The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-17

Among the lucky placer miners Of the
early sos in California was one Oliver
Martin. He and a companion named
Flower had been prospecting for weeks
without touching gold, and so great
were the hardships endured that the
two men almost died of exhaustion.
While in eXtremities they were over
taken by a terrific storm, which killed
Flower. His comrade, though terribly
weakened by hunger and toll felt it his
duty TO give the corpse a decent burial,
and dug grave at the bottom of
tree. AS he threw out the earth he
struck a nugget, which, under the
name of THE oliver Martin Chunk.
has become famous as the largest ever
found in the New World. 1t weighed
151 pounds ounces, and realized $780,
go The episode is truly extraordinary.
Flower dies in the search for gold; and
his death reveals the gold ne had so
long sought Martin, reduced to the
depths of dependency by i'll uses and
the loss Of his mate, suddenly finds
himself a rich man; all the richer be-
cause his companion can no longer
claim a share.
Another case of the irony of luck is
furnished by a Frenchman of Ell Do
RADIO county, who was so much over
come by the sudden discovery Of a gold
lump worth $4,000 that he went insane.
AS a contrast may be mentioned the
good fortune of a couple of tramps,
turned off a westward bound train be-
cause they could not pay their fares.
While they stumbled along on foot
they happened to find a nugget worth
$3.50.
Even more welcome than the nugget,
which may lie far away from other
gold, is the discovery of a gold bed or
vein. The auriferous regions of Alaska
and Northwest Canada furnish some
startling records of rich strikes. None
is more romantic than that connected
with the name of George Carmack. a
half-breed trapper. One morning, after
a night spent on the banks of the Be-
nanza creek Gas II was afterward
called, he noticed among the ashes of
his campfire the color of gold, and
soon realized that fortune had favored
| him.
The winter of 1867 was just clos
| ing in, SO that the $50 Inhabitants OF
Forty Mile, the nearest mining camp,
were secure from invaders until after
the next years thaw. All the winter
| long the lucky crowd shoveled out dirt
so rich that, when the spring cleanup
/ or washing came, as much as $500
worth of gold was taken out of sin
| gle pan, Some men made money stead
! fly at the rate of SIT a minutel One
| of the most curious episodes of the
/ strike was the result of an act of
sheer laziness A former bartender of
| Forty Mile. being too sluggish to go
| UP the top of Bonanza creek to peg OUT
his claim as last conner, turned aside
] into a subsidiary creek, the Eldorado,
/ and struck a deposit which subsequent
| ly yielded $4,000, 900. Next spring those
/ OF the Bonanza workers who returned
/ to San Francisco took with them over
ton weight of gold dust and nuggets,
| done up in an extraordinary variety of
receptacles, ranging from a deerskin
! bag to q jam pot, and the gold rushes
OF 1S49 and 1851 were repeated to Klon-
dixie
Chief among gold nuggets are the
welcome" and the Welcome Strang-
err" The first. weighing 2.217 ounces,
was found at Ballarat. Victoria, in
1858; the second. 2.26S ounces in weight,
at Dunolly, Victoria, in 1869. In both
| cases the fortunate discoverer netted
more than $4,000 sterling by a blow
of the pick. Another typical instance
Of gold mining luck comes from Mount
Alexander, i'm the same colony A gang
of five miners had sunk holes unsuC-
Fcessfully to depths ranging from about
! thirty to sixty feet. and were so dis
I
the search for color" after one more
attempt Before the seventh hole was
nine feet deep a rich pocket APP
! reared. and i'm a few hours 120 pounds
of pure gold had been secured! In
New South Wales, almost simultane-
ously, an Australian black shepherd
who amused himself with gold-seek-
! ing happened to notice glittering
speck on the surface of quartz boul-
/ III vrrsA l. fc
! tornahawk, and a mass of gold, seal
ing 100 pounds ounces. lay revealed
The arrival of this nugget in Bath
urst produced a gold fever which
seemed to deprive hitherto sane men
of their senses, and was largely respon-
sible for the subsequent rush" to Aus
tralia from all parts of the world.
The early history of the West Aus
! tralian gold fields is marked by SINH
lar smiles of Fortune The Pilbarra
! field. to take an example owes its dis
covery to a stone which a boy picked
up TO cast at a crow. It's weight being
unusual for it's size, the boy examined
! the missile and found that it contained
a quantity OF gold. Coolgardie, a name
now so well known. is also associated
with curious accident. In 1882 Messrs
Bayley and Ford starting from South
ern Cross, plunged into the deserts
I where they belleVed gold 10 exist bay
ley prospected for a long time without
| success, and was returning to PERTH
very much down on luck, when his for
tunes were changed i'm a most casua
manner One night his horse. picketeC
outside the tent, became so restles:
that he went out to quiet it, and on the
/ way tripped over what he thought a
first to be a stone, but which proved
| on closer inspection TO be huge mug
get claim was at once pegged out
and in four weeks $4,000 had been re
allied. This claim lies at about thu
center OF Coolgardie, the town created
by the consequent rush"
Though gold may enrich a man a
the expense of a minimum of work
more sensational fortunes have doubt
less been won from silver mining. Sill
yer usually occurs in chemical comb
nation with lead, arsenic, sulphurs anC
other elements. and is seldom found
i'm nuggets. The ore must, therefore
be chemically treated to secure tn,
comparatively small percentage o
metal. Yet the yield of a rich silve
vein is enormous.
Any one acquainted with American
mining annals will at once think of tn