Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-26
rance may be; and also unlike the avalanche,
ley may occur a half dozen times a day
ID are therefore constant menace

rance may be; and also unlike the avalanche
ley may occur half dozen times a day
ID are therefore a constant menace.
Hard Mountain Climbing.
Beyond the rock came the snow and there
was big crevasse in it which necesstated
| trip down the mountain to get around it,
and then more rock and more snow and we
struck the real climbing. Here we stopped
to look down the valley upon a double line
Of mountains, clear cut against the sky, in
places again cutting the white clouds like
spear points and presenting magnificent
beauty of mountain scenery which l have
not seen excelled outside of the Cascade
range
The trail leading up from the snow was
narrow and soft, hedged in by thickets
whose limbs and branches aided greatly in
climbing, and after enough of it to make
us almost forswear the gold standard and
adopt free silver, or hay, or oats, or gar
den sass, We came up over a rock slide
onto a hogback, a narrow ridge of rock
stuck onto the mountain side at intervals
with no other apparent purpose than to
make the climbing more difficult, and had
our first view of the cave of gold 1t was
far above us in the face of the cliff but
in plain sight, and we went on and on, up
and up, till we reached the tents of the
miners, hung there like the nests of birds
among the pine trees that fasten their roots
among the rocks.
What a tremendous climb it was! Three
hours of constant going and yet, when we
looked down and down to the camp where
we had dinner 1t seemed scarcely a stones
throw away. But we were tenderfeet and
the veterans who greeted us as we stopped
to take breath before the final climb
laughed at us. They had prospected over
all these mountains and our climb was
nothing to speak of; they told u.s. too, OF
how only the day before one of their num-
ber, weighing $50 pounds. had had his leg
broken by rolling rock and eight OF them
had carried him down the trail we had
just come over and delivered him safely
in the valley. But afterwards those who
had carried him told us that 1t was the
most difficult and trying mountain work
they had ever undertaken and that the
suffering of their helpless burden was pitt
full as they swung him around jutting crags,
lifted him up and down the cliffs and
slipped and fell with him over the rugged
rocks and along the steep incines hold
ing the litter with one hand and clnging
to roots or branches with the other.
In the Cave of Gold.
Up in the final crags we went at last and
then we stood in the very mouth of the cave
OF gold and looked outward into the blue
distance stretching far away below us and
before us upon whole world ready and will
ing and waiting to undertake any hazard, to
undergo any hardship If 1t may, to secure
the precious metal stored here by natures
own hand. But the shine of the yellow
gold did not dazzle our eyes, nor were we
struck sDeecheSs with amaZement at the
wondroue wealth about us. On the con-
trary, we didn't see anything much, but the
peculiar geological formation Of a cave in the
face of mountain not otherwise cayernous
and 1t was Just as dark inside as caves
usually are. We looked about us for
tangible proof Of the tales that had been told
to us and we began to set aside the romance
that always hedges gold as divinity doth
king and get at the practical side OF things.
What we had found was cave seventy feet
high at its entrance and twenty odd feet
wide, extending back into the darkness for
fifty feet or more. Its sides were the hard
rock Of the mountain, but its roof. its floor
and its back was a grayish white granular
substance, cross in appearance between
fine clay and spoiled cheese, and 80 soft that
a ipick could be stuck into 1t anywhere
Chunks of 1t had fallen down from the
roof and sides as If decay were far gone In
its work OF disintegration. On the floor of
the cave this clay or rock" in the technical
had been crushed into a granular dust that
could be shoyeled out. Back some distance
the cave iorked and in the two apartments
thus formed the men had made beds and
were literally sleeping In chambers OF gold,