Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1885-03-10

An Eureka PrOspectOr Tells Of
One OF His First EXP er fences I'm
the ROckies-A Marrow Escape.

the ROckfes-A Marrow Escape.
You fellows can tell your stories
about getting showed in while Wintering
in high attitudes, but / had a high altitude
experience when / first came West which
L shall never forget" said a miner in
Mendes' saloon last night as he raped on
the table with a beer glass and called for
another round Of drinks. at was in the
Summer OF 1871, and q party OF rs, Just
fresh from the East, pitched our tent, 80
to speak, on Chalk Greek, Chaffee county,
Colorado. where the town Of St. Elmo now
stands. As probably some of you boys
know, that section has an elevation of over
10000 feet, and the surrounding country
ID about as wild as any you will find in the
Centennial State, or n ywhere in the West.
One OF our crowd was dead gone on hunt
ing, and hearing that a great many bear
frequently gathered on a certain range to
feed on the myriads of grasshoppers which
had succumbsd to the rigor OF the climate
while endeavoring to cross the backbone
OF the Rockies, we agreed on q day OF sport.
The following morning we were up and of
before daybreak, and it was about2 o'clock
IN the afternoon when we gained the sum
nit. What a wild sectionl In the canyon
where We had camped we were pretty well
elevated. but there upon the summit we
were at least 1900 feet higher. On all
sides Of US nothing could be seen except
range after range of precipitous barren
mountains, with hero n there q lake.
Ii was q marvellous, a grand sightl Not
even . tree or push was to be seen.
Wherever exposed to the IN, the mount
aims were bare, but wherever sheltered
were huge piles OF snow. and IL was upon
these piles that we tracked our game. We
had been somewhat successful, and when
about starting back to our camp (being in
a gulch at the time) a dense cloud settled
down upon US. At first we treated IL as q
laughing matter, but it was not long until
we realized that We were in q predicament.
There we were, powerless TO proceed home
ward; and it was then 5 O'Clock. The
longer we waited, the denser the fog
seemed to grow. Finally, night set in.
What q dilemmal Once in a while one of
the boys would try to laugh off the matter,
but as a wind came up and the night grew
cold the situation became a serious one.
To ger back to our tent was out of the
question, and we were unable to find any
wood with which TO build a fire. The
night grew intensely cold and biting. and
IL was only by constant exercise that we
kept any warmth in our bodies. TIL later
the hour, the more intense became our
situation, until finally, | said: Boys, we
must get down of these mountains il we
break our necks in doing So OFF we
started-none OF US knew in what direc-
ton. The biting wind blew fesrfully. and
whenever we found q sheltering crag we
would stop for o moment and lay plans
for a short section Of our course. 1t must
have been midnight when we reached q
certain canyon where we discovered q dead
pine. BY George; / was almost frantic
with Joy A fire was our only salvation.
There were but eleven matches in the
crowd, and after consuming ten Of them,
trying to light the dry twigs, 1t began to
look as though the Fates were dead against
US. One Of the boys, though, happened to
have in his pocket a pancake wrapped in q
-four sack, and we decided to light the pile
OF embers with this piece of cloth. Being
touched with the lighted match it burned
ADD smoked, but there was no blaze. We
piled dry twigs onto it, and each took his
turn at trying to blow it into q blaze, but
il was no go. Then we all blew frantically,
until, when the cloth was about consumed,
the tWiBs were set apaaNe' A"Ah Va
ing it big II any of you should acciden-
tally stumble onto q bonanza on Prospect
| Mountain tomorrow it would be impossi-
BILE for you to become more overcome with
Joy than we were when our fire commenced
to roar. There We remained until day
break, when we discovered ourselves
| within an hours walk of our cabin. That
was my first bear hunt, and, as You hear
my Emma Nevada voice, it came near be-
ing my last. Since then l have kept along
| the lower ranges Seven and eight thou
sand feet is high enough for me-"