Show agg ag g 0 0 gg g g 1 THE OLD MINE ON LOST PRIEST RIVER 16 0 written for the mining review by C C higgins CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE it doesn doean t often happen that a man who never fell down a hole in his life takes such a fall twice inacay in a day but so it bebel me I 1 more than got well by the oldest inhabitant as I 1 mentally dubbed him when the drift met up with a big crevasse which crossed it at right angles at the point where the tunnel intersected it the rent in the earth seemed about fifteen feet wide with walls nearly perpendicular across on the other side I 1 could see that the drift continued on its course and crossing the chasm on a level with the bottom of the tunnel was a bridge made by laying two pinyon pine logs f from rom side to side with cross sticks of scrub oak forming the roadway I 1 should have remembered that pinyon pine when dry and subjected to sudden weight does not bend but snaps off square many a miner and prospector who not knowing this fact has formed the ridgepole ridge pole of his dirt covered cabin with this wood has lost his life through his ignorance the rado ridgepole ridge e pole dries cannot uphold the weight ot of the roof snaps soine some night while the occupant is in his bunk asleep and in comes the whole cabin the thing looked strong enough and I 1 did not hesitate very long about trusting my weight to it and was feeling my way slowly along when I 1 heard a crackling beneath me and without further warning the bridge started for the bottom somehow I 1 felt more alarm than during my former mishap and had the fall been as long as the first one I 1 surely should have come off with some lasting mark to show how intense had been my fear but fortunately the drop was not more than twenty feet and though I 1 got some nasty scratches I 1 came off again without serious injury luckily I 1 held onto my candle in the drop and when L rec regained rained some kind of control over my nerves I 1 lighted r it and found that I 1 had arrived at the bottom of the crevasse which was tolerably level and I 1 could see that a kind of path had been made along it by the ancient workmen I 1 afterward found that the bottom was reached by a path cut in the south side of the crevasse which led up to the tunnel level I 1 had failed to see this trail on account of the dimness of my light there was a strong current of air bl blowing through this rent in the earth probably the same current I 1 had noticed drawing up through the shaft and I 1 set my face to this and started once once more on my explorations I 1 went in what I 1 afterwards found was a westerly direction and had probably proceeded a hundred and fifty feet when a tunnel took off from the side of the cavern and at almost right angles to it As the rush of air came from th s tunnel I 1 turned into it at once it cut through the country rock without th the least showing of mineral anywhere and I 1 soon decided that it was run for some other pur pose than the development of ore and I 1 proved my conjecture right in a very few minutes for I 1 soon noticed that the darkness was not so great and that the air seemed fresher I 1 heard the murmur of running water and then I 1 F saw aw a dim light ahead and andin in a minute I 1 crawled through h a hole scarcely big enough for my passage and found myself once more in the blessed sunlight and almost on the brink of the river it is no wonder that the hole from which I 1 had emerged had not previously been discovered for after I 1 had walked three paces away I 1 could scarcely locate its position myself freshets Fresh ets haa had washed the dump away and deposited on the brush which surrounded it all kinds of debris and the nature of the ground was such as to conceal the opening from any but the most careful searcher the contrast between those old damp workings and the glorious sunshine was enough to cause a man who had escal escaped ed from the former forme into the latter feel thankful and I 1 am not asha ashamed led to say that I 1 got right down there on my marrow marrowbones bones and returned i thanks in no lukewarm manner and when I 1 happened to think that now I 1 would not have to shin up that hundred feet of rawhide I 1 had another spell of thankfulness and went down on my knees again again 11 I 1 could see the shaft on the hill above me and it did not take long to climb to it and when joe heard me calling down to him he thought it was a ghost he was listening to for he supposed I 1 mas still in the mine however I 1 soon convinced him that it was no corpse hailing him and that I 1 was still in the flesh and anxious to get him on top again I 1 described my mode of egress and more to satisfy a sense of humor which I 1 seem to have inherited which causes me to want to laugh at funerals and on other solemn occasions I 1 proposed that he should fall down the crevasse as I 1 had done and take chances that I 1 would catch him this he refused to do and finding him in no jocular mood I 1 set about in earnest to get him on top I 1 mended the windlass and made everything safe above I 1 instructed him to tie himself to the rope and hang on and then I 1 humped my back and commenced to wind him up it was no easy matter and harder than it would have been under ordinary circumstances on account of the friction of the new and rou roughly aly constructed windlass as well as the several trying mishaps which had befallen me since morning but I 1 stuck manful manfully fy to the task and before long his head appeared above the collar of the shaft and in a moment lie he was on firm ground and nie we were on our way to the camp I 1 found him weak and suffering from a frightful headache on account of the injury to b his is head but after I 1 had bathed it with cold water and made him a cup of tea he seemed much easier and by the following morning was able to get around in a halfhearted half hearted way we didn dian t do much that day but lay around camp and talk of the mine nurse our bruises and make plans for the future but the next day we started to put our projects into execution with a plentiful supply of candles we entered by the tunnel and examining the ground carefully we discovered the pathway hewn in the rock on the south side of the crevasse and so were able to reach the first tunnel level without trouble and thence to the bottom of the shaft As we passed the oldest inhabitant I 1 paused to t o give joe a facetious introduction which he did not seem to think at all funny joe never did have any sense of humor we found the workings to be very extensive and much good gold ore still in sight the shaft had been sunk first from the outcrop and then drifts had been run in var various 1 ious directions on the ore and when the crevasse was encountered it was used to give comma communication ni with the surface with slight expense as thereby the air was much improved and the cost of development decreased in many ways after thorough exploration we decided that the mine was still in its infancy and that the ore bodies were large and excel exceptionally tio nally rich it had been deserted by its ancient owners for reasons which we could not even conjecture we decided to locate and operate the mine as the ore was rich enough to ship notwithstanding the great distance to the railroad so I 1 sat down and wrote out the notice of location as follows follows NOTICE OF LOCATION notice is hereby given that the under signed having complied with the requirements of section 2324 of the revised statutes of the united states have located fifteen hundred feet in length by six hundred feet in width on this the oldest inhabitant lode vein or deposit bearing gold silver and other precious metals situated on bosc lost priests river about five days travel from dandy crossing on the colorado river in the state of arizona together with all dips spurs and angles the mining claim above described shall be known as the oldest inhabitant lode located thier day of december 1896 JOE JOHNSON r locators WILLIAM GREEN gators while I 1 was writing this notice and making ing 0 a copy of it for record joe was buil building dino a monument of rock near the mouth of the shaft and I 1 placed the original in an empty tin can and put it in between the stones where it coald be found by latter arrivals but was in little danger of becoming lost or destroyed then we measured the ground and put up monuments at each corner and in the center of the end lines the day had been intensely hot and sultry with scarcely a breath of air stirring and by the time we had bad the ground properly staked we were pretty well played out and the sun was less than an hour high so go we ate a cold snack and turned in when we first pitched camp we spread our blankets on the ground but the tarantulas centipedes and sidewinder rattlesnakes proved so thick and familiar that nye we found it not altogether comfortable so for several nights we had been sleeping in the wac wagon roii which was new and almost air air tight we were so tired that night that we were asleep in a gift v though I 1 noticed before dropping off thiv tha th there re seemed to be a storm in the hills up toward tile the headwaters of the pitr HA er and faint of thunder were u ard tu d but I 1 gave the matter no thought as the he heavens above were without a cloud and so io I 1 dropped to sleep and into pleasant dreams which b ich after the laev of several hours beame ini alss 1 is soothing I 1 dreamed that I 1 was touting in in a boat on oil dry la land nd and that the boar within was awash with water what WAS worse I 1 was bi yin in t on zin my back unable to and with each send of the craft the water sn s allied ached down under my collar and along my my haek hac bone in sueh such a realistic manner that I 1 oon found myself awake a ake flat on my back I 1 was waa in six inches of water and everything lark dark as pitch about me at first I 1 was bewildered wil dered and more than half seared scared but the soi 01 adof nd of joe s voice reassured me joe will fanear hW on occasion though 11 I 1 have tried to i an him from the practice and he was at it nov bisin using 11 the largent 11 and most horrifying 11 words in in his vocabulary with a fervor and aiu tion which convinced me at once that the oc occasion must be something considerably out of the ordinary toe joe 1 I said where are we and what s TV TI mattor matter abod but a blank tool fool could e 11 that we are in the water where an am N bunken blank outfit that cain camps Ps guht right rig ht on the d dt t of if the river in this thild d d country ought to be returned joe with a heat that I 1 felt i a s not entirely entirely deserved on oil my part but tt vt x P sonic some allowa ince must be made for a man v rj r u j goes boes woes to be bed on dry ground and wakes up t tr fint and him huri elf a moat deloat and more titan than half sub LL cit red in in water and though I 1 answered joe ak tb s shinn ime strong stron tani tana aage biage neither ne ither gave cave i he r T itier apt r a second thought when we had come tat 01 out atit of our adventure wo we slept there had been a heavy t 1 ud hu in I 1 the lie hills above us which raised maista d th tl nr n r several feet in in as many minutes brij ali alie water coming down in an almost sa so id wall was sufficient to carr the wagon I 1 T and I 1 v onder that striking sticking it so suddenly wagon wag on was not overturned and the whole ii tait spilled into tin the river TV hen we tried to strike it a mateli match to light tl n which nas albans kept in the 0 o oi for foi the purpose of finding the mules s at lo 10 when occasion required we found that VM re wet and worthless so we w vure t 1 ved ct d to put up with the darkness though joi jo et aued som ralla r alla unice oaths and used Z in 0 mann dil f left no doubt as to i TI ir current aas N ory ery sni ivr ift anil and we ue buna n i desperately ie ithe the wagon went shooting I 1 jim aola aitto ait the bank turning end lii fr aud dartin ilida iv across the river river ond colliding wirl ra T woodit wo shore riding out its sid sic artil and threat fr f st it cond cind to turn bottom up and dump us rl f fc witter water WO we ti trimmed ship as ah best we i it ii i he darkness dark nebs and prayed earnestly to fo da davar brt ak which bould not lot now ie he far fal ciff ft 11 II ou i 1 n m ihrl r nf F r t wr om oat iad was that we might 7 shoot over some falls or through gJ rapids which ore art i hiim ra iaru of if the rivers of that ree r aan ion or A ort mrs ti rill I 1 i he be i drawn into the awful chaspi champi ot the colorado rado of which tile the lost priest river is is a confluent where between perpendicular walls halt a 1 mile high our shift would bt be a t short one olle indeed ini fili i as we whirled through tin the rapid rap and over tile the tails of that famous sunken bunken river it is not hard then to imagine the anxiety anxiety with which we waited for the light which did not come coine any am moosoon too soon for ju jui i is as the un sun I 1 was gilding the eastern ea sterl hills we were were w billed hirl e d into some heavy beav rapids and in in a t trice rive NN wre ore overturned joe and I 1 are both good s jiu ira mers otherwise it is doubtful if either of us u s would be alive to ta tell this story for it took every ounce of strength we to reich reach theobore thes the shore bore cambered cumbered cumb ered as we were with our clochin clothing and boots boot s and even then we were carried down something pill ething like a 1 mile before making makina a landings landing it was a lucky thing thin gnat we were spilled where we were ware for fol had the wagon weathered the current two miles more x w e would donld have entered the colorado and met inet sure death between its cavernous walls we were wet tired dirty and hungry stranded in ill it a stran strange cre country without provisions or outfit and so bo far at a we g ness guess not a human habitation within fifty mil miles es oi of us we were entirely out of humor and while I 1 do not swear myself m self I 1 was mentally s saying a v 0 fc Amen to some pretty strom strong 11 1 1 work in that line ND 8 which joe way was em engaged aged in hn h n a shadow darkened the sun sim and looking around quickly I 1 beheld a man mail who was dressed in a shirt of voilie borne dirty color blue dercin pants also much the worse for foi wear held in place by a leather leather belt and a large larae white hat I 1 knew in a minute that he wasa w as sheepherder sheep herder and that we were all right and my spirits rose robe correspondingly you can imagine that we gave him a warm warin we w elcome leoine and accepted his invitation to ao become his guests bests until something ng better buld be done I 1 he said his camp was about a mile distant and th that t he would care for us ua to the best of his abil ability itt until his partner came to relieve relie i e him which he reckoned would be in a week s time and aid that we could then thea ride aide with him to bluff I 1 think tile the week spent in that sheep camp waiting 1 for foi the oth other or man to put in in an appearance w was as the 1011 longest geA 1 loneso week I 1 ever passed in my life and I 1 can an readily readi lv understand wh a greater per cent of I 1 gerders herders become insane than OT raad mi n in ln an other 1 calling all ing or profession the only wonder to in me is that every one of them is not between the walls of the asylum relief came it at last however and in the course of a 1 few days of uneventful 1 travel ravel kne n ached salt alt lake jake a badly dilapidated ij outfit however we have hae talked tho matter over I 1 and a soon oon its as wo we an w act g t another outfit to gi gi t ahr he r vr NN propose pro post io in strike out nut for that forum oui itri again ta t a I 1 n we f bt ht v tho th re is i it fi f ifune for us in the deserted corridors of the ancient mine rn int L THE ent END 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