Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-12-19
LUCK IN A TUNNEL.

! am an old miner. Not one of the
nowadays Washoe and Nevada stripe,
but an old '49 California miner. have
been engaged in all descriptions of
mining transactions, except the new
tangled one of mining stock in compa-
nies-" feet" | believe they call it.
Among my varied undertakings was
one operation in a tunnel, IN which l
and my partners engaged in the summer
of 1852.
One afternoon in that year, as was
carrying up bucket OF water from the
river to our tent at the top of the bank,
my foot caught under large stone, and
my perpendicular was at once changed
to horizontal posture, while the water
from the overturned bucket spread it
self in various directions. With a few
eXpletiyes of rather forcible charac-
ter, quite customary and common in
that region and period, raised myself
to my feet again, and picking up the
bucket, was about to retrace my steps
to the river, when my attention was at
tracted by folded paper which had
been placed under the stone which
caused my fall. When my foot tripped,
the stone was overturned, and the paper,
folded in letter form, lay exposed TO
view. Bending over, picked it up
and proceeded to examine it. 1t was
written in pencil, in characters very
irregular and stiffiy formed, as if made
by person with wounded hand. The
contents were as follows:
" If this letter should fall into the
hands of any person l wish to inform
him that have been attacked and NOR
tally wounded by my two partners, who
wished to obtain my money. Failing
to discover it, after wounding me, they
have fled, leaving me here to die.
Whoever gets this letter will find, buried
in ravine at the foot Of "blazed'
tree, twenty-five PAGES due north Of
this, bag containing $4,000 in gold
dust That it may prove more fortu-
nate property to him than it has to me
is the wish of ANDREW FOREST"
stood for some moments after read
ing the letter like one awakened from a
dream. l could not convince myself
that the letter in my hand was genuine,
and read it over and over again, think
ing / might get some clew from the
handwriting to the real author. 1t
might be trick got up by my partners
to raise a laugh at my expense. No;
the place where it was found, and the
purely accidental discovery, rendered
such a surmise very improbable. i sat
down on a log and turned the matter
over and over in my mind for some
time. At last got up, and pacing of
the required distance in the direction
mentioned in the letter, l came to &
large tree. Carefully examining it, l
discovered a scar, clearly indicating
that the tree had been "blazed" at
some remote period. This was con-
firmation strong as Holy Writ" and
Immediately went to work TO discover
the locality of the ravine. Here was
atfault. Nothing of the kind was to
be seen. To all appearances a stream
OF water never had passed in the neigh
borhood Of the tree. This was not en-
couraRing. and l satdown on the ground
and read the letter again, TO see II had
not mistaken some of its directions.
Mo- was In the right place; but where
was the ravineP
A tap on the shoulder aroused me
from my meditations, and, looking up
saw my two partners, who loudly
abused me for having neglected the
preparation for their supper. AS an
exeuseI showed them the letter and
detailed the manner Of my finding it,
To my surprise they were as much ex-
cited by its perusal as ! had been, and
we all looked around perseyeringly for
the rayine, but without effect, for some
time. At last Jack Nesbitt, who had
been miner since '48, said:
81 think there has been rayine here.
but 1t has been filed up by the rains. ["
On close examination we decided that
his supposition was correct, and after
some consultation we determined 10
commence digging early the following
morning.