Year: 1859

OF single pan.


Some forty or fifty sluices commenced


are not yet in operation, but the owners
, inform us that their prospecting shows
from 10 cents to 81 to the pan. As the
'leads" are all found on the hills, many
ofthe miners are constructing trenches to
carry water to them, instead of building
their sluices in the ravines and CARRYING
the dirt thither in wagons or sacks. Many
persons who have come here without pro-
visions or money are compelled to work as
common laborers, at from 81 to So per
day and board, until they can procure
means of sustenance for the time necessary
prospecting, building sluices, etc. 9th
ers, not finding gold the third day, or dis
+ liking the work necessary to obtaining it,
+ leave the mines in disgust after very
short trial, declaring there is no gold here
in paying quantities. 1t should be re-
membered that the discoveries made thus
far, are the result of but five weeks labor.
In nearly every instance the gold is es-
timated by the miners as worth $50 per
ounce, which for gold collected by quick
silver, is certainly high valuation, though
this is undoubtedly of very great purity
The reader can reduce the estimate if he
sees fit We have no data on which to
act in the premises.


The wall rock is generally shattered, so
that it, like the vein-stone, is readily ta-
ken out with the pick and shovel. In a
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 residue
of the quartz is shoveled out of the suices
and reserved to be crushed and washed
hereafter. The miners estimate this as
equally rich with that which has "rotted,"
SO that the gold may be washed from it;
hence, that they realize, as vet, but half
the gold dug by them This seems prob
ably but its truth remains to be tested.


1t should be borne in mind that, while
the miners here now labor under many
disadvantages, which must disappear with
| the growth of their experience and with
the improvements Of their now rude ma
| chinery, they at tie same time enjoy ad
vantases which cannot be retained inGeti-
nitely, 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-s.one must be carried to
water at a serious cost. 1t does not seem
probable that the thousands of claims al
ready made or being made on these leads
can be worked so profitably in the average
as those already in operation. We hear
already of many who have worked their
claims for days Iby panning1 without hav-
ing '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 a prominent feature of the
geology of all this region.


We cannot conclude this statement
without protesting most earnestly against
renewal Of the infatuation which impell
ed thousands to rush to this region a
month or two since, only to turn back be-
fore reaching it, or to hurry away imme
diately after, more hastily than they came
Gold mining is business which eminently
requires of its votaries capital, experience,
energy, endurance, and in which the high
| est qualities do not always command sue
cess. There may be hundreds of ravincs
in these mountains as rich in gold as that


in which we write, and there probably are
many; but, up to this hour, we do not know
that any such have been discovered
There are said to be five thousand people
already in this ravine, and hundreds more
pouring into it daily. Tens Of thousands
more have been passed by us on our rapid
journey to this place, or heard of as on their
way thither by other routes. For all these
nearly every pound of provisions and sup
plies of every kini must be hauled by
teams from the Missouri river, some 700
miles distant, over roads which are mere
trails, crossing countless unbridged water
courses, always steep banked, and often
mie"y. and at times So swollen by rains as
to be utterly impossible by wagons. Part
Of this distance is desert, yielding grass,
wood and water only at intervals Of sever
al miles, and then very scantiy. To at
tempt to cross this desert on foot is mad
ness -suicide-nurder: To cross it with
teams in midsummer when the water cour.
ses are mainly dry and the grass eaten up,
is possibly only to those who know just
where to look for grass and water, and
where water must be carried along to pre-
serve life,


few months hence-rrobab!y by the
middle Of October-this whole Alpine re-
gion will be showed under or frozen ups
as to put a stop to the working Of sluices
if not to mining altogether. There then,
for period of at least seven months. will
be neither employment, food nor shelter
within five hundred miles for the thousands
pressing hither under the delusion that
gold may be picked up here like pebbles
on the sea shore, and that when they arrive
here. even though without provisions or
money, their fortunes are made Great
disappointment, great suffering, are ineyl-
table; few can escape the latter, who arrive
at Denver City after September without
ample means to support them IN very
drear country. at least through long win.
ter. We charge those who manage the