Year: 1859

is, one which pony may traverse with
one end of the ledge pole on his back the
other trailing behind him-exists from
this point to the open prairie near Clear
Creek-a trail which doubtless winds a.
long the steep sides of the ravines and a..
voids the rugged hi ghts necessarily trav.
ersed by the miners wagon-road. Should
these disgings justify their present prom
Use, I doubt not a road will in time be
made, reducing by one half-say 5000
feet the present aggregate of ascent aud
descent between this and Denver. But
an unworked wagon-road must avoid the
sides of these steep-bank ravines, run
ming square up the faces and along the
crests of the mountains, so that this spot
is destined to remain barely accessible
for at least another year.


This narrow valley is densely wooded
mainly with the inevitable Yellow Pine
which, sheltered from the fierce winds
which sweep the mountain tops, here
grows to hight of sixty or eighty feet,
though usually but a foot to eighteen inch.
es in diameter. OF these pines, log cab
ins are constructed with extreme facility,
and probably one hundred are now being
built, while three or four hundred more
are in immediate contemplation. They
are covered with the green boughs of the
pines, then with earth, and bid fair to be
commodious and comfortable As yet,
the entire population Of the valley--which
cannot number less than four thousand, in
'cluding five white wo mel and seven squaws
living with white men-sleep in tents,
or under booths Of pine boughs, cooking
and eating in the open air. | doubt that
there is as yet table or chair in these
diggings, eating being done around a
cloth spread on the ground. while each
one sits or reelines on mother earth to
enjoy. The food, like that of the Plains,
is restricted to a few staples-Pork, Hot
Bread, Beans aDd Coffee forming the al
most exclusive diet Of the mountains; bot
meat shop has just been established on
whose altar are offered up the ill-fed and
well-whipped oxen who are just in from
fifty days journey across the Plains,
and one or two cows have been driven in,
as more would he if they could here been
subsisted. Bot these mountains arc NJ ain
Is wooded. while the open hill-sides are
SO dry during the Sum ner that their grass
is very scauty. 1t is melancholy to see
so many overworked and half-starved
cattle as one meets or passes in this ravine
and on the way hither. Corn is 50 per
bustel in Denver, and scarce at that;
Oats are not to be had; there is not tun
of Hay within two hundred u lies. and
none can ever be brought hither over the
present road at cost below $40 per tun.
The present shift of humane owners is to
herd their oxen or mules on the rich
grass OF the nearest prairies for week or
SO, letting the "a subsist on browse and q
very little grass, and then send them
down the mountain again. This, bad as it
is, seems the best that can be done. Liv-
ing of all kinds will always be dear at
these mines, where American Flour is
now selling at the rate of S44 per barrel
and Bacon is worth soc. per pound; Su.
gar ditto.


l presume less than half the four or
five thousand people now here in this ra-
vine have been here week; he who has
been here three weeks is regarded as quite
an old settler, The influx cannot fall
short of ive hundred per day, balanced
by IN eiiluz of about one hundred. Many
of the latter 60 away convinced that
Rocky Mountain gold mining is one grand
bumbug. Some of them have prospected
, or 3 weeks, eating up their provisions,
wearing out their boots sand finding 10th.
ing. Others have workedfor the more for.
tunate for 81 per day and their board and
lodging--certaiuly not high wages when
the quality of the living is considered And
| feel certain that, while some--perhaps
many--will realize their dreams of wealth
here, a far greater number will expend
their scanty means, tax their powers Of
endurance, and then leave, soured, heart
sick, spirit-broken. Twenty thousand
people will have rushed into this ravine
before the lst Of September, while | do
not see how half of them are to fnd prof.
table employment here. Unless, there.
fore, the area of the diggings shall mean
time be greatly enlarged which there
is no assurance-I cannot i'm agioc how
half the number are to subsist here, even
up to that early setting in of Winter
which must cause general paralysis of
mining, and consequently of all other
Rocky Mountain industry. With the
gold just wrested from the earth still gilt
teriDg in ny eyes--and one company has
taken out to-day, at cost of not more
than S25 lump CONDENSED by the use
of quick silver which looks like a steel
yard poise and is estim tied as worth $50
i adhere to my long-settled conviction
that, next to outright and indisputable
gambling, the hardest Though sometimes
the qaickest) way to obtain gold is to
mine for it-that good farmer or me-
chaDic will usually make money faster by
sticking to bis own business than By de-
serting it for gold digging and that the
man who, having failed in some other pur-
suit. calculates on retrieving his fortunes