Show the prospector and his burro vt 0 ill 1 I under ordinary circumstances sald said the prospector to his burro 1 I should cavere have resented the way you rushed into my tent this morning but it is not every day that we have an earthquake eart and a burro is nt nt supposed to know anything about such things when you came in you were wild with terror your ears stuck out like fans and your legs trembled so that you had the appearance of being baggy about the knees of course I 1 was a little excited myself and if I 1 had been in a ten story skyscraper instead of this little camping tent I 1 think I 1 would have made a strenuous effort to get out into the open yes the earth did shake considerably and the way the boulders tumbled down from yonder high cliff right into your little pasture spot must have given you an idea that the world was coming to an end and your first instinct to fly to a friend for protection was a most natural one in this country however it is not often that quakes are dangerous or destructive to life so I 1 would not worry any more it is a fact also that they are not of frequent occurrence have I 1 experienced many you ask well I 1 have been around where a few of them have occurred and one of them at least for the time being seemed to hold out a fortune for me you ask how that could be well in order to calm you down a little I 1 will relate the circumstance to you although with wit your limited intellect I 1 doubt if you cm can grasp the full significance and importance of the occurrence it was about ten years ago t continued the prospector when you were a mere mer e colt and tell a packsaddle pack saddle from a side of bacon that I 1 was camped high up in the mountains where I 1 had been for a month prospecting a promising looking ledge the country looked good to me and the float in the canyon and along the mountainside ta was flecked with gold but work and toil as I 1 would I 1 could not find the source of the richer pieces the outcrops were plentiful but my prospecting only revealed the presence of low grade ore I 1 knew that the rich shoot was near at hand for gold enrichments enrich ments generally occurs in zones and this is one think that makes gold mining so hazardous for you may have ore that is picture rock one day and be out of it the next and I 1 was loo looking king for high grade rock you ask how I 1 can tell well if you think I 1 am giving you a talk on mineralogy er you are off your base and if you are not content to listen without interruption I 1 will not continue this earthquake story and you can go back to your green patch and see if another bowlder boulder will drop down in your vicinity well I 1 had about given up finding the rich pocket when I 1 had an experience I 1 will remember as long as I 1 live I 1 had practically packed up so as to be off in the morning for more inviting fields and had been asleep a couple of hours when I 1 heard a bumbling noise and the earth began to sway beneath me I 1 at first thought that a big rock had rolled down the mountain and had struck and splintered against the cliff across the canyon A little later I 1 heard a noise like the explosion of a ton of dynamite and a moment after I 1 was almost covered with an avalanche of soft ground the only thing that saved my life being two big pine trees against which my tent had been pitched I 1 was uninjured and as lt it was very dark I 1 remained where I 1 was not daring to wander about under the perilous conditions existing As it was it seemed weeks before the first flashes of dawn appeared As soon as it was daylight however I 1 began to move around and soon discovered that an earthquake had overwhelmed the country and that the appearance of the mountain and canyon had been greatly changed up above me where there had been a gentle slope in the mountain there was now a sheer precipice and a hundred acres or more of earth and rock had split away and dashed down into the canyon As soon as I 1 had my breakfast I 1 began an investigation of the castr strophe ca ophe and found that the break in the mountain mounta n had been as clean and complete as if it had been done by a monster sword in the hands of a giant a mile or more tall what interested me more thany anything else however was the discovery that the sl slide I 1 de had exposed a ledge that could plainly be seen a quarter of a mile away after much hard work and some pre pretty tty stiff climbing I 1 reached the spot and found that a blind vein had been uncovered the ore body was about six feet in width and was fairly alive with wi th the yellow metal in its native state on the hanging wall there was a four inch streak that was more than et a third pure gold while the bala balance nce of the vein would run from or to thousands to the ton you may well believe that I 1 was wild with excitement for the find would make me a rich man and I 1 could spen spend d my declining yea years rs in comfort and ease the balance of the day I 1 hung around my new found treasure and when night came fixed up my camp so that I 1 could stay there until morning when I 1 expected to load up a pack or two of the richest ore and strike out for the nearest valley town that night I 1 was restless and uneasy and all the more so as I 1 began to hear rumbling and earth movements and finally felt a great shock in the morning I 1 looked around again but could not recognize the locality of my great find As a matter of fact the balance of the mountain peak had fallen into the great g eat cavity made by the quake of the night before and no trace was left of the splendid ledge exposed by the first disaster for months I 1 prospected the locality but have never been able to find the slightest traca of my rich gold ledge but I 1 am going to do some tunnel work the next time I 1 visit that locality for the vein is still there even if it is covered up with hundreds of feet of broken rock and debris 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector the tremendous force of nature beats the ordinary prospector when it comes to revealing the treasures of mother earth many valuable deposits of rich ore have been exposed by earthquakes and landslides and the prospector has often been bene fitted by such assistance we may be blind to the existence of hidden veins and ledges but they exist all around us and it often takes a quake or two to expose them it is not always however that all men have the same poor luck that I 1 did in this instance and they often make a pot of money out their discoveries which all goes to show that if gold were too plentiful it would have no more value than common country rock and there you are and then some |