Show the prospector and his burro it sure has been mighty hot today said the prospector to his burro and I 1 felt greatly relieved when the cool air of the evening began to circulate through the canyons and over the mountain tops on such days as these when even the lizards begin to pant and show signs of having had a sunstroke I 1 can appreciate the feeling of relief of an old rocky mountain poet who expressed his appreciation of the near approach of night when he said the sun behind a bobtail bob tail flush is setting in the west 1 I can see continued the prospector that you are more interested in the bobtail flush than youage in the fact that the sun is setting and that you imagine that the flush is a new kind of tree or mountain shrub but none whatever and this shows that your early education has been sadly 4 neglected I 1 know you are up to date when it comes to the roulette wheel or when it is time to copper the ace on the green table but it seems that the bobtail bob tail flush has entirely escaped your range of observation which shows that you are more suited to camp life than you are to the higher civilization of a frontier mining town and this reminds me that on an afternoon like this with the mercury closely hugging the mark and with not a breath of air stirring the boys in the saloons and gambling dens have all moved out to the shady side of the house hoping that some vagrant breeze may come their way it was just on such a hot afternoon as this some ten years ago that I 1 was dozing on the shady side of my tent out in the ragged gap range I 1 had been prospecting all of the morning but was completely fagged bagged by noon and had given up work for the day I 1 was more than half asleep and was surely dreaming for I 1 seemed to hear my old partner of years ago calling me louder and louder came the call until I 1 finally rose to my feet and answered the summons then it was that I 1 found that it was no dream but a reality and that some one far down the canyon was shouting with all his voice and strength and it seemed to me that it was a cry of distress a wail of one in trouble catching up a canteen of water nearby I 1 hastened towards the sound of the voice sometimes sometime I 1 would stop and listen for the call ottames grew feeble and would subside almost to a whisper but I 1 kept on and finally almost a quarter of a mile from my camp I 1 came upon the prostrate form of an old prospector he had completely collapsed and was as limp as a dishrag dish rag his tongue protruded from his mouth and his eyes were bloodshot blood shot As a matter of fact he was nearly all in and but for the water I 1 had with me might have perished on the spot in time however I 1 succeeded in bringing him to and it was at least ten that night before his lagging footsteps foot steps brought him to my tent the balance of the night I 1 worked over him and he was considerably recovered by morning for he was a victim of heat prostration not having had a mouthful of water for nearly two days it was nearly a week before he could talk connectedly and then he told me the story of his adventures leaving salt lake a month before he had employed his time in the endeavor to rediscover discover re a gold mine his father had found thirty years ago this mine was supposed to exist in a range of ragged mountains miles to the southeast it was found by his father and a partner during a period of trouble with the indians and his father had never gone back but at his death he left a chart or map showing the location of the long lost bonanza the son in the person of the almost perished prospector had spent two weeks in the hills and canyons looking for the mine but without success his burro had been bitten by a rattlesnake and had died so he was forced to leave his camping outfit and continue his search alone for two days he had been almost lost in a box canyon but finally found an old trall trail leading to the summit above this corresponded to the chart he had with him and so he took the course upward by this time his provisions had run low and he had almost decided to give up the attempt when one night he stumbled upon the remains of an old camp in the morning he began looking around him finding an old pick and shovel and the rem remains ains of an old pack saddle going back into the hills from the camp he noticed a fringe of bushes which seemed to be growing on a sort of hummock this seemed to be out of the usual order of things and so he made an investigation which proved that the growth had sprung from an old mine dump near which was a small opening as if intended for the beginning of a tunnel and such proved to be the case and at the face of the old workings he found a vein of quartz about two feet in width which was fairly glistening with gold in its native state this also corresponded with his fathers chart and the prospector thomas jenkins by name was now certain of the success of his expedition that night he again slept in the old camp and quenched his thirst at a little mountain stream trickling down towards the box canyon in the morning he went to the discovery again collected a few samples of the gold bearing rock and started on his return home for two days he was again lost in the canyon and then started to cross the mountain over precipice and towering cliffs for twenty four hours he had been without provisions and for the two days following he had been without water and had it not been for his timely appearance within hailing distance of my camp he certainly would have perished for the heat was something terrific you want to know if he ever found the mine again well we went out together during the month of november and I 1 found the mine just as lie he had described it to me it was rich and most promising but a long distance from the railroad or any town or mining camp we could not work it ourselves to advantage and so we sold it to a bunch of eastern capitalists who put in a tramway installed a mill in the box canyon and are now handing out regular dividends to their shareholders 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector not all of the gold in this range would tempt me to wander far from my camp during such a heated term as this it is not safe to do so for what good is a gold mine to a man who has a sunstroke sun stroke or who has to be taken to an insane asylum or the graveyard after he has found it As for me I 1 will hunt the shady places and am always glad when the sun behind a bobtail bob tail tall flush is setting in the west and and there you are and then some |