Show F the prospector and his burro by will C higgins just as we were about to turn in for the night said the prospector to his burro tour our attention was called to the crowd of men horses and wagons burros and an auto or two that were going up the canyon road below our camping place the whole thing might have been a parade excepting for the fact that there were no bands playing while a scrap seemed to prevail regarding the leadership of the bunch the procession being more in the nature of a riot or race than a demonstration of dignified marching all of which leads me to believe that what we saw was nothing more than a wild stampede for some new mineral discovery in several of which I 1 have participated during my time and as a general thing to my loss and injury you would be surprised to know continued the prospector that a stampede hardly ever ripens and is ready for action until well along in the afternoon the result being that its participants rarely arrive at the scene of the alleged discovery until well into the night or along towards morning so that in the wild scramble to locate claims on the extension of the discovery the lines are piled one upon another until they are about a foot deep and often cover ground that the locator would be ashamed to claim ownership to if he had first see seen n it by daylight when morning comes however the stam peders generally find that their little boom has already gone to seed I 1 and then they scatter out over the country and probably do a little real prospecting for I 1 have always noticed that when a boom has fizzled soon after a sta stampede impede has run its course quite a number of really valuable discoveries are reported somewhere in the neighborhood of the alleged strike that first c created the excitement and this reminds me of the discovery of the do donna nna belle mine out in mcpherson range a few years ago at tile the time I 1 speak of I 1 was prospecting in this range and had been out all day having your mother along with me we had been clear to the saddle on the divide between e sucker creek and bullfrog canyon and were on our way back to camp we were moving along slowly and had just reached the main road in Har barkers kers canyon when two horsemen dashed by as it if riding for their lives A minute later another horseman clattered by us followed by two men in a cart we were somewhat bewildered wil dered at this unexpected encounter and were willing to give up the right of way rather than be swept off our feet and hurled into the canyon below for the reckless riders and driver seemed to have no respect for the rights of those they might meet in the road after an interval of five or so several wagons loaded down with men bedding and supplies dashed by us paying no attention to my inquiries as to the cause of the mad race which if I 1 hac haa stopped to think might have been a pursuit twenty minutes later some men on burros came along and from them I 1 learned that a big gold discovery had been reported in in the northern end of the range and that tile the mad procession I 1 had witnessed was nothing more than a stampede to the new goldfields gold fields of course I 1 joined in with the wild rush and was for your mother was tired from her hard work ot of the day and much preferred going to camp rather than eating the dust that was being raised by the harrum crowd that had just passed us but I 1 kept urging her on and we were not more than two miles behind the crazy crowd when the trall trail len the main road and turned up the side of a steep mountain and here my burro balked I 1 did some tall clubbing but she was as obstinate as the most stubborn mule you yon ever saw and so I 1 had to fairly drag her along by the bridle or else push her forward from behind you may not believe me but I 1 never worked harder in all my life and had actually gained two or three miles in this manner when I 1 found I 1 was off the trail while it had grown so dark that I 1 could hardly see my hand before me I 1 knew then that it was all off as fa far r as getting to the new camp that night was concerned and I 1 felt like killing your mother who to make matters worse assumed a much abused appearance and wanted to know if I 1 had lost my senses to such an extent that I 1 could not resist joining in with every fool movement that came along and so I 1 began to calm down and to wish that I 1 was in our comfortable camp on oil tile the other side of the divide I 1 was hungry however and after I 1 had taken tile the pack from your mother and had given her a 11 little atle barley I 1 began to prepare my eve evening ning meal feeling around in the dark I 1 gathered a few loose rock with which to build a crude fireplace fire place noticing at the time how heavy they seemed to be making a little coffee and unpacking some cold bread to go with it I 1 made a slight repast and was soon after snugly rolled up in my blankets and sound asleep 1 I was up early in the morning and as hungry as a wolf and so I 1 began at once the preparation of a hearty breakfast it was hardly more than dawn when I 1 lighted my fire and put my kettle on to boil As soon as there were some good live coals I 1 got my frying pan and was getting ready to slice my bacon when I 1 happened to notice the rock fragments which constituted my fireplace fire place their color struck me first and when I 1 saw that the rock was not of the common variety but was almost entirely quartz I 1 forgot all about my breakfast and began investigating my surroundings to my surprise I 1 found enat tile the quartz was float that evidently came from a ledge higher up the mountainside and that it was gold bearing and free milling even then when I 1 knew that I 1 was on the trail of a bonanza and that it could not break away and escape me I 1 was too much excited to remember anything about breakfast and so kept on prospecting up the hill until within half an hour I 1 had found the fissure that had thrown the quartz blossom and believe me it was a dandy being near ly five feet in width and cropping from five to ten feet above ground for a distance of more than a thousand feet in its strike standing on its crest I 1 could see well into k the valley and across into the other range I 1 could even see the little mining camp at the mouth of Har barkers kers canyon and the great wonder was that the ledge had never been discovered before and it probable would have been had it not been for the fact that the side hill was so overgrown with underbrush that from a distance it looked as smooth and void of mineral indications as a snowbank in missouri and it was into this maze that your mother had balked me the night before my discovery I 1 called the donna belle after a little mexican witch I 1 had known years before and it is now one of the big mines mine of that section for a week I 1 worked in making locations and in putting up monuments then I 1 hiked down to the town at the mouth of the can yon for provisions and supplies learning while there that the stampede had been all for nothing and that the new find that started it was nothing more than a gash vein in a sedimentary formation after developing veI ve the donna belle to some extent I 1 was able to sell the property to a san francisco syndicate which organized the donna belle mining company which has since paid more than half a million in dividends 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector it I 1 ever join another stampede I 1 want to be in the lead or on a burro bringing up the rear and for the reason that the leader of a grand rush for a new camp may get in on a valuable extension if there is anything good there while the on a burro if he is eventually left miles behind stands a chance to stumble onto something that will lead to a fortune and there you are and then some |