Year: 1859

bv this success. we all stakel out claims,
found the lead consisting of burnt quartz


resembling the Georgia mines, IN which
II had previously worked. Snow and ice


prevented the regular working of the
lead till May the 10Th, from then until


the 23d. ! worked five days with two


hands. Result S982. Soonafter Isold


my two claims for twenty-one thousand


dollars. The parties bufingto pay me


after deducting their expenses, all they


take from the claims, ID the amount OF


I've hundred dollars per vsek, until the


whole IS paid Since that time have
been prospecting for other parties at two
hundred dollars per day. Have struck a
lead on the other side of the valley from
which l washed out fourteen dollars from
single pan.


Some forty or fifty sluices commenced
are not yet in operation; but the owners
inform us that their prospecting" shows
from ten cents to FIVE dollars to the pan.
AS the leads are all found on the hills,
many of the miners are constructing
trenches to CARRY water to them, instead
of building their sluices in the ravines
and carrying the dirt thither in wagons
and sacks. Many persons who have
come here without provisions or money,
are compelled to work as common labor
ers at from one to three dollars per day
and board, until they can procure means
of sustenance for the time necessary to
prospecting, building sluices, etc. 9th
ers, not finding gold the third day, or,
disliking the work necessary to obtaining
it, leave the mines in disgust, after very
short trial, declaring there is no gold IN
paving quantities here. 1t should be
remembered that the discoveries. made
thus far, are the result Of but five weeks
labor.


In nearly every instance, the gold is
estimated by the miners as worth $2O per
ounce, which for gold collected by quick.
silver, is certainly high valuation, tho
this is undoubtedly of very great purity.
The reader can reduce the estimate If ne
sees fit. We have no data on which to
act in the premises.


The wall rock is generally shattered,
so that the vein-stone Is readily taken
out with the pick and shovel. In single
instance only did we hear of wall rock
too hard for this.


Of the vein-stone, probably not more
than one-half is so decomposed that the
gold can be washed from it. The resi-
due of the quartz is shoveled out OF the
sluices, and reserved to be crushed and
washed hereafter. The miners estimate
this equally rich with that which has rot
ted SO that the gold may be washed from
it; hence, that they realize, as yet, but
half the gold dug by them. This seems
probable, but the truth of 1t remains to
be tested.


It should be born in mind that, while
the miners here. now labor under many
disadvantages, which must disappear with
the growth of their experience and the
improvements of their now rude machine
ry, they at the same time enjoy advanta-
ges which cannot be retained indefinitely,
nor rendered universal. They are all
working near a small mountain stream,
which affords them an excellent supply of
water for washing at very cheap rate
and, though such streams are very COM
mon here, the leads stretch over. rugged
hills and considerable mountains, down
which the vein-stone must be carried to
water, at a serious cost. 1t does not
seem probable that the thousands of claims
already made or being made on these
leads can be worked so profitable IN the
average as those already in operation
We hear already of many who have work
ed their claims for days without having
raised the COLOR" as the phrase IS
that is without having found any gold
whatever. We presume thousands are
destined to encounter lasting and utter
disappointment, quartz veins which bear
no gold being prominent feature OF the
geology of all this region.


We cannot conclude this statement with
out protesting most earnestly against
renewal of the infatuation which impell-
ed thousands to rush to this region month
or TWO since, only to turn back before
reaching it, or to hurry away immediate
ly after, more hastily than they came.
Gold mining is business which eminent
ly requires of Its votaries capital, expert
ence. energy, and in which the high
est qualities do not always command sue
cess. There may be hundreds of ravines
in these mountains as rich with gold as
that in which we write, and there prob
ably are many but, up to this hour, we
do not know that any such have been dis
covered. There are said to be five thou
sand people already in this ravine, and
hundreds more pouring into it daily
Thousands more have been passed by US
on our rapid journey to this place, or
heard of as on their way hither by 9TH
er routes. For all these, nearly every
pound of provisions and supplies of-every
kind must be hauled by teams from the
Missouri River, some 700 miles distant,
over roads which are mere trails, cross
ing countless unbridged watercourses, al
ways steep-banked, and often miry, and
at times so swollen by rains as to be utter
ly impossible by wagons. Part of this
distance is a desert, yielding grass, wood
and water, only at intervals Of several
miles, and then very stealthily. To at
tempt to cross this desert without food is
madness suicide = murder. To cross
with teams in midsummer, when the wat
ter-courses are mainly dry, and the grass
eaten up, is possible only to those who