The herald., 1894-01-01

guessee about how far each way 300 feet
would be, builds monument at each
corner, then turns his back upon the
whole enterprise, and the chances are
one to ten thousand that he will ever
see his claim again unless some one de-
velops gold for him. But then this is
on the desert, where meDand water are
scarce. Hence the tediousness OF legal
red tape is thing to be lost sight of,
for no lawyer would ever venture upon
the desert for fear the devil might get
his own. So the poor prospector, ''who
takes his life in his hands and goes
FORTH" hurries to take his life back again
and go out, leaving his claim OF title
builded in stone behind him.
A new deposit of coarse. gold bearing
gravel has recently been discovered
about 70 miles northeast OF Goler. At a
miners meeting held Tuesday it was or
dered that only one claim could be To-
Gated by any one man, and that no man
should locate q friends unless such
friend himself was in the district. This
course has been taken to meet q COM
plaint which has been strongly heard
from the other three camps, to the effect
that one or more men have located as
many as 40 claims in one district, thus
shutting out all others.
Mining law recognizes clearly the first
in say, for it is positively set forth that
"the first on record shall hold" 1t
seems hardly fair that one man should
take up whole district, yet again it iu
not just that a man who has taken his
life in his hands and has gone out alone
into desert should not be allowed any
reasonable latitude for remembering
his friends and those whom he knows,
If, by fortunate chance, ne should dis.
cover that dream OF mems dreams, pure
virgin gold. To allow one man all of q
district is too liberal, but to give him
only one chance at the fortune that he
has discovered does not seem right.
There should be medium that is
happier than either OF the present ways.
The only places where gold has been
thus far found lie upon one side or the
other OF mountain range which has O
general course a little east OF north,
and is portion of the Sierra Nevada
chain. Upon its SUBMITS there are
traces of an ancient river bed, and there
is no doubt but that at some pre-
historic time before the tertiary
period. stream. such as would
be produced by the union of the
Owens and Kern rivers, had its channel
where now Is the upheaval which has
made the present Goier mountain chain.
Associated with this mountain, as a
parallel, is series of distinctively vol
canic ridges, which give evidence OF
period of intense heat. 1t 10 o plausible
theory that the heat of those volcanic
days aggregated the gold in the ancient
river bed, and that since then cloud
bursts and the erosions of time have
washed tbs precious nuggets down the
mountain sides and partially concen-
trated them in the gulches where they
are now found. Every particle of gold
gives signs of having been melted, as it
undoubtedly was in the days of upheav-
al and chaos in the desert.
Red Rock Colorado and Ell Paso camps
are upon the western side of this old river
chain, while Goler, Summit and Camp
Mystery lie upon the eastern slope. The
idea has been advanced that this old
river bed is the same dead channel
which is found along the Sierra as far
as the Oregon line and is usually known
as the Blue lead, and that idea is not
without merit. From Mojave to the
different camps, in each case by good
wagon road, the distances are as follows
miles Summit, 55 miles. El Paso is
about IL miles from Coyote Holes, or
Freeman Postofice, a station so miles
from Mojave.
Where the miners live are all tidry
that necessity of life has to a be hauled
in barrels to the prospectors' homes.
Hay and grain and, of course, every
hak fo~ = a..
nance, has to be brought from Moiave,
and there are already freightins teams
sufficient for present needs. The dis
tances from the different camps to good
water range about as follows: Rsd
Rock, three miles; Reed and Benson
gulchee, in Goler district, five miles,
over miserable road, which no one
seems to have time to fix; Summit, IL
miles; Ell Paso, eight miles; Colorado
camp, four miles.
for sleeping purposes are spread on the
hard ground. For food, -four and bacon
are the staples, with vegetables in
abundance. So far as living goes there
is both comfort and abundance in everv
camp. Sunday is washdsy, when the
BOYS loaf sew ON buttons and pray for
X
BILE enough. that no liquor lie sold in any
OF these camps.
Without the invention and perfection
of the dry washer nothing could be done
at any of these desert camps. The
method is yet in its infancy and before
very long the same system OF dry wash
ing will be in extensive use during the
summer time in places where there is
an abundance of weter. There are sew
eral kinds of machines, costing from $50
upwards, and each has it's stout friends
and equally pugnacious enemies. But
the principal is alike in all. Men with
little ingenuity make their own ma
chimes at cost of only a few dollars.
and thess seem to be just as effective as
any.
The machine has, first of all, a quar-.
ter-inch mesh, set at an angle OF about
80 degrees. Upon this all OF the dirt is
shoveled. The fine stuff that falls
through this screen goes into hopper
which has at the bottom little door.
fixed with trip handle, and 80 arranged
that it can be set to open more or less
as desired at each blast of the bellows.
Upon leaving the hopper the fine stuff
falls upon brass screen of 80 to 100
mesheH to the inch, underneath whicn
} is tightly stretched fine muslin. This
screen table is set at an angle varying
from 20 to 30 degrees. and has trans-
versely across it rifles which project
about one-h half an inch high. Beneath
all of this is pair of bellows. The gusts
~ fafa Nf 81 h. - Lii f,