Show the prospector and his burro A P by will C higgins you are as grouchy as a baseball base ball fan when it rains said the prospector to his burro and hang around camp with your head down and your ears flopped over a perfect picture of abject misery and taking it altogether you are as useless to me as a pink parasol and you hate yourself and the world in general just as ardently as a man suffering with acute indigestion at a commercial club banquet but nevertheless th eless a big storm has its uses and advantages and there is no better prospector than a flood or a cloudburst which statement judging from your appearance excites no interest in your water soaked cranium for you cannot imagine how a flood or a cloudburst cuts any lee ice in the way of mineral discoveries or how either one or the other would benefit thereby if an accidental find of millions were to be made all of which from your standpoint seems like logical reasoning and yet it is a fact that many valuable lodes and veins have been uncovered through the agency of these mediums and now that you have consumed the quart of barley I 1 gave you in in order to help in the restoration of your peace of mind I 1 will narrate an incident to prove to you the absolute truthfulness of my assertion some few years ago continued the prospector 1 I was camped out in the sir nigel range in the numa mountains it was a good looking region mine rally speaking and so I 1 made a permanent camp built a cabin for myself with a leanto lean to for your mother and prepared for extensive prospecting some few hundred yards away there was a little meadow that was as attractive to my burro as a barroom bar room is to the ordinary bum and she spent many or of her leisure hours in that delightful spot between my camp and the meadow I 1 had found some very fine gold bearing float some of it panned like a house afire and indication that it came there was every from a strong ledge not far distant for a week or more I 1 prospected the mountainside sometimes on my hands and knees but could not locate the vein I 1 followed thet the float at least a quarter of a mile up the hill or until I 1 could no longer find a blossom but the ore bearing zone had evidently been covered up by a landslide or wash and only by deep open cut work could I 1 hope to uncover it even if I 1 knew of the most favorable spot on which to begin operations erat ions matters began to look discouraging and almost hopeless when one day just before noon as I 1 was making a last attempt to find what I 1 believed would prove to be a bonanza the sky suddenly became obscured by a black and heavy cloud and drops of rain began to spatter about me I 1 hastened to the cabin as rapidly as possible and none too soon for the water began to fall in bucket fulls just as your mother came racing in from the meadow the wind blew terrifically also and when the storm was at its heights great trees began to totter and fall the lightning was so vivid as to be blinding and the roar of the thunder was something awful to hear in the canyon below me the stream was soon overflowing over flowing its banks suddenly it became almost as dark as n ilni gait and the darkness after a short interval was followed by a peculiar sound A a it a substantial body was slowly giving away before a mighty and irresistible force look ing out of my cabin door up the mountainside I 1 could dimly see a great volume of water coming down the stretch of country where I 1 had found the gold float great boulders were torn from their anchorage cpr uprooted bated trees formed barricades which held but a moment before they were swept away and wild chaos held full sway then I 1 knew there had been a cloudburst cloud burst and felt that I 1 was indeed fortunate in being on comparatively high ground out of the course of the raging torrent it was night before the storm subsided I 1 was up early the next morning however and hastened to see how the flood had wrecked the face of the mountain and believe me I 1 was almost paralyzed with astonishment when I 1 saw the great channel the water had cut in its downward course the chasm was all of twenty feet in width and more than fifteen fe etin depth with considerable difficulty I 1 managed to lower myself to its bed which was almost as smooth as a floor almost mechanically I 1 followed its course upward and after walking about feet I 1 butted up against an obstruction which had withstood the dynamic force of the rushing waters this obstruction st was about five feet in heigh heights th and crossed the bed of the new gulley almost at right angles and upon close examination I 1 found it to be the outcrop of the ledge I 1 had been looking for with my tommy knocker I 1 broke off several fragments and was not surprised to find that they were full of native gold the ledge was fully four feet in width and I 1 was not sw slow in realizing the fact that I 1 had found a bonanza collecting my pieces of quartz I 1 started out for the cabin and met your mother at the bank of the newly formed water course I 1 expected she would be delighted with my good fortune but she hardly looked at my specimens which glistened with the yellow metal no none whatever for she was bemoaning the fact that she had been cut off from her little meadow and had no eyes for anything but eats it teak me but a few days to stake out a group of six claims covering the newfound new found ledge which I 1 soon placed upon a profitable producing pro ducin basis and which inside of six months I 1 had sold to a strong boston syndicate who have since made a barrel of money out of this chance discovery 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector while storms and floods are very often destructive they are frequently the medium through which great mineral ini discoveries are made they are sometimes inconvenient to burros who have no leanto lean to to shelter them and now then keep a roughneck rough neck away from his favorite saloon for a day or two but believe me I 1 am getting fond of them and get out bright and early after a big storm in the hope that the floods have uncovered a hidden ledge or exposed even a stringer that may lead to a bonanza and there are and then some |