The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-06-01
Mark Twain as a Pocket Miner.

These pockets Yield from 500 OF
$500 up to $4,000 or $4,000, and
occasionally twice these amounts
Sometimes the pockets are in quartz
ledges that crop out above the gen
eral surface Of the ground, but they
are more frequently what are called
blind" leads that is, veins that
are hidden under the debris Of rocks
and soil that has washed or rolled
down upon them from higher points
on the slopes of the mountains. In
prospecting for pockets, samples OF
soil are taken from the sides Of q
mountain or nil of promising APP
pearance, one that is trayersed by
many veins of quart, and when
gold is found on washing out a pan
OF this, another sample is taken
from point above, and so the par
ticles OF gold are carefully traced
back to the point whence they start
ed-to the pocket. All pockets that
come to the surface, or that have
once been on tho surface, throw OFF
more or less gold. Often pocket
that contains but $500 or $500 is
found to send pown a trail Of gold
several hundred yards in length.
AS would naturally be supposed,
the gold is coarsest and most abund-
ant near the pocket in which it was
produced. A pocket miner may
wash pan of dirt taken from the
foot of the mountain, and get but a
single color" Of gold, yet it will be
for him good prospect" An or
dinary miner would not give such q
mere point of gold second thought;
but for the pocket miner the little
glittering particle OF metal possess
es much significance. He at once
carefully examines it with a nagni-
fying glass. At the first glance he
can tell whether it is a grain of pla.
Ger gold or gold from 4 quartz vein.
Place gold is smooth and shpws
signs of washingand attrition, while
quartz gold is rough, jagged, and
frequently bears the impress OF the
matrix in which it was formed. This
popularity, however, is not often to
be distinguished in very small piec-
es. The prcspector can also tell
from the character Of the ground
whether his prospect is from q gla-
Ger or quartz vein. If no washed
gravel is seen on the hill, or in the
dirt from which it was panned, il is
almost certain that the gold is from
quartz vein.
The pocket miners position
among the people of q mining re-
gion very much resembles that of
the bee-hunter among the people of
the frontier settlements in the agri-
cultural regions. The business he
follows also has several points OF re-
semblence to that Of the bee-hunt-
er. The trail followed by one leads
him to the tree stored with golden
sweets, and that OF the other ends
in pocket of the sweetest gold.
The man who becomes an expert
bee-huntsr remains a bee-hunter the
rest of his days, and the same may
be said of the pocket miner.
mark Twain's" narrow escape
from becoming a pocket miner has
never been told. 1t is worth record
ing, as it gave him the story OF the
jumping Frog" and sent him off
along the line of the literary lode
and set him to searching therein for
pockets" of fun. In 1860, Mark,
weary of Bohemian life in San
Francisco, went up into the mining
regions of Tuolume county to rusti-
cate with some old friends-Steve,
Jim, and Billy Gillis. Jim ellis
was and is one of the most expert
pocket miners in California. Al
though educated with view to
eventually fighting the battle of life
as a physician, and though still find
ing solace in his leisure moments in
the works of Greek and Latin au-
thors that repose ON their shelves in
his cabin, he is booked for life as
pocket miner. The business has
charms for him that bind him to it
with chains ofgold-chains that bind
more firmly than those of iron or
steel. Show him q particle OF quartz
gold on the side of the mountain,
and if it came to where twas found
through the processes or accidents
of nature. undisturbed in any way
by the interference of man, he will
as unerringly trace it to its golden
source as the bee-hunter will follow
the bee to his hoard of sweets.
Mark Twain found the Bohemian
style of mining practiced by the
ellis brothers very attractive. He
and Jim ellis took the hills in
search of golden pockets, and spent
some days in hunting for the undis
turbed trail of an undiscovered +
pocket. Finally they struck gold /
en- bee-line. They were two or three /
days in following it up, as it was I
necessary to carry each sample of
dirt considerable distance to q I
small stream in the bed of a canon
in order to pan it out. Each step +
made sure by golden grains, they at
last came to the pocket 1t was
cold, dreary, drilling day when the
home deposit was found. The first I
samples carried to the stream and
washed yielded but few cents. Al
though the right vein had baen dis
covered, they had as yet found bu.
the tail end of the pocket Return
ing to the vein they dug a sample-
from new place, and where about
to carry it down to the ravine and /
test it when the rain began to pour
down heavily, and Mark, with chat
tering teeth. declared he would re-
main no longer. He said there was
no sense in freezing to death, as in
day or two, when it was bright and /
warm, they could return and pursue
their investigations in comfort.
Yielding to Marks entreatics, back
ed as they were by bis blue nose,
bumped back, and generally miser-
able and,dejected appearance. Jim
emptied the sack of dirt upon the
ground, first having written and
posted up notice OF their claim to
a certain number eff feet on the vein,
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