Year: 1876

| am an old miner. Not one of tn
now-a-day Vashoe and Nevada stripe
but an old forty-nine California miner
have been engaged in all description.
of mining transactions, except the new
tangled one of mining stock in compa
nies-''feet" L believe they call ii
Among my varied undertakings wa
one operation in a tunnel, in which


and my partners engaged in the Sum
mer of 1852.


One afternoon in that year. as 1 wa
carrying up bucket of water from
the river to our tent at the top of tn,
bank, my feet caught under a larg
stone, and my perpendicular was a
once changed to a horizontal posture,
while the water from the overturned
bucket spread itself in various direc
tions. With a few expletives of rather
forcible character, quite customary ant
common in that region and period,
raised myself to my feet again, ant
picking up the bucket, was about Il
retrace my steps to the river, wher
my attention was attracted by &
folded paper. which had been plac,
ed under the stone causing my fall
When my foot tripped, the stone
was overturned, and the paper
folded in letter form, lay exposed to
view. Bending over, l picked it up


LII - Tr
written with pencil, in characters very
irregular and stiffiy formed, as if made
by person with a wounded hand
The contents were as follows:


''If this letter should fall into the
hands of any person, wish to inform
them that | have been attacked and
mortally wounded by my two partners
who wished to obtain my money. Fail
ing to discover it, after wOunding me
they have fled, leaving me here to die.
Whoever gets this letter will find
buried in ravine at the foot of a
blazed tree twenty-five PAGES due
north of this, bag containing five
thousand dollars in gold dust. That ii
may prove more fortunate property TO
him than it has to me, Is the hope Of


ANDREW FORREST"


| stood for some minutes after read
ing the letter like one awakened from
dream. L could not convince myself
that the letter in my hand was gen.
uine document, and read it over and
over again, thinking | might get some
clue from the handwriting TO the real
author. 1t might be trick got up by
my partners TO raise laugh at my ex-
pense. No; the place where it was
found, and the purely accidental dis
covery, rendered such surmise very
improbable. | sat down on log, and
turned the matter over and over in my
mind for some time. At last | got up,
and pacing off the required distance in
the direction mentioned in the letter, i
came to d large tree. Carefully exam
lining it, discovered a scar, clearly in
dicating that the tree had been 'blazed'
at some remote period. This was soon
firmation strong as proofs of Holy
Writ" and 1 Immediately went to
work to discover the locality of the
ravine. Here l was at fault. Nothing
of the kind was to be seen. To all ap-
pearances a stream of water never had
passed in the neighborhOod of the tree.
This was not encouraging; and L sat
down on the ground and read the letter
again, to see if had not mistaken some
of its directions No; was in the right
place; but where was the ravine?


A tap on the shoulder aroused me
from nv meditations, and on looking
up, saw my two partners, who loudly
abused me for having neglected the
preparations for their supper. As an
excuse. showed them the letter, and
detailed the manner of finding it. To
my surprise, they were as much ex-
cited by its perusal as 1 had been, and
We all looked around perseveringly for
the ravine, but without effect for some
time. At last Jack Nesbitt, who had
been a miner since AS, said.


81 think there has been a ravine here
but it has been filled up by the rains"
On close examination, we decided
that his suspicion was correct, and
after some consultation We determined
that the next morning We would COM
mence digging.


Morning came and We repaired 10
the spot with pick and shovel. Jack
proposed that we should follow the
course Of the ravine, which appeared
to run into the body of the hill, rather
than to dig down in any one place.
The result was, that in few days we
had formed quite cave in the side OF
the hill.


We worked at this tunnel for four
days without finding the bag. On the
fourth day, Jack proposed that he
and my other partner, Bill Jennings,
should carry the dirt down to the river
and wash it, leaving me to dig in the
tunnel. In that way, they thought we
might at least SNAKE grub" while
searching for the hidden money. L
thought the idea foolish, but as they
had entered so eagerly into my views
regarding the buried bag of dust, l
made no objection to the plan, and dug
way with redoubled energy. In fact, l
had thought so much about the object
of our search, that had become utterly
regardless of anything else. had
dreamt OF it when sleeping, unused on