention; friends may die, we'd
dings transpire, houses burn down, they
are nothing to you you sweat and dig and
delve with . frantic intelest-ani all at
once you strike it J.. Up comes spade full
Of earth and quartz that is all lovely with
soiled Jumps and leaves and sprays of gold.
Sometimes that one spaileful is an-$5OO.
Sometimes the Hest contains SIC, 900, and
it takes you three Or four days to get it all
out. i The pocket-miners tell; Of one nest
that yielded SS60, 600 and two men exhaust
| ed it in Two weeks, and then sold the
ground for $4,000 to q. party who never
got $500 out of it afterward.
The hogs are good pocket hunters. All
| the summer they root around the bushes,
and turn upSa thousand little piles Of dirt,
and then the miners long tor the rains; for
| the rains beat upon these little piles and
| wash them dewn and expose the gold, DOS.
| sibly right over .a pocket, Two pockets
were found in this way by the same man in
one day. One had ST, 1000 in it and the
other Sc, 900. That man could appreciate
| it, for he hadn't had cent for about year.
In Tuo1umne liyed two miners who used
to 60 to the neighboring yillage,in the Of
ternoon and return every night with house
hold supplies Part of the distance they
traversed q trail, and nearly always sat
down to rest on great boulder that lay
beside the path. In the course Of thirteen
years they had worn that boulder tolerably
smooth. sitting on It. BY and by two vagrant
Mexicans came along and occupied the seat.
i! They began to amuse themselves by chip
ping of fakes from the boulder with a
sledge hammer. They examined one ;of
these fakes and found it,rich with gold.
That. boulder paid them $500 afterward.
But the aggravating circumstance was that
these .'Greasers" knew that there must be
more gold where that boulder came from.
and SO they, went papning up the hill and
found what was probably the richest pock-
ct that region has yet produced! It took
three months 70 exhaust it, and it yielded
$1,000 The two American miners who
used to sit on the boulder are poor yet, and
they take turn about in getting up early in
the morning to curse those Mexicans-and
then it comes down to pure ornamental
wheing, the native American is gifted above
tu1ssons of men. y yy
Exhumation in Ohio Of the Remains Of
- q Megatheriam. -
From the Columbus State Journal. Dec. 6.
There is now on exhibition at the rooms
of the State Board of Agriculture, or Head.
quarters Of the Geological Corps, section
of the femur or thigh bone Of an animal }ol
the Mastodon species, the fossilized re-.
mains of which were recently discovered
in Union. County. These remains were
found in q drift formation about three feet
below the surface, and are similar to the
remains Of the Megatherium found in
other parts of the State. Arrangements
were made by Mr.. Klippart, of the Geolo.
gical Corps, to ,haye the. ekeleton or the
parts thereof removed with care. Before
excavations bad proceeded far bad
weather set in, and work has been
abandoned The. section of the femur,
upper part with socket ball, is about TWEEN.
| ty inches in length, Of about half the length
of the thigh bone. This would make the
aggregate length of the bones of the ]eg
about ten feet. The ball is twenty-five in.
ches in circumference, and the bone lower
down of course much larger. From the
part of the skeleton secured, it is estimated
that the height of the animal was twelve
and half feet, and the length twenty feet,