Connecticut western news., 1882-04-12

And open the doors of their hearts.
 "PR0SPECTIN ING" Our WEST. TEE WILD LIVES or THE LEDGE HUNTERS
 WHO "TRAoE THE FLOATS" AND
 s'srAKE THE CLAIMS" IN THE SIERRA
 NEvADAs.
 There is class of men in the West, strung all along the great mineral belt of the Sierra Nevada, whose work in the development of the natural resources of the country is most im- portant, while their lives are the hard est of the hard. They are the prospect ors, the men who find the mines who, with patience which is admirable and 8 shrewdness of induction, that would yield them far higher returns in almost any other occupation, trace out the "Aoat," locate the ledge, and do the first work necessary to reveal the hid den wealth. The name applied to them is derived from "prospects," as the croppings, or that part of the ledge which appears on the surface, are called. The prospectors are curious class in many respects, having as little thought of the morrow as sailors, aban- doning themselves when in funds to the widest forms of dissipation and excess, and when their sprees are over, working as hard as it is possible for men to work. There are except tions to this, of course but the average prospector, in these few words, has been pretty fairly described. One sometimes makes large amounts of money when by chance he gets fair price for one of his claims 1; but as rule the money goes as quickly as it comes. The penniless condition that follows does not startle him, for, as he would say himself, he has "bin thar afore." If he has money enough to pay for 'grub stake, he buys one if not, always providing that he has the repu- tation of being man who understands his business, he has but little trouble in persuading some store-keeper to ad- vance him one, taking in return an agreement on the part of the prospector to put him Gin the pot" This being translated, means that the prospector shall assign one-haf of whatever he may find to the storekeeper. The agree. ment is one which works exceedingly well for the storekeeper, because the s'grub stake" is rarely worth more than S20, and his share in mine which, if ii is worth anything at all, is worth five or six thousand dollars. Many of the storekeepers in the mining regions trace their fortunes to 'grub stakes" ad' vanced to prospectors ''out of luck''- the euphenistic method of describing 6 man who has literally thrown away every cent he had.
 The ''grub stake," whether bought by the prospector or contributed by his silent partner in the enterprise, Is almost always the same. One or two sides ot bacon, bag of beans, a sack of -four, 1 some coffee or tea and little salt and sugar, with tobacco of course. These the prospector packs upon his ''burro' | the Spanish or Mexican name for { l iackass-and with them some ammuni tion, an iron pot of the kind commonly called 0 "Dutch oven," frying pan his blankets, 8 pick and shovel, some simple chemicals, horn spoon, as ar ell1pse cut from one side of horn ii called, and sometimes a small pestle an6 mortar. Having packed the "burro' he starts out. Before leaving town all mining villages are called towns even when there are but two houses howerer, an important ceremony has tt be gone through with. This is tn. presentation by the storekeeper of { bottle of whisky, theoretically sup posed to be for use in case of snake bitel and always spoken of by both store keeper and prospector with the utmos gravity from this standpoint. As mat ter of fact, the snakes if they wish thei bites cured, have to be somewhat in hurry for the whisky is gone within twenty-four hours. Having cured hi snake bites by anticipation, the pros pector starts on his lonely tramp. l the "burro" is young he has to be led but if he has been prospecting befor he will follow his owner with some thing of the fidelity of dog. In start ing out the two are leaving civilization for anywhere from one month to four During that time they will travel ove hills, cross deserts, climb down int, valleys-the man always hunting for ledge which may contain ore. The Tiff is solitary in the extreme and one ful of hardships and hard work, yet tn men who once get into it find it DOS sesses some strange fascination, fo they rarely leave it for anything else.
 The actual work of discovering
 ledge may be described briefly. Sur pose the prospector has found som
 stone in which he discovers ore. Froz long experience he recognizes an ore {