Show the prospector and his burro 7 R this looks like a good gold placer country to me said the prospector to his burro and it is more than likely that if anyone would go over your shaggy hide with a good rough toothed curry comb he could rake out enough gravel and sand to pan out an ounce in gold for that sand bank you have been rolling in is rich in placer gold as I 1 demonstrated to my satisfaction when I 1 made a small test yesterday afternoon just after we arrived here and pitched camp of course you have no eye for colors and could not tell a piece of gold from an indian idol made of clay and would really take more interest in the idol if the two were before you which goes to show that your qualifications for a successful placer miner are nill and that your ambition was nipped in the bud while you were still on a condensed milk diet if some real live person were only here we would have a regular jollification over the discovery I 1 have made for some of the gold is larger than bird shot and it looks as if I 1 had a fortune in these new diggings which I 1 can take out handily by myself by putting in some sluice boxes and turning in this fine little stream which can be diverted by a few shovels full of clay and a number of the small boulders hereabouts you do not seem to understand continued the prospector that a good placer mining proposition makes a lode or quartz mine look like thirty cents when it comes to economy of operation and big returns while the equipment is comparatively inexpensive and you can cleanup clean up every day if you want to know to a penny just what you ou are doing while the gold retort can be hid out almost everywhere in any old place and it does not cost half what it is worth to get it to the market or to the mints you just pack it in your hip pocket or put it in the grub box and that is all there 1 is s to it its easy on a burro too for a few hundred in the shape of a gold bar Is a long ways short of being as heavy as a sack of ore such as you have often packed down the trail to the wagon road in the valley which means in placer mining that the burro can spend most of his time in the little grass patch or in sorting over the garbage heap back of the camp it is a good thing also for the owner for in it lie he has a goodly bank account which he can draw upon at any old time and if lie he wants to go fishing his expense for upkeep up keep is not crawling up on him all the time still you say placer mining has been out of fashion for many years which is all too true and yet in my opinion nothing can be more attractive than a creek bed of gravel where the ahe values run from 50 cents to a dollar a aard ard and for quick action such a proposition doubly discounts the business end of a hornet or the heels of an outlaw mule discovery of mine reminds me of a placer proposition I 1 found in tumblebug canyon many years ago I 1 was not hunting placers at the time but was out looking for your grandmother who had been a week away from camp I 1 had been out two nights and had slept in the clefts when I 1 came to the crest of a high ridge on the third day of my search below me lay the canyon I 1 have alluded to and an indistinct trail seemed to lead into it in spots where the ground was soft I 1 came upon the hoof prints of my burro and I 1 followed them down the mountain until I 1 came to the ca canyon 11 level where in a cozy nook I 1 found your ancestor fat and slick but seemingly somewhat crestfallen at being discovered near at hand however I 1 found something which interested me much more than the corralling of the burro for almost at her feet and half covered with underbrush and debris were the remains of an old gold rocker nearby in among the boulders was the rock work of an old cabin and in an old can in one of the crevices I 1 found nearly a pound of placer gold some of which existed in the shape of coarse nuggets in one corner I 1 uncovered a portion of a skeleton of a man and from the arrow heads laying around I 1 concluded that the former owner of the diggings had been surprised and murdered by indians I 1 was too highly pleased with my find however to pay much attention to the remains of my predecessor and hastily sampled the gravel along the creek bed it was rich way beyond my expectations and I 1 at once located two claims along the canyon and hiked back to my camp for provisions and supplies I 1 had an ax with me a saw and a few nails and it did not take me long to rig up a set of sluice boxes with riffles fiffles in the first two lengths I 1 also made a dam across the stream and turned the water into the sluice the first day of actual pla cering I 1 was up before the sun and worked almost until dark hardly taking time for lunch and when I 1 had cleaned up for the day I 1 found I 1 had recovered about 75 pretty good for a start and I 1 kept this up for a week before I 1 took any breathing spell after this I 1 worked when I 1 felt like it and care whether school kept or not none whatever for I 1 had enough gold hidden around in cans and wrapped up in old rags to keep me like a prince in any old town regardless of high living prices and I 1 felt as if I 1 had been out for a holiday as placer mining is a picnic when compared with pol polishing polish isling ng off the head of a drill all day while no blasting powder is used and the danger of premature explosions is eliminated in the fall I 1 went to town and turned over about in gold to the bank to some of my friends I 1 told the history of my discovery and they were so insistent in joining me in the enterprise that I 1 let them in for the small price of so I 1 had half of for my summers work and a third interest still in the property A company was formed and tor for five years the placers were successfully operated and when the bar was worked out the total output had figured at considerably over a million ahila the cost of equipment and operation had been trivial when compared with the expense attending the operation of other forms of metal mining 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector it always pays to keep your eyes out for placer diggings digg they may exist where least expected down below the quartz mines in the hills there may be rich diggings that are still undreamed of you cannot find them by the usual signs accompanying ledge by looking wise and discussing the latest sensation at the hay and grain saloon but you must dig for the gold dig to bedrock bed rock to hard pan and if your suspicions are correct you will soon be on easy street a capitalist with money to throw at the birds and there you are and then some |