River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1923-07-12

layer porphyry, with rock and other
dirt between. The bottom Of loop
may be deep down or it may be miss
ing altogether, ground away when the
valley was gouged out by o glacier.
There may be other loops beneath it,.
Some portions of the loops come to the
surface on the hillside and you can
guess at their dip. But-the gamble
lies in this: The ones that are exposed
may or may not carry the gold-bearing
veins This Casey, who made the
original strike, did he take out much?"
"As l understand it," replied Sandy,
''he hits the porphyry where it's shall
Ter, or worn off, like you said. An he
finds rich pay stuff right away, enough
to start the camp. Quite few works
on that outcrop an then 1t peters out.
Casey sabed bit about synclines, /
reckon, fo' he kept faith In the camp,
on'y he realized 1t 'ud take heap of
money TO develop, meanin' to dig
through the porphyry. suppose. Now
they've found some mo- of that float
ore that the first crowd overlooked.
Reckon thatll peter out too, after a
while But capital may come in on
this second staht. Some Eastern folk
were lookin' over the place while
back"
Westlake halted and took small
steel hammer from his pocket with
which he struck off fragment of rock
IN a
cleavage showed purple. He walked
slowly along for some fifty feet, kick
ing the soil with his foot, breaking off
other samples to which he put his
tongue.
taste good?" asked Sam.
mot bad, if you're looking for min
eral. They've got distinct flavor all
their own, but l wetted them to show
the color up more plainly. Here is
toe out-crop of the syncline reef. II
may carry gold and it may not. but it's
wide enough, it's near the surface and
it's as good place as any,"
Sandy, glancing across the valley to
where the engineer pointed, nodded his
head. 'Your judgment goes with
Casey's," he said Fright across from
here is where he located his claims, !
take it. How about it, Mormon? Fits
the description to a t."
"Sure does" assented Mormon. IF
you locate here, marm,' he said TO Mi
randa, IAN we-all make strike, we'll
be ON the same vein, reckon"
Its all Greek to me-" said the spin
ster "How do we locate? I've come
this far, an I'll see the thing through
to some sort of finish. How many
claims can we take up an what's the
size of 'em, Mr.. Westlake|
The three partners left Miranda and
the engineer measuring off and setting
MP their monuments at the corners of
the claim. They started directly down
the side-hill, making for the valley, In
silence, like men with business ahead
of them that called for action rather
than words.
Here's the situation, as l sabe It,"
said Sandy. "Plimsoll met up with
Pat Casey from time to time. Molly
|. said so. There's other witnesses TO
| that. Plimsoll'll use some of them to
swear that he grubstaked Casey.
They'll be some of his own crowd. No
doubt Plimsoll got the location of the
claims from the old records an these
buckaroO pals of his, who are roostin'
on said location, knew jest where to
go an stahted out well In front with
their outfit. / don't reckon Wen find
Pllmsoll up there, though we amt
seen him so far this mo'nin', but I'll
bet our best bull agin chunk Of dog
meat that they're on his pay roll"
"Shucks, it don't make no difference
whose pay roll they're on" said Nor
mon. They're claim-jumpers an, like
you said, Sandy, jump can be made
two ways. Let's go look 'em over"
The tent was pitched on the hillside
where the grade was too steep to per
NIT of level ground enough for more
than the actual floor space. The tent
flaps were open and showed cots on
which blankets and clothing were
roughly spread. On two of these beds
men sprawled asleep. Five others