The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-14
Is a honeycombed, notwithstanding rock,

which on being struck with a sledgs
emits sulphurous smell The sides tt
the physiological eye seem of diferen
kind of rock. But parts of the sides are
not of rock at all-they are of gravel.
On the eastern slope you may see from
the old Sonora stage road two parable
lines, perhaps 200 feet apart, running
along the mountain side. Mile after
mile do these marks run, as level ani
exact as if laid there by the surveyor
Climb up to them and you find these
lines enlarged to sort Of shelf or wave
washed and indented bank of hard &C
ment, like gravel You may crawl I'M
der and sit in the shade of an overhang
ing roof of gravel, apparently in some
former age scooped out by the action o.
waves. Not only On the Table mount
ain sides do you lind these lines, but
where Table mountain merges into tht
plains about Knights ferry viii you see
these same water marks running around
the many low conical hills.
a geological supposition. That's what
water seems to have done outside Of
Table mountain. Were I a geologist
should say that here had been lake
maybe great lake-which at some other
time had suddenly from the first mark
been drained down to the level of the
second, and from that had been drained
off altogether. Perhaps there was a
rise in the Sierra Nevada, and every
x.-:%l, ~ hn 1ol
too suddenly on one side and SO the wa
ters went down Oh the other. Inside of
Table mountain there is an old river bed,
smoothly washed by the currents of per
haps as many if not more centuries than
any river now on earth has seen, and
this forms layer or core of gold bearing
gravel. In some places it has paid
richly, in more places it has not paid at
all.
I said to myself, t'This Halsey lead,
like all the leads of this section, runs
northeast and southwest" On. B.-Three
years afterward we found there were no
leads at all in that section.) "The Hal
sey lead must run under Table mountain
and come out somewhere on the other
side" So took the bearings of the Hal
sey lead, or what 1 then supposed were
the bearings, for there wasn't any lead
any way, with q compass. l aimed my
compass at point on the ledge of the
fiat summit of Table mountain. Init it.
Then climbed up over the two water
shelves or banks to that point. This
was on the honeycombed lava crags.
From these crags one could see afar
north and south. South, over Tuolumne
into Mariposa, the eye following the
great white quartz outcrop of the Mother
or Mariposa lead. North was Bear
modntain, the Stanislaus river and Stan
islaps county.
This view always reminded me of the
place where one very great and very bad
historical parsonage of the past as well
as the present showed another still
greater and much better being all the
kingdoms of the earth. For the earth
wasn't all laid out, pre-empted and
fenced in those days, and its kingdoms
were small. Then l ran my lines over
the fat top of Table mountain, south
east and northwest. So they said ran
all the copper leads, commencing at
Copperopolis. So then we believed,
while tossing with the copper fever
Certainly they ran somewhere, and ran
fast, too, for we never caught any paying
copper vein in Tuolumne county; at
least any that paid-eXcept to sell.
l aimed my compass down the other
side of the mountain. There, when the
perpendicular lava rock stopped pitching
straight up and down, sometimes fifty,
two hundred feet, was dense
growth of chaparral-the kind of chap
arral we called "chemisal." | got into
the chemisal. Here the compass was Of
no more use than would be certificate of
Copperhead copper stock to pay board
bill. twas furry, prickly, binding, be-
laundering. irritating growth,
which sent pang through mans heart
and pricker into his skin at every step.
At last, crawling down it on all tours,
for could not walk, dirty, dusty, thirsty
and perspiring, lit on rock, an outcrop
of ledge. 1t was gray and moss grown.
1t hid and guarded faithfully the treasure
it concealed. Like Moses, l struck the
rock with my little Ratchet. The broken
piece revealed underneath a rotten,
sandy like, spongy formation Of crum-
bling, blush, greenish hue. 1t was cop
per! | had struck il. l rained down
more blowsl Red oxides, green carbon
ates, gray and blue sulphurets! l had
found the Copperhead lead! l was ricn
| got upon that rock and danced! Not a
graceful, but an enthusiastic pas seul.
deemed my fortune made. was at last
but of the wilderness! But wasn't.
PRENTICE MULEORD.