Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-09-28

THE LARGEST NUGGETS.



numerous, and men, if they found
nugget of extraordinary size, were
afraid their ground might be jumped
or themselves robbed and perhaps MUIR
dered going below, and thus kept the
largest gold finds a secret until they
could get out Of the mountain and the
State. The following facts, that have
never before been in print, I came
across in q most singular way, and
can rely on the word Of the narrator.
In 1851 and 1852 / mined with a man
from Massachusetts, named John Dodge
on several flats and places around
Downieville and the Middle Yuba. In
1858 | lost sight Of him, but heard he
had gone East. In 1853 1 went with
the rush to British Columbia, and
worked out a good claim, and then
took a trip to Australia. In going
from Sydney up to the mines we
camped on creek by the roadside,
where a great many teams stopped on
their up and down trips, as water
supply in that dry climate was a long
way apart. The great teams and
American wagons arrived along toward
evening on the creek in perfect
stream.
AS we were eating supper we heard
ateamster's voice that l thought was
familiar, and driving into camp
strolled among the teams, and almost
the first man met was my old Downie-
vile partner. He was glad to see me,
and being SO recently from Downie-
vile, he requested me to call after he
had fed his animals and eaten his own
meal, to talk over old times in Cali
fornia. He owned the whole fit-out
that he was driving ng-was freighted up,
buying hides, tallew and other colonial
products, on his own account for back
freight. He had married in the coun-
try and was doing a profitable bust
ness with his team.
After talking of old times here in
California, the whereabouts of old
friends and acquaintance, he said:
.By-the-bye, George, you never knew
why or how left California so sud-
denly? 2" 1 answered "No:" but he
had not slipped from my memory; but
many men in the mines like ourselves
were missed, and often turned up
thousands Of miles away. He said, N
can give You the eventful story now"
Well, when we worked together in
the summer Of 80 on the Middle Yuba
I heard you tell Of the rich claim and
coarse gold you found on Slate Castle
ravine on the south fork, one mile
above Downieville. Myself and Bill
Hopkins, together with German part
ner, went quietly there in the summer
of '53 and occupied an old cabin that
had been deserted and the ground
abandoned. We stripped the claim in
another direction, and came across the
lead containing coarse gold, as you had
described, and made for two weeks per
man from one to three ounces. The
ground was getting deeper and heavy
to strip, and started small drift to
see how wide the lead was before
we stripped further ahead 1t
was Saturday, about noon. The
ground continued still to pay, and
we were down in soft slate crevice,
when struck the pick into bright
lump Of gold that seemed to run into
the solid gravel. / tried to pry it out,
but it was too firmly imbedded. Then
dug carefully around it, and it ap-
peared to grow larger as 1 dug the
gravel away. Weplaced one on the
lookout to see that no one surprised
US, and tell you we were excited; and
after some time I got it loose, and by
hard lifting, and there it lay, almost
pure gold, nearly the shape Of heart,
and it fitted exactly the bottom Of the
crevice. The quartz that was attached
to it was crystallized, and would not
exceed three pounds in weight. We
got it in the cabin as quick as possible
in sack, and placed it under one of
the hunks, intending to examine it
more thoroughly at night.
eve stayed away from town on
Saturday and Sunday, and brought it
out at night to feast our eyes upon it
again, and each guessed it would
weigh at least two hundred pounds.
We concluded not to takeit up to town
to weigh, but divide it some way; for
if it were known there would be in
tense excitement. We had gold scales,
but they would only weigh one and
half pounds. After some time spent
in consultation, Bill Hastings sug-
gested rough pair Of original scales;
we piled on rock and iron weighed by
the gold scales till we got the balance,
and the nugget brought down two
hundred and thirty-one pounds, gold
weight. We burned the quartz and
thoroughly picked it out with
the point of a knife; the pure
gold then brought down two
hundred and twenty-seven pounds,
and the grand specimen looked more
beautiful than ever. If we had taken
it to Longton express Office there would
have been the widest excitemeHt On
Monday we cleaned up the remainder
Of the crevice and it paid well, but to-
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