The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-10-24
MELTING pIFFIcrLrIEs.

AubuA0 PASScCdIhkps
MEETING DIFFICULTIES.
There was space Of twenty feet, which,
II passed, would place US on more shelves.
How to get acroes this twenty feet was the
question. Itwas too steep to walk, and too
slippery to crawl, and, withal, was not a
nice place for experimenting, since, IL we
should lose our ioothold we would have a
fair chsnce Of finding It in another world.
But, our wonderful power Of surmounting
obstacles came to our rescue. We were
elated with the idea, and wondered why
we had not thought Of 1t before. We pull
ed of our boots and socks, threw them
safely on the shelf, whittier we meant to
follow, pitched our bread there, too. Our
boots landed all right, but the bread rolled
into puddle OF water, II wGs our plan to
walk barefooted across the sloping rock.
We thought, OF course, we could stick 10
the rock, If we were barefooted. Well, we
tried II, and could not stick worth cent.
We slipped worse than ever. We werenot
as sharp as we considered ourselves. In
fact, we began to feel amazingly foolish,
for, how were We going TO get our boots?
Wetied some fish lines together and tried
to snare them, but that would not work.
We looked up and down, like Bunyan's
Pilgrim at the River OF Death, and won
derad II there was not some other way.
We began to reIrace our steps, limping
over the sharp rocks, the burs, briers and
thorns, up through crack and crevice, and
copses ot chaparel and manzanita, high on
the face OF the mountain. Thus we worked
our way round and came into the creek
below our eouipage, which we found at
last, Our bread was well soaked, but, one
rougbing 1t In California soon gets accus-
toned to eating wet bread, and dry bread,
too. 0nr feet were about worn out, and
were full OF splinters aud briers. But we
hauled our boots off and were ready to
proceed.
According to our estimate We were now
half way to Nihilvides, and 1t was $50 A.
NJ Thence, the way WIS about as it had
been. Our dog, Bailey's, feet got sore, and
We wrapped them 10 rags to shield them
from the sharp rocks. Tho bed OF the
creek was one solid granite rock, scanned
in every direction by quartz. l found this
intermixture and alternate strata Of quartz
and granite more OF mystery to me than
the whole hole and hulo Of Nihilvides it.
self. 1could understand the latter, and
could not the former l have never found
anything similar in printed works on geol-
cgy or mineralogy. There were veins OF
quartz white assnow, running through the
granite, nearly II not always in north
and south irtc!ion, the vein standing ver-
tical to the plain OF the hori.
zon. The edges OF the quartz veins
were exposed only where the water
had worn the granite away. Their thick
ness varied from one foot 10 the thinness OF
sheet OF paper. This much eau undsr-,
stand, at least, my curiosity is satisfied.
But the quartz veins divide and sub divide,
till vein font thick Is converted into a
dezen veins, each an inch thick, which in
their turn go on subdividiug indefditely.
Sometimes branch or ''lead" separates
from large vein and runs off nearly at
right angles. The large vein is always di-
minished in proportion to the number and
size Of the branches-at any rate 1t looked
80 to me without actual measurement.
said that the direction was north and
south. This is meaut to apply only 10 the
main truSks, and may not hold good even
with them. But the branches run any di.
rectiou. This is well known thing in all
quaI'z mines. Soms OF the richest mines
in Nevada are, am told, running together
into the same vein. But this does not ex-
plain the geology OF tho matter. HIN.