The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-11-04
Romance of the
Comstock Lode
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carried down to the waters edge ana
washed there, old-style rockers being
used Pretty soon they had to pound
the earth up with a pick handle, it
grew so hard as they dug deeper into
the hill It contained plenty of the
same blue STUFF that had worried
the miners in Gold canyon, but they
were becoming used to it by this time,
and, besides, the claims were paying
better than anything else in the
mountains.
Interest Shifts to New Locality.
The real point of interest had shift
ed to the head of Six-mile canyon.
Two Irish miners-Peter O'Reilly and
Patrick Mclaughlin, long among the
best known of the Johnstowners, and
old-time comrades-had been unfor-
tunate in their recent ventures. Com
stock said afterward that he was pay
ing them wages at this time and that
they were working on his claims. but
in fact they had determined to go TO
the Walker River mountains TO some
new placers of whose richness many
stories were told, and would have
started at once. but had no money. 1t
was necessary to dig It out of the
ground, so they agreed to try one
more claim in Six-miie canyon and
then leave for Walker River as soon
as they had a hundred dollars "for
grub stake"
The only piece of unoccupied ground
that seemed at all promising was on
the hillside above all the other claims
in the canyon. near a spring known as
"Old Man Caldwelrs," where some
one had made a short sluice box for
mining but had evidently thought the
spot Improbable. They used rockers
for a fortnight upon their claims, car
rying the dirt to the spring but the
ground was hard and paid them less
than two dollars each for a long days
work. Remembering the ineXplicable
location of the Gold Hill driggings on
the top of a mound. and guided in
some degree by the color of the soil
they. now started a trench straight up
the hill. in hard blue clay and yell |
lowish gravel
The little spring wasted down the .
slope and they thought it would be /
good plan TO dig pit in the clay so as /
to reservoir a few barrels of water /
They began this early in June, and /
here. at a depth of four feet they /
came upon deposit of the same sort /
of dark heavy soil that had been |
found at Gold Hill 1t was even dark /
err and sparkled with minute flakes I
of gold Rupning swiftly to the min
ing trench so feet distant. one of them
brought a pan and tested the new
find The bottom of the vessel seem I
ed fairly covered with precious metal .
as soon as the gravel. clay and BLACK I
STUFF" We're stirred up and allowed to /
slide over the edge
North End Of Comstock Vein.
This was the top of the world FAM
GUS Ophir. the north end of the Com /
stock The main masses Of the mighty /
fssure vein extended in parallel lines I
of fragmentary projections from the |
black mound of the Ophir south to the /
black mound of Gold Hill. At some 7
remote period. ages before, the great /
lode had risen hundreds of feet high /
en- uncounted centuries of chemical /
and physical action had worn and bro /
ken it until thousands of tons of the /
hardest quartz was as SOFT as clay 1
and as fine as sand. This is what min
ers mean by "decomposed quartz" it .
can be PANIED out or washed in
Long Tom or sluice box.
O'Riley and Mclaughlin shouted
with delight; they had found another
group of rich placers, alleged, to be
sure, with the same base metal that
made their gold so hard to sell TO the
but still as good as the best
in that district No more notions of
Walker River; they began mining i'm
haste, first sticking up
claim notice of so feet apiece BY
sunset they had two or three hundred /,
dollars in hand, and a black streak Of
what all the miners considered 'bo-
gus STUFF" began TO extend down the
slope Il
Comstock made his appearance just
rs they were finishing the last clean
az for the day. He had been looking ,
'or his lost mustang, and now came {
galloping down the ridge. with his
tnS legs NanEiiuE IN inc sage UPS {
He came up in state of great excite
nent and shouted. you have struck
e. boysi"
Jumping from his horse and leap &
ng into the excavation, he made
apid examination of the prospects.
Then turning to the two arm-heart- {
d and good natured miners, he told 5
hem in a voice of genial and conf
lential friendship that unless they )
the matter carefully they
ould never hold the claim The three
men sat down on the bank to talk it
yer
comstoek "Gets In" on Discovery. 4
Look here" said Comstock "this
pring was Old Man Caldwells You
now that: there's his sluice box. Well {
fanny Penrod and I bought his claim
lst winter. and we sold a tenth in
crest to Old Virginia the other day. d
-ou two fellows must let Nanny and $