Show F the th pro prospector ro fill bector and n his burro U by will C higgins all mining ining is a most fascinating pursuit said the prospector to lil his ls burro of course an unc uncertain ertan element is always connected with it in its early stages but this feature in itself attracts many to the hills who would not make the hike if they knew that everything was cut and dried beforehand for it is the finding of a r ch vein the uncovering of an ore body by ones own efforts and on ones own judgment that makes the blood surge through the veins ol 01 the prospector and gives zest and vim to tho mining industry of course continued the prospector you always like to have everything cor railed and hog hogt bog t fed ed as far as you are con berned and this shows you have no ambi amb t tion on and are adverse to taking chances the average man however wants a little gamble in his if he knew that a pretty girl was standing behind the kitchen door waiting to be kissed the chan chances cesare are that ll 11 he would debate the matter in his mind for sometime before availing himself of the eunity but tell him that he could kiss her if he could catch her and that she was already headed for the tall timber at a gait 0 the way he would fly out after her would make a deer feel that he was in a handicap race this is what makes the ni aning ning game alluring for if the prospector meets with success it is a pea cherino and much more satisfactory than if he had made a stake after years of work in meas ang ur ng calico or driving stage you say that you fail to understand what I 1 arn am driving at and that kissing girls and selling calico is so out of your line that you fall fail to connect such kursu ts with the mining milling industry all of which goes to show that you are an individual with but one ae idea and that is to eat and sleep a fa baling ling that wound aou d wreck any mining man nabo should be possessed of imagination as well we as energy and perseverance the comparison I 1 would make however would be lost on you for in trying to tell you how taking a chance will spur on a man I 1 might end up by linding finding that you had lost interest in my recital and had gone to sleep without first taking your nosebag nose bag off but what started me talking about the fascination of mining and the chances a man will take to find even a little pocket of high grade ore was the arrival of tom hickey in camp yesterday afternoon with a lot of placer gold from some soine rich diggings he had discovered up in the king solomon range na now W torn tom as is well known would rather take his chances prospecting out in the hills than he would with a steady job with a pay envelope containing contal ning plunks at the end of every month half the time he seems to be going and the other half coming and yet after all he does considerable prospecting pec ting and his discoveries supply him with the long green he feeds to the wheel and to the tiger and his latest placer gold discovery should enable him to destroy much of the liquid refreshment at one eyed petes bar for it looks as it if he had found an old river channel near the top of the divide in telling me of his find tom explained that he was following up some good looking float in the range I 1 have men mentioned toned and that he had established his camp near some willows by the side of what to be a dry arroya he was miles away fro froni from ni any stream or spring and was so absorbed in his prospecting that it was too late when he returned to camp to continue on to the next canyon but he was thirsty and so was his burro and so he decided to sink a hole in the wash in the hopes of striking water the ground was sandy and gravelly and within an hour he had attained a depth of at least five feet here a little moisture was encountered but not in sufficient quantity to be made available for drinking purposes tom was pretty well disgusted by this time and felt about ready to quit when the point of his shovel struck what seemed to be hardpan hard pan but he also noticed that the last of gravel he threw out seemed unusually heavy which caused him to make an examination of the material at the bottom of the hole grabbing his hands full he held them up to the light and was surprised as well as delighted to see that native gold had an abiding place in tha gravel his first act was to gather a sack of the material which he packed on his burro and then lit out for the nearest water hole ten miles away it was plumb dark when he got there and he did not test nis Is find until morning but the first washing disclosed a string of gold all around the pan being nuggets as large s some ome of the as the end of a little finger after breakfast he went back to his find on a run and a days work disclosed that what he thought was hardpan hard pan was really the bedrock bed rock of one of the richest placer discoveries ever made in that section the pay streak was about ten inches thick and the diggings evidently contain more wealth than is stored away in the vaults of the bank of engl england and As a result of the discovery d ds sc overy covery a big stampede is on for the king solomon range and the excite ment is greater than during the days ot of 49 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector if tom hickey had been content to plod along at days pay taking no chances whatever he would still be holding out at the bashery down in the camp at the mouth of the canyon and wiping his face on the same towel that all of the greeks and dagges in the house had leen using for the past month now however because he was will ng to take a chance he has a room with a private bath and after using a towel only once he throws it into dacard d in a liang hang n ng basket on the wall and there you are and then some |