Year: 1859

|
my chafed and stiffened limbs, so that.
when breakfast was called in the morning,
/ was ready, appetite included, and prepar-
cd to dispel the apprehensions Of those who
had predicted, on seeing me taken off my
mule, that / must be left there for at least
q day. BY o'clock, we we're again in the
saddle, and pushing on, over a stony but
rather level table land, which extended for
two or three miles, thickly covered with
young Pines and Aspens, TO our next ra-
vine, whence the read leads up q short,
steep bill, then down a very long, equally
steep one, TO Clear Creek-being as rapid
and rock-bottomed as where we crossed it
the day before thirty miles below, but with
only oue-third the volume of water, so that
we crossed it easily without a wet foot. A
little runne coming in from the west direct
! y at the ford, with its natural Translucent
cy changed to milky whiteness by the run
ming of its waters through sluces in which
the process Of goldwashing was going for
ward, gave us assurance that we were in


Immediate proximity to the new but al
ready famous workings called, after their
discoverer, "Gregory's diggings."


shall not here speak Of their pecuniary
success or promise, though l have visited
during the day, a majority of those which
have slulces already in operation and re-
ceived reports from my fellow-visitors from
nearly all the others. Having united with
them in statement-to be herewith for
warded-of what we saw and learned |
refer those who feel any interest in the mat
ter to that statement. What / propose
here to do is to give the reader some idea
OF the place and its general aspects.


A little brook which here joins Clear
Creek from the west starts at the foot of
mountains three or four miles distant, and
runs in usually narrow ravine between
generally steep hills from 500 to 500 feet
high. 1t is hardly worth q name, but that
of 'Roston's Fork" has been bestowed on
it. Gregory's lead is very near its mouth;
half mile above seems the heart of the
present mining region, though there are al
ready sluices in operation at intervals for
at least two miles up the fork, and Others
are soon to be started at intervals above
them Three or four miles southwest from
the mouth, are RusselPs diggings, where
coarse gold is procured Prospecting is
actively going forward in every direction.
and vague reports of lucky hits or brilliant
prospects are started on this side or on
that. 1t is no disparagement to the Others
to say that though mining is carried on at
various points within a radius of thirty
miles from this spot, "Gregory's diggings'
are to-day the chief hope of gold-mining in
the Rocky Mountains.


Six weeks ago, this ravine was solitude.
the favorite haunt of the Elk the Deer
other shy denizens of the profoundest viii
dernesses, seldom invaded by the footsteps
of man. l believe this strip of country
has been long debatable land between the
Utes and Arapahoes, which circumstance
combined withits rarely accessible situation
to secure its wild tenants against human in
trusion and persecution l hear that the
Arapahoes say that a good "lodge-pole
| trau"-that is, one which pony may ira
verse with one end of the lodgepole on his
back, the other trailing behind him-exists
from this point to the open prairie near
Clear Creek-a trail which doubtless winds
along the steep sides Of the ravines and a.
voids the rugged nights necessarily travers-
ed by the miners wagon road. Should
these dggings justify their present promise
l doubt not road will in time be made,
reducing by 'one-half-say 5000 feet-the
present aggregate of ascent and descent
between this and Denver. But an unwork-
ed wagon-rOad must avoid the sides of
these steep-banked ravines, running square
up the faces and along the crests of the
mountains, so that this spot is destined to
remain barely accessible for at least anoth-
er 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 a
hight of sixty or eighty feet, though usual
ly but foot to eighteen inches in diameter.
OF these pines, log cabins are constructed
with extreme facility, and probably one
hundred are now being built, while three
or four hundred more are in immediate con-
temptation. They are covered with the
green boughs Of the pines, then with earth,
and bid fair to be commodous and COM
| Portable. As yet the entire population of
the yalley-which cannot number less than
! four thousand, including Eve white women
and seven squaws living with white men
! sleep in tents. or under booths of pine
boughs, cooking and eating in the open air.
doubt if there is as yet table or chair
in these diggingsi eating being done around
cloth spread on the ground, while each
one sits or reclines on mother earth. The
food, like that of the Plains, is restricted
to few staples-Pork, Hot Bread, Beans
aud Coffee forming the almost exclusive diet
of the mountains; but meat-shop has Just
been established, on whose altar are offered
up the ill-fed and well-whipped oxen who
are just in from City days journey across
the Plains, and one or two cows have been
driven in, as more would be if they could
here be subssted. But these mountains
are mainly wooded, while the open hill
sides are so dry during the Summer that
their grass is very scanty. 1t is melaneho-
ly to see so many over-worked and half
starved cattle as one meets or passes in this
ravine and on the way hither. Corn is IS
per busheI in Denver, and scarce at that;
Oats are not to be had; there is not tun
Of Hay within two hundred miles, and none
can ever be brought hilher over the present
road at cost below $40 per tun The
present shift of humane owners is to herd