Show the pro prospector 31 bector and his burro P by will C higgins 1 I see said the prospector to his burro that you are overjoyed at finding a little grassy patch up here in the hills where you least expected to find an oasis and had made up your mind to play the camel and pull through the night on the mere memory of what you had to drink this morning and I 1 must say that I 1 am greatly pleased also for this has been a long hot day and I 1 have been dreading making a dry camp in a region that has always been regarded as being barren in a mineral way as it was supposed to be shy of grass and water it is a little late now but you can bet your last tin can that I 1 will prospect this locality in the morning for I 1 know of several instances where great ore has been found in sections which had long been condemned as being as worthless for its deposits of the metals as a counterfeit twenty is for the gold it is supposed to contain and this brings to mind an experience of mine twenty years ago when your mother was nothing more than a colt at the time I 1 speak of continued the prospector 1 I was crossing the mulberry range in order to get to the mouth of the cluttering wren canyon where it had been reported an important gold strike had been made I 1 had been a day out from ibapah and had camped for the night near a huge boulder at the base of which a little spring trickled the country roundabout round about had always been regarded as being no good for mineral although from time to time little stringers of gold ore had been found in the granite which scattered out in the formation after being followed for a few feet it is no wonder then that I 1 was not particularly interested in my surroundings and that I 1 made for my blankets as soon as I 1 had finished my supper and pipe while as for my burro she seemed so tired that I 1 did not believe she would stray far from camp before sunup sun up to make more sure of her however I 1 hobbled her front right foot to her right hind foot knowing that such a combination ed ili would curb her desire to get away in the night unless she was a pacer and andi 1 I have never seen but one burro that had such a gait and she was a curiosity and not in good standing with her tribe but the way she wallowed around in the underbrush kept me awake half of the night and it was not until near morning before she quieted down and I 1 had an hour of good sleep before sunrise sun rise after making slap jacks and coffee I 1 began looking around for my burro but she was not in sight I 1 tried to find her trail but there was none and she had disappeared as completely as it if she had been swallowed by an earthquake finally however my search brought me to the rim of a precipice and looking over I 1 saw a sight that would have been laughable but for the seriousness of it for hanging seemingly in midair with the looped rope over the stump of a small pine was my burro as safely anchored as if she had been staked out on a little meadow she sure was in a sorry plight and was kicking with her two unfettered feet like a straphanger strap hanger in a crowded car how to release her was a problem but I 1 worked it out in course of time for fortunately I 1 had a hundred feet of inch in ch rope with me and this assisted me in my eff efforts orts to release her she was not more than forty feet below me and I 1 was able to throw a brunnig noose around the stump then I 1 looped the rope around a tree standing on the brink and slid down the loose portion to the stump where the burro was so securely held then I 1 pulled the rope down doubled it twice around the stump tied the short end around the burros neck cut her hobbles and let her slide down gently to a sure footing and safety my end of the rope I 1 tied to the stump and ws was preparing to slide down myself when I 1 chanced to glance at the spot anere the burro had been kicking and pawing in her efforts to free herself from tier her awkward and perilous position and would you believe me she had uncovered as pretty a ledge of gold bearing quartz as one could wish to see it was some time before I 1 slid down to where my burro was and at least three hours before I 1 was able to clamber back to camp and back with my pick and shovel then I 1 began to prospect around the base of the precipice but before night I 1 was able to find the continuation of the ledge and it was a pea cherino four feet wide and a perfect fissure the values I 1 judged going about to tile the ton in free milling gold near the base of the cliff also I 1 found a large spring and below it was a little meadow often often acres or more or of which my burro had already taken possession there was no outcropping cropping out of the ledge and I 1 could hardly believe my eyes when I 1 saw by what a small margin I 1 might have missed it for no one believed there was any bodies of ore in that region I 1 would never have even guessed it and hut but for the wallowing around of my burro and the fact that she stumbled over tile the precipice pre I 1 would have gone on oil in the morning as un conscious of the existence of a bonanza near at hand as a man is of danger when he loiters near an ice cream parlor but the chance discovery made me a fort fortune unc all the same and the money looked as good to me as if the find had been made in some recognized and approved district 1 11 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector this accidental discovery was a lesson to me and now whenever in a region that has been condemned and turned down by the wise ones no matter what the formation may be I 1 give it a thorough once over at least always remembering mem bering that gold is where you find it and there you are and then some |