The record-union., 1897-05-09

Simply because most of the Majors
company broke and ran before man
had been killed. The small party who
stood by their commander-Henry
Meredith and William Spear are two Of
the names Observation-Disclosures soon shot
down. Then the eighteen or twenty
well-mounted Piutes started after the
fugitives. who We're on the dead run,
strung out for mile or more. AS the
Indians overlook the rear one or two
men it was twenty Indians to one or
two white men, and they with their
backs to the foe. Absolutely no stand
was made by the retreating force.
Major Ormsby was a brave. fearless
man, but an incapable commander. But
we are more than two years ahead of
the mining story. In two or three
weeks we had finished the arastra,
constructed wagon road to the mine,
and had hauled several loads of quartz
to the canyon below.
Practical quartz workers will smile
when informed that we began opera
tions by placing probably five or six
tons of quartz in the arastra for the
first charge. AS certain result the
drag rocks never Wore down that mass
of quartz.
Some two weeks were given to this
work. Then, despairing of ever thor
oughly pulveriZing the quartz, We
cleaned up the arastra with a rocker.
This amalgam we sent by Major Orms-
by to Sacramento to ascertain by assay
the value. and what we had amalga-
mated with the gold that made it SO
ich a Of
S43, with information that by reason
of the silver it contained the value was
something less than S12 per oouce. This
was certainly the first gold or silver
produced from quartz mining east of
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the
first bullion produced in the United
States in which silver was a considera-
BILE factor.
Our company made a dismal failure.
and SO far as l know were never men
toned in the histories of these early
days. The fact is, the Comstock lode
discoveries crowded the early workings
out of mind.
i returned to California in the sum-
mer of 1858. In 1859, from March to
July, the Comstock lode was discovered
and all located.
In March, 1860, 1 returned to Gold
Canyon and remained in that country
until 1868. Then two years in White
Pine and six years in Pioche. The next
five years were divided between Bodie,
Cal; Butte, Mont; Deadwood, Oak. !;
Leadville, Col, and numbers of camps
of less note. I am not now a miner
by occupation, and was never an ex-
pert by profession. Most of my time
in mining districts has been devoted to
trade. But having given close atten-
ton to mining in early days, 1 never
lost interest in it, and besides my sue
cess in business depended on the pros
perity Of the mines. Everything con-
nected with mines and mining received
my close attention.
[ ventured the opinion in a previous
communication that some rich and ex-
tensive bodies of ore would be uncov-
cred within thirty or forty miles of
Sacramento.
1 have no mines to boom; no startling
theories to advance. I wish to call at
tention to one particular locality, the
placer gold of which was mined out
many years ago, and in which, with all
the experience of the past, good deal
Of prospecting could be done with
limited outlay OF money. All the con-
ditions being favorable for the exist
ence of good ore chimneys.
I do not use the word mine" where
none are known to exist Mine means
known bodies of auriferous earth or ore
in paying quantities.
OLD PIONEER.