| Show THE prospector AND BURRO by will C higgins in our last 1 st conversation conversa Uon said the prospector to his burro 1 I related the trying experience peri ence jack hastings i tings and myself had in the desert country in the shell hole range and how nearly we came to perishing of thirst before we stumbled onto the little stream environed by a steep and rugged canyon and how after a night of rest in the willows that bordered the stream I 1 awoke in the morning to find that in our distress we had been led to an isolated spot where mineralized float indicated the existence of a strong gold bearing ledge in our immediate vicinity As I 1 said before I 1 was admiring the wonderfully beautiful sunrise in the canyon when I 1 happened to look across the stream and was surprised to see almost at the waters edge fragments of gold float even from where I 1 stood I 1 could judge of its character and quality fairly well and it took me but afew moments to ford the stream for it was not deep at any place to the point where the float was so generously scattered about I 1 did not call to jack but let him sleep on for he was just about all in and needed hours of rest before he be would be able to take an interest in a gold mine or anything else and then too I 1 was not over fresh myself and had no intention of over exerting myself even though I 1 found gold nuggets lying around in great abundance and so I 1 took matters leit surely and sitting down on a boulder began to make a careful examination of the quartz which 1 I found to be rich and carrying the yellow metal in its native state gathering up some of the float I 1 carried it back to camp and with mortar and pestle ground it up so that the pulp would pass a 40 mesh screen this I 1 panned and was delighted to get a string of colors half way around the pan some of the gold was quite coarse some being as large as a grain of wheat and I 1 estimated that the gold was at least 95 per cent pure after this I 1 got dinner ready and called jack who wanted to sleep more than he wanted to eat when I 1 showed him the gold I 1 had panned from the float lie he was much surprised but expressed no desire to start out in search of the ledge and so we both bunked in and were soon dead to the world until sunrise the next morning when we both awoke much refreshed and ready for brisk work in the effort to find the ledge from which the float had been thrown crossing the stream we began following up the gold blossoms until our further progress was stopped by the wall of the canyon which rose sheer at this point to a heights of about fifty feet where it shelved off apparently patently ly and formed a small plateau until the main wall was reached and this was almost perpendicular to its rim how to overcome this obstacle was a puzzle to us until jack found a small crevice in the cliff through which we squeezed and crawled until we had nearly reached the elevation we desired still we were at least fifteen feet below the plateau or shelf and had no means available of scaling the almost perpendicular cular wall to the desired locality and so we desisted resisted des isted for the time being for it was hot as hades up there in the rocks and we had by no means recovered from the terrible strain of our battle for life a few days before going back to the creek and to our camp was almost as difficult as the climb we had made but as we descended we used our tommy knockers to good advantage and cleared the route of its worst features knocking off a jutting rock here and there and widening some of the narrowest places in the crevice as we intended returning the next day prepared in some way to make a success of the venture that evening jack shot some more quail and bagged two more rabbits so that we had an abundance of fresh meat and had a repast equal to the banquet usually served to the members of the utah chapter of the A I 1 M E then we sought the hay and in the morning were as fresh and dandy as an american beauty rose after a summer shower the first thing we did however after breakfast and before attempting to scale the cliff was to cut down several of the cottonwoods cotton woods surrounding our camp and these we managed to snake across the stream to the crevice in the rock and when we had crawled up to the point reached by us the day before we managed to get them up to us by means of a rope we had with us it was hard and strenuous work but once we had them in place after constructing them into a crude ladder we were at last able to reach the top and here our hopes were we deremore remore more than realized for near the base of the main precipice we easily found a strong ledge that was at least five feet in width in a contact between quartzite and shale and having a strike nearly due north and south with a dip of about 45 degrees the ground below the vein was covered with float fifty tons at least being available while the ledge could easily be developed by tunnel what surprised us the most how ever was the discovery of signs of former occupancy of the spot for behind a mammoth jutting rock a rude fireplace fire place had been constructed and the dilapidated remains of a small furnace still existed showing that years before some men whether white mexican or indian had in some way found the ledge and had melted down the float in a small way 0 L ao o work had been done however in the way of development and we were cheered by the thought that the newfound bonanza was all our own and that although it might be long before we would be able to realize handsomely from our discovery we knew that nothing could prevent us from ultimate success while at the same time we were in a region where water was plentiful and wild game was abundant for the next week continued the prospector we were as busy as a village gossip in staking out claims and locating and water rights and believe me we were obliged to do a lot of tall climbing in doing this but we finally finished and had a fine group cinched cincher good and plenty before we began to consider the best and easiest methods of development and operation for we were not fixed for the accomplishment of any heavy work we decided therefore to construct a aman for the treatment of the tonnage of quartz float up on the plateau and it took us some time to build it as we had but a few tools with us and only a small supply of quicksilver in course of time however the primitive reduction plant was ready to be placed in commission and it was here that your mother began to pay for her keep and for the long idle spell she had enjoyed she was as fat as butter by this time and was rather lather reluctant to get down to hard work when we hitched her to the sweep of the and we had to keep after her all of the time to keep her busy we had no difficulty in getting the ore down from the plateau as all we had to do was to shovel it over the edge of the wall and the rest was not difficult for it fell within a few yards of the and it was an easy matter to feed the little mill which handled about a ton a day eor more wan than six weeks we were thus employed when we had run about all the float through the mill and we thought it was about time to make a cleanup clean up we were especially anxious to do this as our bill of fare had now been reduced to what fresh meat we could get and we were beginning to long for dry salt bread sugar and coffee and jack had come to the point where he fairly loathed the sight of quail and rabbit so we made mada the cleanup and found that we had recovered about in gold amalgam this looked good to us and so we broke camp and headed down the canyon for fifty miles or more until we found a wagon road that led to a little town near the southern edge of the range here we found a market for our gold and began to make arrange ments for the purchase of provisions am ant 0 supplies it being our intention to return to t ia the canyon at an early date and begin at al once the development and equipment of our oui P strata mine which we felt sure would e evve even e dually make us independently rich ho HH 0 we progressed in this program I 1 win will ee or deavor to tell you in our next conversation 1 I want to tell you old long ears 1 coi cod 05 6 eluded the prospector we we were re a to feel as if we were some pumpkins pumpkin ss abbyy bythie tt i time for if anere is anything that pu puts heart into a man and makes him begin to feel chesty it is the knowledge that he it is on the road to easy street and there yol yoi are and then some |
