n TO JOHN MACKEY, ESQ., PRINCE OF MINERS, AND "Boss" OF THE BIG BONANZA, IS THIS BOOK RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. - 248015 HISTORY OF THE BIG BONANZA: AS AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERT, HISTORY, AND WORKING OF TH1 COMSTOCK SILVER LODE OF NEVADA INCLUDING THK PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS MINES SITUATED THEREON J SKETCHES OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN INTERESTED IN THEM ; INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES CONNECTED WITH MINING, THE INDIANS, AND THE COUNTRY; AMUSING STORIES, EXPERIENCES, ANECDOTES, &C., &C. AND A FULL EXPOSITION OF THE PRODUCTION OF PURE SILVER BY DAN DE QUILLE. (WILLIAM WEIGHT.) PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED* SOLD tt SU3SCB1*TI9H O&Ltf. HARTFORD, CONN. : AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. : A. L. BANCROFT & CO. 1877. Entered according to act of Congress, in year 1876 by AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO., in toe office of the Librarian of Congress INTRODUCTORY. One easily gets a surface-knowledge of any remote country, through the writings of travellers. The inner life of such a country is not very often presented to the .reader. The outside of a strange house is interesting, but the people, the life, and the furniture inside, are far more so. Nevada is peculiarly a surface-known country, for no one has written of that land who had lived long there and made himself competent to furnish an inside view to the public. I think the present volume supplies this defect in an eminently satisfactory way. The writer of it has spent sixteen years in the heart of the silver-mining region, as one of the editors of the principal daily newspaper of Nevada ; he is thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and wields a practised pen. He is a gentleman of character and reliability. Certain of us who have known him personally during half a generation are well able to testify in this regard. MARK TWAIN. HARTFORD, May, 1876. PREFACE. I have put all I had to say into the body of this'book ; but, being informed that a preface is a necessary evil, I have written this one. THE AUTHOR. OF PAGB. GOLD HILL FBONTISPIECB 1. CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MIKE do 2. KIT CARSON 21 3. "OLD VIRGINIA" AND His ROCKEK 28 4. THE PRINCES SARAH WINNEMUCCA 80 5. JACOB JOB'S LITTLE GAME 81 _ $> GOLD DIGGINS IN 1859 44 7. COMSTOCK DISCOVERING BILVES 50 8. AN ARASTRA 58 9. NAMING VIRGINIA CITY 58 10. EURBKA MILLS, CARSON RIVER 67 11. COMSTOCK'S AFFINITY 76 12. RETURN OF COMSTOCK'S WIFE 76 13. H. T. P. COMSTOCK 85 14. THE HAPPY BREAKFAST 92 15. O'RlLEY AND HIS GUN 97 16. GUIDED BY SPIRITS 98 17. ENCOURAGED BY REVELATIONS 101 18. THE LAST BLAST 101 19. BOUND FOR WASHOE 103 20. D N WASHOB 108 21. BUSINESS i05 22. GOOD MORNING 107 23. GOING IN 108 24. CHANGE OF MIND 108 25. COMING BACK 108 26. BUSTIN' THE INJUNRTION 110 27. SAVAGES 126 28. TIMBERING THE MINES 137 29. '-HOLD UP YOUR HANDS" 151 30. A BONANZA OF BEEF 151 31. HOISTING WORKS 165 32. THREE FAMOUS MIXES 167 38. WASTE ROCK DUMPS OF THE CHOLLAR-POTOSI, SAVAGE, HALE, AND NORCROSS MINES. 171 34. THE BURNING MINE 180 35. OFFICE OF THE CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MINES 190 36. ACCIDENTS IN THE MINES 203 37. THE PILGRIM'S LODGINGS 213 33. VIRGINIA CITY 214 89. Miss VIRGINIA TILTON 217 40. COUNTRY AND CITY 220 41. DUMP-PILES OF HALE AND NORCROSS MINES 223 42. WOOD AND WATER 227 * The illustrations of Mining Works, Scenery, and Machinery, are from Photographs taken cm the spot, by John S. Noe, and E. Hurd, of Virginia City, Nevada. Vin ILL US TRA TIONS. 48. RHODE ISLAND MILT,, GOLD HILL 222 44. RESIDKNCH o* HON. J. P. JONES 222 45. GOLD HILL, LOOKING NORTH 237 46. LUMBEBING ON LAKH TAHOE 241 47. CAPTURE OF PERKINS 251 48. EXECUTION OF PERKINS 251 49. INDIAN HUNTER AND SQUAWS 261 50. WINNEMUCCA CHIEF OF THE PIUTES 267 51. PBINCB NATCHEZ 270 52. THE STORY OF THE CAVE 275 53. SHRIMPS 285 54. AN INDIAN ENGAMPMENT 291 55. GRINDING AXES 295 56. CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA HOISTING WORKS 299 27. HOISTING C AGB 300 58. HOISTING CAR AND CAGES IN SILVER MINES 305 59. DIAGRAM SHOWING HEIGHT OF MINES 325 60. MERRIMAO MILL, CARBON RIVER 333 61. LOADING SILVER ORE, CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MINES 337 62. FIRST QUARTZ MINE IN NEVADA 342 63. QUARTZ MILL AMALGAMATING ROOM 342 64. HOISTING WORKS 349 65. THIS TRIAL OF SKILL 863 66. THB SCARED BULLY 879 67. "THE HEATHEN CHINEE " 389 68. SCANNING THE BULLETIN 403 69. FUNNY INCIDENTS 408 70. THE SECRET 411 71. VIEWS AT LAKE TAHOE 414 72. NICK-OF-THE. WOODS .*....; 416 73. HANK MONK 416 74i DONNER LAKE 422 75. SUMMIT OF THE SIERRAS 422 76. WINTER AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 424 77. SONG OF THE HONEST MINER 433 78. AT WORK AND AT HOME 441 79. MINER'S UNION HALL 441 80. MINERS' BATTLES 455 81. THE HOTTEST PLACE 459 82. SURROUNDINGS 477 83. THE MISSING WELL BOTTOM 503 84. THE MAN-EATER 508 85. JOHN MACKEY 516 '86. HON. WM. SHARON 520 87. JAMES G. FAIB , 524 88. CAPT. SAMUEL CUBTTS 527 89. HON. J. P. JONES 531 90. THE SLAPJACK FEAT 538 91. THE STOBY OF PIKE AND TOM 549 T CHAPTER I. THE FIRST SETTLERS IN NEVADA. Facts and Fiction How the Rivers are Lost Unwelcome Visitors The Washoes Taking in the Pilgrims 17 CHAPTER II. THE SEARCH FOR GOLD. "Washing" Celestials at the Diggings Original Papers Primitive Amusements Jacob Job's little Game A Delusion and a Snare.. . . 26 CHAPTER III. ADVENTURES OF EARLY PROSPECTORS. The Mysterious Brothers What was found in a Shaft Pike's Great Dis- covery "Stuff they Make Compasses of" Wonderful travelling Stones 33 CHAPTER IV. WHAT THEY DISCOVERED. " That Blasted Blue Stuff"" Old Pancake "A Discovery John Bish- op's Story Unearthly Treasure 39 CHAPTER V. Discovery of the Great Comstock What they threw Away Old Pancake Arrives Questionable Rights Sold and " Sold " Locking up "Old Virginia." 47 CHAPTER VI. THE DISCOVERY SILVER. " Old Pancake's " Weakness Naming the town An Astounding Dis- closure Going to th Diggings A Grand Discovery 55 CHAPTER VII. REMINISCENCES OF EARLY MINING-DAYS. The Old Record Book Strange Notices Curious Houses A Modern Robinson Crusoe Before the World Mills and Arastras 6l CHAPTER VIII. THE FATE OF DISCOVERERS. Thieves in the Camp An Uupleasant Joke Sales of Mining Property Smelting on a Small Scale What they Got from the Furnaces. ... 70 COATED TS. CHAPTER IX. COMSTOCK'S MATRIMONY. "Old Pancake" Courting Catching a Runaway Wife Women and Mischief Always the Same Winnie and his Wife Seeking a New Bonanza 77 CHAPTER X. COMSTOCK'S LETTER. " Old Pancake's " Story Roughing It The Fate of Old Virginia Ole Comstock Dead A Man who drank but Little 82 CHAPTER XI. OLD VIRGINIA AND HIS STORIES. Prospecting for a dinner A Skunk Story O'Riley's Mistake A Duel: Curious Consequences Flight of the Victor O'Riley and his Gun. 89 CHAPTER XII. MISLED BY THE SPIRITS. The Great Oil-Tank An Untapped Reservoir Going in and Coming out Experiences of those who Stayed Approach of Spring " Zeph- yrs" and Avalanches A Rather long Night Queer Incidents 100 CHAPTER XIII. EARLY MINING. " Bring out your Injunction " Testing Ores for Gold Testing Ores for Silver A Fire Assay Valuable Donkeys The Washoe "Canary" 109 CHAPTER XIV. MIGRATION ON A LARGE SCALE. The Migratory Instinct The Piute War Battle of Pyramid Lake Second Expedition The Survivors of the Slaughter 116 CHAPTER XV. TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS. An Unlucky Dutchman Skirmishing An Appeal to Indian Justice After the Scalps Old Gus. and his " Injun." 121 CHAPTER XVI. STATE OF SOCIETY. Organization Begun In Search of the Gold Fighting Sam Brown The Knife and the Pistol Pugnacious Periods 128 CHAPTER XVII. EARLY COMSTOCK MINING OPERATIONS. In the Heart of the Bonanza Inside the Mine Extraordinary Experi- ments " Process Peddlers " and their Devices The Value of Tail- ings Neat way of making Rings waste of Gold and Silver 133. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. LOSS OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. Floating Treasure Where the Quicksilver Goes An Unanswered Ques- tion Floating Away 143 CHAPTER XIX. THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF THE TERRITORY. Footpads on the "Divide" Attacking a Dutchman Mysterious Dis- appearances Search for the Missing A Bonanza of Beef Where did they go to ? 146 CHAPTER XX. THE MOUNTAIN REGION OF NEVADA. Providing for his Friends The Sierra Nevada Mountains The Ascent of Mount Davidson An Eclipse Going Back to the City A Majestic Scene 154 CHAPTER XXL THE SIERRAS. How the Fissures were Formed Formation of Quartz and Ores How the Comstock Vein was Found Disagreeable " Pinching " Never Discouraged 160 CHAPTER XXII. BONANZA AND BORRASCA. Sales of Stock A Day's Vicissitudes Speculations An Infallible Maxim Mr. Frank's Devices Nada Bonanza 165 CHAPTER XXIII. HOW THE MINES ARE WORKED. Hoisting the "Giraffe" Deserted Shafts Perillous Ways and Dark Places What they saw in the Night Rather Astonished Poisoned 170 CHAPTER XXIV. FIREDAMP. A MINE IN FLAMES. Yellow-Jacket Mine in a Blaze A Scene of Horror The Victims Sub- duing the Flames The Work of Destruction Scenes at the Mouth of the Shaft On Fire for three Years Missing Men 176 CHAPTER XXV. DEATH IN THE MINE. Explosions of Firedamp How Gas is formed in the Mines Searching for the Dead What the Giant-powder Did The Inquest, and the Dead Carelessness of the Miners 186 CHAPTER XXVI. DESTRUCTION OF THE BELCHER SHAFT. Progress of the Flames Descending the Burning Shaft Danger A Cave in the Mine Deluge of Fire Courage of the Men Still Burning A Warm Comparison The Centre of the Earth IQI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVII. WAR IN THE MINE. Smoking out the Enemy The Early days of Washoe Amiable Miners The Kossuth and the Alhambra Causes of Fear A Little Mis- chiefBurnt Rags 197 CHAPTER XXVIII. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. The Adventures of Four Miners Fixed A Struggle for Life Danger- ous Playthings Exploding with a Scratch Those little Copper Cyl- inders Loss of Noses and Thumbs , 2OI CHAPTER XXIX. MINING FATALITIES. Tumbling down Two Thousand Feet Blown to Atoms A Singular Accident Automatic Safety Origin of Accidents The Pilgrim in a Coffin Shuffling out the " Corpse " 208 CHAPTER XXX. TOWNS OF THE BIG BONANZA. The First-born of Virginia City A Comical Newspaper-Office Growing like Mushrooms A little Pictnre Among the Rubbish-Dumps Big Loads" See for Yourselves " 215 CHAPTER XXXI. RALROAD LINES. Travelling in a Circle Through the Six Tunnels Crooked Roads Side-tracks and Other Devices The Way the Iron Horse Goes The Men on the Line Timed by Telegraph 227 CHAPTER XXXII. AN ENGINEERING TRIUMPH. Spring Business Tapping the Hills Dams Constructed What Mr. Shussler Did The Big Water-PipeTesting the Siphon Great Rejoicings The Work Completed 231 CHAPTER XXXIII. HOW WOOD IS CUT IN THE SIERRAS. "The Forests of the Mountains A Daring Leap The Rafts on Lake Tahoe Descending the Flumes Vanishing Forests Coal Deposits of Nevada .238 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE " SIX HUNDRED AND ONE." .A Mysterious Society Afraid Led forth to Death The fate of Perkins "Another Man Gone" Kirk's Fate Venturing too Far "You see he Stayed " 247 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV. THE WASHOE ZEPHYR. An Unpleasant Breeze " Sleep no More " A Jackass on the Wing Weird Scenes The Artist's Soul Light and Shade Mountain Scenery The Giants of the Sierras 25$ ""-? CHAPTER XXXVI. THE RED PROPRIETORS. The Piutes and the other Reds A Strange Pair Old Winnemucca The Woman who made the Indians The Indians' Ancestress The Piute Brave Big Injuns 261' CHAPTER XXXVII. WINNEMUCCA AND HIS BRAVES. On the War-path An Interview with the Chief A White Indian Captain Truckee John's Funeral Oration The " Princess." Sarah. 266 CHAPTER XXXVIII. SKETCHES OF INDIAN LIFE. Juan's Spanish Speculation The Devil's Visit to Earth Cooking the Sage What was It ? Piute Theology Poco Tiempo "Plenty Old" Jim and his Ducks 272 CHAPTER XXXIX. CONCERNING "LO" AND HIS FAMILY. A Little Warrior in a Fix Only a Shrimp Piutes in Virginia City- The Lord and His Lady How the Little Ones Came The Early Settler Adam and Eve A Model Parent An Important Occasion Sam's Theft 282 CHAPTER XL. A VISIT TO THE MINES. Above Ground Suspicious Attacks How the Cage is Worked Great Responsibility Cages, Reels, and Cables Comical Disguises 293 CHAPTER XLI. , DESCENDING IN THE SAFETY-CAGE. Our Conductor Downward Unpleasant Possibilities Safety A Bless- ed Inventor The Price of Stock Vasquez and His Friends The Carman 301 CHAPTER XLII. BELOW THE SURFACE. Tumbling down a Chute Timbering a Mine Taking Samples What the "Giraffe" can Carry Gnomes of the Mine Troglodytes What is " Sumpf ? " 310- XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLIII. CURIOSITIES OF VENTILATION. Draughts and Drifts Machinery of the Lower- Levels Southward Cur- rents Use of Compressed Air Industrious little Engines 317 CHAPTER XLIV. UNDERGROUND BUSINESS ARRANGEMENTS. Changing Shifts A Shift-Boss's Report Useful Items Modern Trog- lodytes Shirtless but Hot Fights and Factions 322 CHAPTER XLV. GHOST-HAUNTED SHAFTS. Rats Unwelcome Visitors Chasing the Ghost Cornered 329 CHAPTER XLVI. EXTRACTING SILVER FROM THE ORE. The Reduction- Works Working the Machinery The Batteries Pre- paring the Ore The Amalgamating- Room Two Processes 336 CHAPTER XLVII. ASSAYS OF THE SILVER BULLION. ' How Quicksilver Vanishes Charging the Retorts Ladling out the Molten Silver How Assays are Made Results 346 CHAPTER XLVIII. SALOON-BIRDS. Big Eaters Recognizing Murphy A Nice Little Supper What he Did with his Gun " A Devil of a Time " " A Nice Agreeable Gentle- man." '. 354 CHAPTER XLIX. SOME VERY QUEER CUSTOMERS. A trifling Accident Blazer and His Friends A Little Misunderstanding " Couldn't Drink Alone " " I'll bring in the Rabble "The Dea- con Sent For Resurrection ! * Awful big Gooses." 362 CHAPTER L ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. A Fuddled Pillar Philosophical Advice " Don't Git Married Afferd" Mr. Jones's Guest The War-hoss of the Hills Something of a Fighter Beating a Retreat "Jim Carter or the Devil." 371 CHAPTER LI. THE "HEATHEN CHINEE." A Strange Mixture of Duties Wicked Mongolian Tricks 'Melican and Chinaman Compared A Ghostly Difference Restless Spirits 382 CHAPTER LII. CHINESE OPIUM-DENS. How they Smoke the Drug Babel Street-Scenes in Virginia City Voices of the People Hard Cash The Grasshopper Man 388 CONTENTS. CHAPTER LIII. HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE AND LOST. Bulls and Bears Doings of the Brokers On a Margin "Pussy-Cat Wilde" and " Bobtaile "Going Up ! Dealers and Dabblers 97 CHAPTER LIV. CURIOUS SPECULATIONS IN STOCK. Old Joe's Disaster A New Excitement Sharp Doings " The Greatest Buy on the Lead " A Lady's Speculation 405 CHAPTER LV. HOLIDAYS AND FUN. Romantic Scenery A Curious Freak of Nature Lake Tahoe Hank Monk He Couldn't tell a Lie Practical Joking The Summit... 413 CHAPTER LVI. TERRIBLE STORY OF THE DONNERS. Donner Lake Lost in the Snow A Horrible Scene What became of the Donners The Sulphur Springs The Golden State 420 CHAPTER LVII. TRACES *OF THE TRICKSY MINER. A Neat little Game What Doubting Thomas Found " Doctoring " a Tape-line Devices of an Honest Man What a Stockholder Found. 427 CHAPTER LVIII. THE PARADISE OF BOGUS MINERS. " Me Ketch um There " Doings of the Roving Miner The " Goddess of Poverty" The Bully Honest Miner 432 CHAPTER LIX. PAY-DAY AT THE MINES. Among the Employes Miners' Union Labor and Capital A Heavy Pay-list Where the Money Goes to "Steamer Day." 439 CHAPTER LX. THE HOTTEST PLACE IN THE MINE. Secrecy "Booming" Stock Adventures of a French Count Left in the Dark Making it Hot for Him Rescued Polite to the Last 446 CHAPTER LXI. UNDERGROUND BATTLES. The Beginning of Trouble The Contest " Fighting Interests 454 CHAPTER LXII. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD. Mines of Ancient Days The Yield of American Mines Humboldt's Curious Calculations Varied Fortunes The Plum in the Pudding Value of the Different Levels Searching in the Dark 461 XVI CONTENTS. CHAPTER LXIII. FLUCTUATIONS OF FORTUNE. The Comstock Mines Hidden Treasure A Great Sensation The Ex- citement Increases Panic A Millionaire's Advice 460 CAAPTER LXIV. THE RICHEST SPOT IN THE WORLD. The Grand Gallery Glittering Caverns The World's Greatest Treas- ure-Store " Ventilation " A " Horse " in the Mine 479 CHAPTER LXV. AGGREGATED WEALTH. A Fortune in one Foot Future Prospects What Yet Remains Undis- covered Bonanza Figures before Facts Facts After Figures Distribution of the Wealtji Its Influence 487 GHAPTER LXVI. CONCERNING VENTILATION. Too hot for Comfort Blowers Down Deep The Sutro Tunnel 496 CHAPTER LXVIL BELOW THE WATER-DEPOSITS. Deeper than a Well Bottom Dropped Out Creeping Propensities A Skull Discovered An Unlucky Slip 501 CHAPTER LXVIII. SOME INTERESTING CREATURES. Carson City Lizards and Scorpions A Pleasing Insect A Wicked way of Laying Eggs Another Agreeable Insect 509 CHAPTER LXIX. MILLIONAIRE PROPRIETORS. Mr. John Mackey The Hon. William Sharon How his Fortune was Made Mr. James C. Fair Mr. Samuel S. Curtis The Hon. J. P. Jones A Big Business 517 CHAPTER LXX. FUN AND FROLIC. A Secret Expedition Bitten by a Snake All a Mistake Camping Out Manufacture of Slapjacks " It never came Down." 533 CHAPTER LXXI. THE BRIGHT SIDE OF PROSPECTING. Off for the Land of Gold Something in his Boot Afraid of Tom Tom's Intentions Pike Outwitted Left Behind 540 CHAPTER LXXII. THE COMICAL STORY OF PIKE. Tom Sings The Joke Successful Pike Vanishes A Pretty Big Story Doubtfnl Dreams Self-deceived Our Journey's End 547 CHAPTER I. THE FIRST SETTLERS IN NEVADA. THE bare mention of a mine of silver calls up in most minds visions of glittering wealth and a world of romantic situ- ations and associations. All no doubt have read the story of the Indian hunter, Diego Hualca, who, in the year 1545, discovered the world-famous silver-mine of Potosi, Peru. How, while climbing up the face of a steep mountain in pursuit of a wild goat, this fortunate hunter laid hold upon a bush, in order to pull himself up over a steep ledge of rocks, and how the bush was torn out by the roots, when lo ! wonderful store of wealth was laid bare. In the roots of the upturned bush, and in the soil of the spot whence it was torn, the eyes of the lone Indian hunter beheld masses of glittering silver. Having all our lives had in mind this romantic story, and having a thousand times pictured to ourselves the great, shining lumps of native silver, as they lay exposed in the black soil before that Indian, who stood alone in a far-away place on the wild mountain, we are apt to imagine that something of the same kind is to be seen wherever a silver-mine exists. Besides, we have all heard the stories told by the old settlers of the Atlantic States in regard to the wonderful mines of silver known to the Indians in early days. Hardly a State in the Union but has its legend of a silver-mine known to the red-men when they inhabited the country. This mine was pretty much the same in every State and in every region. Upon the removal of a large flat stone an opening resembling the mouth of a cavern was seen. Entering this, you 2 IT 18 FACTS AND FICTION. found yourself in a great crevice in the rocks, and the sides of this crevice were lined with silver, which you forthwith proceeded to hew and chip off with a hatchet kindly furnished you by your Indian guide. You worked rapidly, as, according to contract, you had but a limited time to remain in the mine. When the Indian at your side announced your time up, the tomahawk was taken from your hand, even though you might have an immense mass detached, save a mere clinging thread. Only men who had saved the life of some Indian of renown weie ever led to these silver caverns and they were invariably obliged to submit to be blindfolded, so that none of them were ever able to find their way back to the mines they had been shown. These and kindred stories have placed masses of native silver, and deposits of rich ores of silver very near to the surface of the ground, in the popular mind. No doubt there are many places in the world where native silver exists almost upon the present surface, as was the case in the Potosi mine, in Peru, and as was the case with the rich deposit of silver ore first found on the Comstock lode, but those who visit the present mines of the Comstock will find little in them that at all agrees with their preconceived notions of silver-mines. On the surface they will find nothing that is glittering, nothing that is at all romantic. The soil looks much the same as in any other mountainous region, and the rocks seem to have a very ordinary look to the inexperienced eye. The general hue of the hills is a yellowish- brown, and all about through the rents in the ashen-hued sage- brush which clothes the country, peep jagged piles of granite the bones of the land, showing through its rags. In sketching the history of the famous Comstock silver lode of Nevada, however, and of the bonanza mines, situated on that lode, it seems proper to begin by giving a brief account of the first settlement of the country, when known as Western Utah, and under Mormon, if under any rule ; also, to chronicle what is to be gathered in regard to the finding of gold-diggings in that region, the working of which finally resulted in the discovery of the richest silver-mines in the world. Nevada, as at present bounded, extends from the 35th to the HOW THE RIVERS ARE LOST. 19 42d degree of north latitude, and from the ii4th to the i2oth degree west longitude from Greenwich. The area of the State is 112,190 square miles, or 71,801,819 acres. Assuming the water-surface of the several lakes in the State to cover an area of 1,690 square miles, or 1,081,819 acres, there remain 110,500 square miles, or 70,720,000 acres as the land-area of the State. I do not know that this is correct to the fraction of an acre, but, when the quality of the greater part of the land is considered, I don't think anybody is likely to come along and make trouble about the measurement. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, with long lines of snowy peaks towering to the clouds, form the western boundary of the State and rise far above any mountain ranges lying to the westward in the Great Basin region, a region largely made up of alkali deserts and rugged, barren hills, yet a country abounding in all manner of minerals. The rivers of Nevada are none of them of great size. They all pour their waters into lakes that have no outlet, where they sink into the earth or are dissipated by the active evapo- ration that goes on in all this region during the greater part of the year. Each river empties into its lake, or what in that country is called its " sink." Not a river of them all gets out of the State or through any other river reaches the sea. This condition of the rivers of Nevada was once thus curiously accounted for by an old mountaineer and pros- pector. Said he : " The way it came about was in this wise The Almighty, at the time he was creatin' and fashionin' of this here yearth, fot along to this section late on Saturday evening. He had nished all of the great lakes, like Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and them had made the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and, as a sort of wind-up, was about to make a river that would be far ahead of anything he had yet done in that line. So he started in and traced out Humboldt River, and Truckee River, and Walker River, and Reese River, and all the other rivers, and he was leadin' of thfcm along, calkerlatin* to bring 'em all together into one big boss river and then lead that off and let it empty into the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of California, as might be most convenient ; but as he 20 THE FIRST HOUSE IN GENOA. was bringin* down and leadin* along the several branches the Truckee, Humboldt, Carson, Walker, and them it came on dark and instead of trying to carry out the original plan, he jist tucked the lower ends of the several streams into the ground, whar they have remained from that day to this." Carson River and Carson Valley were named in honor of Kit Carson, the famous Indian fighter, trapper, and guide, who visited that region as early as 1833. He was accompanied by old Jim Beckworth, once chief of the Crow Indians, three Crow Indians and some white trappers nine men in all. The party passed over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Cali- fornia. Thirteen years later when with Col. J. C. Fremont, Kit Carson followed his old trail in crossing the Sierras, going in the direction of Bear River, and at last, ascending a high hill in the neighborhood of where Rough-and-Ready, California, now stands, Kit struck a landmark he well remembered. Pointing out the blue peaks of the Marysville Buttes, seen far away in the smoky distance, he said: "Yonder lies the valley of the Sacramento ! " At the time of the discovery of silver, the principal settle- ment in that part of Utah which afterwards became the Territory and eventually the State of Nevada, was at Genoa, now the county-seat of Douglas county and situated about fourteen miles south of Carson City, the capital of the State. To all who crossed the Plains, on their way to the gold-fields of California, in the early days, Genoa was known as " Mor- mon Station," a name it continued to bear for some years. Even after the name had been changed to Genoa, many of the^old settlers persisted in calling the place Mormon Station. The first building of a permanent character erected in Genoa was built by Col. John Reese, who came from Salt Lake City early in the spring of 1851 with a stock of dry-goods. This first structure was a large log-house, covering an area of forty-five square yards, was in the form of an L and at one time formed two sides of a pentagon-shaped fort. Colonel Reese bought the land on which the town of Genoa now stands, with a farm adjoining, of Captain Jim, of the Washoe tribe of Indians, for two sacks of flour. UNWELCOME VISITORS. 23 Besides the settlement at Mormon Station, a settlement, also by Mormons, was commenced in the spring of 1853 at Frank- town, Washoe Valley. Quite a little hamlet was formed at Franktown ; and others of the colony settled at various points along the west side of the valley at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Several Mormon families still reside in this neighborhood and occasionally the voice of the Mor- mon preacher is yet to be heard. Orson Hyde, a man of considerable note at Salt Lake, had in charge the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Mormon settlements in the early days, he being both preacher and Justice of the Peace. At this time in the history of the country there was no town in Eagle Valley, where Carson City now stands. The first building erected in that neighborhood was at Eagle Ranche, from which ranche the valley took its name. This place was afterwards better known as King's Ranche, a name it still bears. Two or three houses were next built on the present site of Carson City, but the town was not regularly laid out until 1858, when the land was purchased by Major Ormsby, who gave the place the name it now bears. Although these early settlements were made upon lands belonging to the Washoe Indians, a tribe of considerable strength at the time, yet no very serious battles were ever had with them. The whites, however, who were at first a mere handful, Mor- mons and " Gentiles," all told, stood in considerable awe of the redskins. They were obliged to quietly endure not a few insults from some of the bullies of the tribe, who had a fashion of walk- ing into houses and making themselves at home in the cupboards. They were often exceedingly insolent, and when only women and children were found at a house, always managed to frighten them into giving up most of the provisions about the place. In one instance, however, an Indian who went to the house of a Gentile, when the only occupants were a boy about twelve years of age and his sister still younger, met a fate he little anticipated. The Indian, after regaling himself in the pantry, began threatening the children with a roasting at the stake, for the purpose of enjoying their fright ; and, finally, whipping out a 24 THE W A SHOES. big knife, began " making believe " to take the scalp of the little girl. The boy, it would seem, thought they had had about enough of this foolishness, as he went into an adjoining room, took down his father's rifle and returning to where the brave was flourish- ing his knife and enjoying himself, shot him dead in his tracks. The Indian killed was one of the worst in the Washoe tribe, and was greatly dreaded in all the settlements. The father of the boy who rid the country of the much-feared Indian bully^ was obliged to " pull up stakes " at once and fly to California for safety. The Washoes inhabited the eastern slope of the Sierras, and made the stealing of the stock of the settlers both their business and their pleasure. Like crows they sat looking down into the valleys from the tops of the rocky buttresses of the mountains, and when they saw the coast clear, down they came and gathered in as many animals as they were able to drive. Whenever the whites were so incautious as to collect for the purpose of enjoying a ball or any such social festivity, the Washoes were pretty sure to know of the affair, and seldom neglected to swoop from their mountain fastnesses, gathering up and driving away whatever animals they could find. The trail of the Indian depredators, when followed, was generally found marked with the remains of roasted horses the Washoes hav- ing a great fondness for horse-flesh. On the occasion of a ball in Dayton, as late as 1854, the Washoes came down and "gob- bled up " all the horses of the revellers. The Indians appeared to think this cunning and a very good joke. Although Colonel Reese had about his big log-house at Mormon Station, a strong stockade, that defence was never required as a protection against the Washoe Indians. The tribe has dwindled away until at the present day those remain- ing are few and miserably poor, ragged, filthy, and spiritless. They now cling to the skirts of the white man and stand in awe of all surrounding tribes of Indians, even in time of peace. The settlements thus far mentioned were all scattered along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but as early as 1851, there were erected a few temporary structures, prin- cipally canvas houses, at various points to the eastward, along TAKING IN THE PILGRIMS. 25 the line of the main " Emigrant Road." This, the then grand highway across the continent, after passing through some of the worst and most dreaded deserts between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras, led to the well-watered and fertile valley of the Carson, a region that doubtless seemed almost a paradise to the weary emigrant, who for 'months and months had been toiling over rugged mountains and across sterile plains. Mormon Station being directly on the old Hangtown (after- wards Placerville) Road, then the principal route over the Sierras, drove a thriving trade with the thousands and tens of thousands of adventurers who were then pushing their way toward the gold-fields of California. Seeing that there was money in this trade, not a few adventurers, principally from Salt Lake and California, established posts on the line of the road to the eastward of Mormon Station and Eagle Ranche, a few even pushing out a considerable distance into the deserts. The majority of these traders, however, returned to California each season, following in the wake of the last emigrant-trains that came in over the Plains, and there remained until the tide of emigration began to pour in again the next year. These traders furnished the " pilgrims " cheap luxuries at outrageously high prices, traded for their disabled cattle and swindled them in every possible manner, as they all con- sidered the emigrant their lawful prey. CHAPTER II. THE SEARCH FOR GOLD. GOLD was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850, by some Mormon emigrants. They had started for California, but so early in the season that when they arrived at the Carson River they learned that the snow on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was still too deep to allow of their being crossed. This being the case, the party encamped on the Carson to await the opening of the road. Having nothing else to do, some of the men of the party began prospecting for gold. Their camp on the river being at no great distance from the mouth of the Gold Canon, the largest canon in the neighborhood, they were naturally attract- ed to it and there began their prospecting operations. Although they knew but little about mining, and had only pans with which to wash the gravel, they found gold suffi- ciently plentiful to enable them to make small wages. It does not appear, however, that the discoverers worked them longer than until they were able to continue their journey to Califor- nia. Other emigrants coming in and encamping on the river learned of the discovery of gold in the canon, and, being anxious to begin gold-digging as soon as possible, did some prospecting along the bed of the ravine. But the gold being fine (/'. res in mills and water-power arastras on the Carson River, near Dayton. In October, 1859, Logan & Holmes had a four- stamp mill in operation (by horse-power) at Dayton, which crushed four tons of ore per day, and Messrs. Hastings & Woodworth had two water-power arastras running, which reduced three tons each per day. The ore being worked by these mills was from Gold Hill, where the ore of the vein as yet contained only gold, they not yet having penetrated to a sufficient depth to reach the silver. CHAPTER VIII. THE FATE OF THE DISCOVERERS. ALTHOUGH occupying the western portion of Utah Territory, the laws under which the people of the Comstock range were at this time living were of their own making. At a meeting held by the miners of Gold Hill, June u, 1859, the following preamble and "rules and regula- tions" were unanimously adopted: At the present day all manner of gambling games are allowed by the State laws and are licensed by the towns and cities. In the original document, preserved in the old Gold Hill book of records, there are given several additional sec- tions, but as they relate to matters not of interest to the general reader I have omitted them. One of these provides that "No Chinaman shall hold a claim in this district." Whereas, The isolated position we occupy far from all legal tribunals, and cut off from those fountains of justice which every American citizen should enjoy renders it necessary that we organize in body politic for our mutual protection against the lawless and for meting out justice between man and man, therefore we, citizens of Gold Hill, do hereby agree to adopt the follow- ing rules and laws for our government RULES AND REGULATIONS. SEC. I. Any person who shall wilfully and with malice aforethought take the life of any person, shall, upon being duly convicted thereof, suffer the penalty of death by hanging. SEC. 2. Any person who shall wilfully wound another, shall upon convic- tion thereof, suffer such penalty as the jury may determine. SEC. 3. Any person found guilty of robbery or theft, shall, upon convic- tion, be punished with stripes or banishment, as the jury may determine. SEC. 4. Any person found guilty of assault and battery, or exhibiting deadly weapons, shall, upon conviction, be fined or banished, as the jury may determine. 70 THIEVES! 71 SEC. 5. No banking games, under any consideration, shall be allowed in this district, under the penalty of final banishment from the district. At the present day all manner of gambling games are allowed by the State laws and are licensed by the towns and cities. In the original documents, preserved in the old Gold Hill book of records, there are given several additional sections, but as they relate to matters not of general interest to the reader I have omitted them. One of these provides that " No Chinaman shall hold a claim in this district." As may be seen, the laws of the first settlers were few and to the point ; they were for use, not for ornament or the puzzling of the common understanding In each settlement were in force some such " rules and regulations " as these. The man who broke one of the " rules " was sure to suffer a strict enforcement of the "regulations." In August, 1859, two thieves who gave the names of George Ruspas and David^Reise, stole a yoke of cattle at Chinatown (now Dayton), and driving them to Washoe Valley, offered them for sale at a price so low that they were at once suspected of having stolen the animals. They were arrested, and it having been proved that the cattle had been stolen from the ranche of a Mr. Campbell, near Dayton, the sentence of the jury was that they have their left ears cut off, and that they be banished the country. The trial was held under a big pine-tree, near the western shore of Washoe Lake, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mount- ains. Jim Sturtevant, an old resident of Washoe Valley, was appointed executioner. He drew out a big knife, ran his thumb along the blade, and not finding its edge just to his mind, gave it a few rakes across a rock. He then walked up to Reise and taking a firm hold on the upper part of the organ designated by the jury, shaved it off, close up, at a single slash. As he approached Ruspas, the face of that gentleman was observed to wear a cunning smile. He seemed very much amused about something. The executioner, however, meant business, and tossing Reise's ear over to the jury, who sat at the root of the pine, he went after that of Ruspas, whose eyes were following every motion made and whose face wore the expression of that of a man about to say or do a good thing. 72 AN UNPLEASANT JOKE. Sturtevant pulled aside the fellow's hair, which he wore hang- ing down about his shoulders, and lo ! there was no left ear, it having been parted with on some previous and similar occasion. Here was a fix for the executioner ! His instructions were to cut off the fellow's left ear, but there was no left ear on which to operate. The prisoner now looked him in the face and laughed aloud. The joke was so good that he could no longer restain himself. Sturtevant appealed to the jury for instructions. The jury were enjoying the scene not a little, and being, in a good humor, said that they would reconsider their sentence ; that rather than anyone should be disappointed the executioner might take off the prisoner's right ear, if he had one. The smile faded out of the countenance of Ruspas as he felt Sturtevant's fingers securing a firm hold on the top of his right ear. An instant after, Sturtevant gave a vigorous slash, and then tossed Ruspas, ear over to the jury, saying as he did so, that they now had a pair of ears that were " rights and lefts " and therefore properly mated. This little ceremony over, the pair of thieves were directed to take the road leading over the Sierras to the beautiful " Golden State." They went, not as Adam and Eve left paradise, " drop- ping some natural tears," but as a pair of twin lambs are seen to depart when in the spring-time the farmer has whacked off their too luxuriant tails went dropping blood. There have been numerous stories told in regard to the amount of money received by Comstock for his interest in the Ophir mine and other mining property on the Comstock lode at Vir- ginia City, some of which are far from the truth. The sale made by Comstock to Judge Walsh is recorded in the books of Virginia mining district and is dated at the " mining -village or settlement known as Ophir," August 12, 1859. I make the following extract in regard to the amount to be paid and what was eventually paid : " For and in consideration of $10 to me in hand paid, and for the further consideration of ten thousand nine hundred and ninety dollars to be paid by James Walsh, according to the provisions and terms of an obligation executed by him to me this day/I have bargained and sold," etc. The description of the property sold is as follows : " One undivided one-sixth part of 1400 feet, said 1400 feet being now SALES OF MINING PROPERTY. 73 worked by myself, Penrod, Osborne, M c Laughlin, Riley, and other owners, and known as Comstock & Co.'s claims, and owned jointly by myself, James Gary and others our associates ; also, one undivided half of 200 feet of mining ground being worked by the California Company at the present time under an agree- ment made with me ; also, all my right, title, and interest in and to certain mining claims at Six-mile Canon digging's, being the claims known as the Caldwell claims ; also, one-half the water-right known as the Caldwell Springs, situated on the hill above the said village of Ophir, and being the springs supplying the workings on the first-mentioned 1,400 feet the present owners in said 1,400 feet being only entitled to the use of said water so long as they continue to be owners ; also my recorded title, to a ranche on which the aforesaid village of Ophir is located, together with the springs on the lower part of said ranche. Also, the surface-diggings on the first-mentioned 1,400 feet and one-sixth of all improvements, animals, arastras, and all other property belonging to the company working the first-mentioned 1,400 feet." If Comstock had a ranche recorded which covered the site of Virginia City, the page containing such record must have been one in the old book of records of Gold Hill district. At first all claims located in Virginia district were recorded at Gold Hill. September 23, 1859, Pat M c Laughlin, one of the discoverers of the silver, sold his interest, one-sixth, in the Ophir mine for $3,500. Peter O'Riley, the other original discoverer, held on to his interest in the mine longer than any of the original loca- tors, and received for it about $40,000, with back dividends amounting to four or five thousand dollars. Osborne received $7,000 for his ground. V. A. Houseworth, the recorder at Gold Hill, who had trade for one-fourth of one-sixth interest in the mine, sold that interest to Judge Walsh, in September, 1859, for $3,000. All of thesemen supposed at the time that they were obtaining a big price for their interests in the mine. They knew nothing about silver-mines and feared that the deposit discovered might suddenly " peter " out. November 30, 1859, E. Penrod sold to Gabriel Maldarnardo, a Mexican miner, his interest in the TOO feet of ground segrega- ted to himself and Comstock, at the time the Ophir mine was located. The deed given on this occasion is quite a curiosity It shows that the legal genius who drew it up was determined to corral all that was in sight in the way of " tenements, heredita- ments " and " appurtenances." It reads : " For and in consideration of $3,000, to him in hand paid, this day, E. 74: SMELTING ON A SMALL SCALE. Penrod has remised, released, and quit-claimed, and by these presents do remise, release and quitclaim unto said party of the second part and his heirs and assigns forever, all his right, title, and interest in and to the undivi- ded one-half of one hundred feet of a certain Quartz Lead known as the reserved claim of Comstock, Penrod, Co., on the original location of the said company at Virginia City, near theliead of Six-mile Canon, in Virginia Mining District, said Territory of Utah, said claim known as the Spanish claim, together with all and singular the tenements, hereditaments and appur- tenances thereunto belonging, or in anywise appertaining, and the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, rents, dues, and profits thereof. And, also, all the estate, right, title, interest, property, possession, claim, and demand whatsoever, as well in law as in equity, of said party of the first part, of, in, or to the above-described premises, and every part and parcel thereof, with the appurtences, to have and to hold, all and singular the above-mentioned and described premises, together with the appurtenances, unto the said party of the second part, to his heirs and assigns forever." This tremendous document held the property, and Maldar- nardo soon after coming into possession of it, erected two small smelting-furnaces and began working the ore of the mine after the Mexican fashion. The furnaces would hold but about fifty pounds of ore each y yet he managed to melt out a considerable amount of bullion gold and silver mingled. The bullion, as it came from the fur- nace, was worth about $2.25 per ounce. The blast for the furnace was furnished by means of a common blacksmith's bel- lows. It was a slow process, and was soon abandoned, though quite a number of cakes of bullion of considerable value were shipped to San Francisco during the time the furnaces were in operation. COMSTOCK'S AFFINITY. RETURN OF COMSTOCK'S WIFE. CHAPTER IX. COMSTOCK'S MATRIMONIAL VENTURE. A SHORT time before he sold his mining interests in Vir- ginia City, Comstock was smitten by the tender passion and made a venture in the matrimonial time. It appears that a Mormon from Salt Lake, a little sore-eyed fellow named Carter, landed at the diggings one day with his wife and all his worldly effects on board of a dilapidated wagon, drawn by a pair of sorry nags. The man said he desired to go to work, and if he could find employment would take up his residence in the diggings. Comstock looked upon the fair features of the wife, and his susceptible heart was touched his soul went out toward her as she sat there in the end of the little canvas-covered wagon, mournfully gazing out from the depths of her calico sun-bonnet. Having charge of the Ophir mine, as superintendent, Comstock hired the man and set him to work, being determined to keep the woman in the camp. The Mormon pair made their home in their wagon, and in the course of a week or two it was observed that Comstock spent most of his time in the neighborhood of the vehicle, was all the time hanging about it. Finally he was one day seen seated upon the wagon tongue, smiling upon all nature, with the Mormon wife engaged in combing his hair. The next morning both Comstock and the wife were mrssing. The hair-combing had meant business showed the sealing of a compact of some kind. The pair had made a bee-line for Washoe Valley, where a preacher acquaintance of Comstock's one of the old settlers of the country married them after the manner of the " Gentiles." 5 n 78 U OLD PANCAKE " COSTING. The next day Comstock and bride went to Carson City, and while there receiving the congratulations of friends, the Mormon husband suddenly appeared upon the scene. There was for a time a considerable amount of blowing on both sides, Comstock producing his certificate of marriage and asserting that it was the right he stood upon. Finally, to settle the difficulty, Comstock agreed to give the ex-husband a horse, a revolver, and $60 in money for the woman, and so have no more bother. This was agreed to and Carter took the "consideration " and started off. After he had gone a distance of two or three hundred yards, Comstock shouted after him and told him to come back. When he had returned, Comstock demanded of him a bill of sale for his wife, saying that the right way to do business was " up and up ; " he wanted no " after-claps " didn't wish to be obliged to pay for the woman a dozen times over. Carter then made out and signed a regular bill of sale, which Comstock put in his wallet and then waved the man away. In a few days Comstock had business at San Francisco. He left his bride at Carson City and started over the mountains. When he had reached Sacramento, word was sent him that his wife had run away with a seductive youth of the town, and that the pair were on their way to California by the Placerville route. Comstock was all activity as soon as this news reached him. He engaged the services of half a dozen Washoe friends whom he found at Sacramento, and all hands hastened to Placerville, where they waited for the runaways, who were on foot, to come in. In due season they arrived and were pounced upon. Com- stock and his wife had a long talk in private. At length Comstock made his appearance and told his friends that it was all right, there would be no more trouble, as his wife was sorry for what she had done and would now live with him right along and be a good wife to him. All congratulated " Old Pancake " upon having brought his affairs to a conclusion so satsfactory Wishing to bring forth his wife and have her tell his friends how good she was going to be in the future, Comstock presently went to the room in which he had left her. No wife was there ! While Comstock had been talking with his friends and receiving CA TGHING A RUN A WA Y WIFE. 79 their congratulations, his wife had climbed out of a back window and was off again with her young lover. " To horse ! to horse ! " was then the cry, and soon Comstock's friends had mounted and were away. Not a moment was to be lost if the fugitives were to be captured, and the pursuit began at once, Comstock himself was not idle. He went forth into the town and offered $100 reward for the capture and return of the runaways, He also went to a livery-stable and hired all the teams about the establishment, sending forth upon, the search all who could be induced to go. Most of those who accepted teams went off pleasure-riding, and would not have disturbed the runaways had they found them. One man who went out on the search, however, was a California miner who happened to be in Placerville "dead broke." He wanted the reward, and when he started out he meant business. The next day this man walked the runaways into Placer- ville in front of his six-shooter. Comstock was delighted, and at once paid the man the $100 reward. He then took his wife away to a secure place in the upper story of a building, and locked her up in a room in order to have another talk with her. Meantime, his friends had charge of the young fellow who was making a business of stealing Comstock's wife. They shut him up in a room at the hotel where they were stop- ping, and placed a man over him as a guard, until they could consult together in regard to what was to be his fate at least this was what the young fellow was given to under- stand. Soon after dark the guard told the young man that it had been decided to take him out and hang him. The guard pre- tended to regret that they were going to be so rough with the young fellow and finally told him that if he could manage to escape it would be all right. " Now," said he, " I am going out to the bar to take a drink and if I find you here when I come back it will be your own fault." The young fellow was not found nor was he ever seen in the town again. By practicing eternal vigilance, Comstock managed to keep his wife that winter, but in the spring, when the snow had 80 WOMEN AND MISCHIEF. gone off and the little wild-flowers were beginning to peep up about the rocks and round the roots of the tall pines, she watched her chance and ran away with a long-legged minei who, with his blankets on his back, came strolling that way. Mrs. Comstock finally ceased to roam; she came to anchor in a lager-beer cellar in Sacramento. The fate of Carter, the Mormon who sold his wife to Com- stock, was tragic. After making the sale he mounted the horse he had received in part payment for his spouse, and crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains by way of Hope Val- ley and the Big Trees, went down into California. There he fell in with an emigrant train and courted and married a young girl, all within a week. The next spring he came to Virginia City with his wife. He had lived there but a short time before his wife learned of his having sold a recent wife to Comstock, when she left Carter's bed and board and sued for and obtained a divorce. She then married a Mr. Winnie, of Gold Hill. At that time it was the fashion to take up mining ground in the names of women. Carter had caused some claims to be located in his wife's name, and after she was divorced from him and married to Winnie, kept running to see her about these claims, wishing to get some share of them back. The frequent visits of Carter were not relished by Winnie, and he and Carter had several wars of words. At length, one day when Carter came and was bothering Mrs. Winnie about the mining ground, she went out and called in her husband, who was at work near at hand. As Winnie entered the house the battle was opened by Carter drawing his revolver and shooting three fingers off Winnie's left hand. Winnie then turned loose with his six-shooter and killed Carter in his tracks. Some time after this, in a similar argument Winnie had a few fingers less than half a dozen shot off his right hand. Winnie afterwards went to Honey Lake Valley, where his wife was thrown from a horse, dragged over the ground, and killed. After Comstock's wife ran away with the strolling miner he thought best to let her continue her travels unmolested. He SEEKING A NEW BONANZA. 81 opened a store at Carson City with the money received for his mining interests in Virginia City and also had a branch-store at Silver City, a town on Gold Canon, about three miles below Gold Hill, which was laid out in the summer of 1859. He soon broke up in the mercantile line, losing everything. He trusted everybody all went to his stores and purchased goods without money and without price, and at last his old friends the Piute Indians came in and carried away the rem- nants. Comstock made them all happy, male and female, by passing out to them armfuls of red blankets and calico of brilliant hues. His stock in the Carson store was as good as was seen in most trading establishments of the kind at that day, but his Silver City branch never amounted to much, the stock con- sisting principally, as the miners said, of blue cotton overalls, pick-handles, rusty bacon, "nigger" shoes, and "dog-leg" to- bacco. After losing all of his property, Comstock left Nevada and went to Idaho and Montana, through which countries he wandered and prospected for some years, always hoping that some day he should come upon a second Comstock lode. He was always ready to join every expedition that was fitted out to explore new regions, as the "big thing" seemed to him to be ever just ahead. In 1870 he joined the Big Horn expedition in Montana, and this was his last undertaking. When near Bozeman City, on September 27th, 1870, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with his revolver. The Montana papers said it was supposed that he committed the act while laboring under temporary aberration of mind, and this was doubtless the case, as his was by no means a sound or well-balanced brain. CHAPTER X. A LETTER FROM COMSTOCK. THE following letter from H. T. P. Comstock was originally published in the St. Louis Republican, some years ago, and gives a good idea of the man and his mental condi- tion during the latter years of his life. He was always very eccentric, and even during the time he was in Washoe, in the early days, was considered by many persons to be " a little cracked " in the " upper story " was a man flighty in his imag- inings. The first part of the letter, with the date, is lacking and was no doubt left off as being merely introductory and unimpor- tant, by the papers which republished it after it reached the Paci- fic Coast. The letter was written from Butte City, Montana, Some of Comstock's statements are correct, but the greater part of what he says is a mere jumble and shows a wavering mind. His letter begins : " These men, there in Washoe, are interested in misrepresenting the facts about the Comstock lode ; they fear my claims to the water, the town site of Virginia and other interests they have swindled me out of. It is just what they are afraid of exactly ; and that's what everybody in Washoe is afraid of I shall yet have my say, I am writing a history of my life and all those fellows had better stand from under. Now I want to tell the whole truth about the Comstock lode : I'll try to do it and I want you to publish it. If you are gentlemen you will do it it is nothing more than right. Here it is : I, Henry Thomas Paige Comstock, first went to that country the Washoe from Mexico, in 1853 ; roved all around California, and went back to Mexico that year ; went back then to Washoe, in the spring of 1854, and staid there. My home was in Santa Fe, when in Mexico. I, old Joe Caldwell, Elmore & Co., partners of mine for twelve years, were the first men who ever worked in that section. Worked there in 1855 56 on surface-diggings, prospecting all the while for silver ore. The Grosch brothers worked at what is now known as Silver 82 "OLD PANCAKE'S" STORY. 83 t City. One of them, Hosea, stuck a pick in his foot and died in my cabin. The other, Allen, died near Sugar-Loaf, California. This was three years before the Comstock lode was discovered. The first discovery of the Comstock lode was made in this way : In the middle of January, 1859, I saw some queer-looking stuff in a gopher hole ; I ran my hand in and took out a handful of dirt and saw silver and gold in it. At that time, big John Bishop and old Virginia were with me, when I found it ; they were sitting upon the side of the hill, Gold Hill, a couple of hundred yards from me. I took up five claims. A couple of weeks from that time, and where the Ophir is now located, I found the same prospects, and told the boys at Gold Hill I was going to work as good a mine as the first discovery ; did not know at the time there was a lead of that description there, Riley and M c Laughlin were working for me at the time of the Ophir discovery. I caved the cut in and went after my party to take up the lead and form my company. Manny Penrod, Peter Riley, Patrick McLaughlin, * Kentuck,' or Osborne, and myself formed a company. With my party I opened the lead, and called it Comstock lode ; that is the way they came by their interests ; I gave it to them. We started to rocking with my water; had only a small quantity to rock with. We made from five to ten and twelve pounds a day, and the dust was from $9 to $12 an ounce went that at Brewster's bank, Placerville, Cali- fornia, where I did my business. I continued owning the claim, locating 1,400 feet out for myself, for the use of my water to the company. I also located the Savage claim ; showed the ground to old man Savage. 1 located the Gould & Curry went into the valley and got old Daddy Curry to come down, and put him in possession of it. I also owned tbe Hale & Norcross, and kept Norcross for a year to work in that ground. I also owned the principal part in Gold Hill and leased it out to Walsh and Woodruff leased to them 950 for 760 don't now remember which. Now I will tell you how I sold it ; it has never been told as it ought to be told throughout the United States for my benefit, and it shall be. Sandy Bowers, I gave him his claim of 20 feet in Gold Hill. Bill Knight, I gave him his claim ; Joe Plato, I gave him his. Joe is dead now, and his widow is awful rich. I was working this claim, the Ophir, and taking out a good deal of ore ; I did not know what the ore was worth, being in the wilderness then, with no road to get out or into from California. It was an awful wilderness ! I took several tons of the ore and transported it by ox-teams, to best advantage through the mountains of California, and Judge Walsh was my agent and helped me. Now during this time I was taking out large gold and silver specimens, and took one specimen, weighing 12 pounds, and boxed it up and ordered it sent to Washington City. I instructed John Musser, a lawyer at Washoe, to send it ; I don't know whether it ever reached there or not. I wanted Congress to see it, and the President, for it was the first gold and silver ore mixed ever found in the United States. 84: ROUGHING IT. I went on working, and Judge Walsh and Woodruff were there for two months, trying every day to buy me out. My health being bad I sold the claim to them on these terms: I was to get $10,000, and did get it at last; and I was to receive one-eleventh of all that ever came out of the claim during my natural life, and at my death was to will it to whoever I pleased ; also, to re- ceive $100 per month. That was the contract ; and two men, Elder Bennett and Manny Penrod, witnessed it ; but my health was bad, and before I had the contract of sale recorded, Woodruff and Walsh sold it out, Having taken no lien on the property, I never got a dollar, from that day to this, except what was at first received. I am a regular born mountaineer, and did not know the intrigues of civilized rascality, I am not ashamed to acknowledge that. Well, I had a store in Carson City and was lying in the back room sick and helpless. I told Ed. Belcher to take all my papers, and the contract between Judge Walsh and Woodruff and myself, and put them under my pillow. I could speak, but couldn't help myself a bit. They all said I would die, and said : ' Boys, let's pitch in and help ourselves ! ' And they did pitch in ; and I never saw the papers afterwards. And the Gold Hill I leased to Walsh and Woodruff ; and then Frink and Kincaid got it, and I never got anything for it ; and the 160 acres of ground on which Virginia City is built is my old recorded ranche. I used to raise all my potatoes and vegetables on it, and had the Indians do the work for me. Virginia City was first called Silver City. I named it at the time I gave the Ophir claim its name. Old Virginia and the other boys got on a drunk one night there, and Old Virginia fell down and broke his bottle, and when he got up he said he baptized that ground Virginia hence Virginia City and that is the way it got its name. At that time there were a few tents, a few little huts, and a grog-shop ; that was all there was. I was camped under % eedar-tree at that time I and my party. I am now living at Butte City, in Montana Territory. The quartz in Mon- tana is very rich quartz, and the Cable claim is next to the Comstock, but gold in place of silver. There is a greater variety of minerals in Montana than in any country I have ever explored. There are tin mines here. I discovered them myself ; and there are alabaster mines here, Silver, vastly rich, and gold very rich. The Flint Creek mines oh, God ! how rich ! This is bound to be a rich country, but we are a long way from market and have to go slow. And the Butte mines, too, they are vastly rich, but very much mixed with other metals that is, a great many of them and Highland has a good many rich leads now open and opening. This is a country second to none on the globe, in point of mineral wealth and in the precious metals. Now, you newspaper men have got me in your papers, I want to say a word about myself. I am a man that has been through the wars. I was in the Black Hawk war ; was with Black Hawk when he died. I was in the Mexican war, and all through in the patriot war H. T. P. COMSTOCK. THE FATE OF "OLD VIRGINIA: 87 in Canada ; had three brothers in it I was the youngest ; they are all dead now. I am the son of old Noah Comstock, living in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been largely engaged in the lumber and hotel business there. I have been in the wilderness since a child ; was bound to the American Fur Company ; my boss died and that's the way I got with old Black Hawk. My first recol- lection was packing traps ; trapped all over Canada, Michigan, and Indiana ; but the Rocky Mountains have been my home ; I have been a guide these years and years. I was born in Canada, and am now near fifty years of age. HENRY T. P. COMSTOCK. James Fennimore, better known as James Finney and familiarly called " Old Virginia," by all the old settlers of Washoe, he being a native of the State of Virginia, came to the mines on Gold Canon, in 1851. He came from the Kern River country, California, where he had a " difficulty " with a man, and, believing he had killed him, took a little walk across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, dropping the name of Fenni- more and calling himself James Finney. Although fond of the bottle, Old Virginia was by no means a loafer. He had his sprees, but these were generally followed by seasons of great activity. He was very fond of hunting, and when not engaged in mining or prospecting he was ranging the mountains and valleys in search of deer, antelope, and mountain sheep. He was interested in nearly all the enterprises of the early John- town and Gold Hill mines but missed being in the Ophir at the time of the discovery of silver, having sold his interest in the Six-mile Canon diggings the previous season. He was killed in the town of Dayton, in July, 1861, by being thrown from a "bucking" mustang that he was trying to ride while a good deal under the influence of liquor. He was pitched head first upon the ground, suffered a fracture of the skull, and died in a few hours. At the time of his death he was possessed of about $3,000 in coin and had been talk- ing of returning soon to his native State. I one day met a Piute Indian in Virginia City who recol- lected both Comstock and Old Virginia very well. Fifteen or twenty stalwart Indians, who had been engaged at driving wood and timber on the Carson River, had visited Virginia for the purpose of expending their earnings in the purchase 88 "OLE COMSTOCK DEAD." of blankets and other staples. Among the number was an Indian who appeared to be forty-five or fifty years of age. Something that he said about the changed appearance of the place induced me to ask him how long he had known the town. "Well," said he, speaking pretty fair English, "long time. When me first come here, no house here; all sagebrush. Me work here first time me come for Old Birginey (Old Virginia). Yes ; me work for Old Birginey down in Six-mile Caiiyum." "At mining?" I asked. "Yes; minin/ Me heap pull um rocker. Me that time know Comstock Ole Comstock. You Sabe him ? " " Yes ; " said I, " have seen him. He is dead now. Got broke, up in Montana ; bad luck all the time ; got crazy and shot himself through the head with a pistol. " Hum ! Ole Comstock dead," said the old warrior mus- ingly, " dead ! Well, Ole Comstock owe me fifty-five dollar. That money gone now. Well, same way Ole Birginey. He owe me forty-five dollar when he die." " How did he die ? " I asked. " Well, you see he die down to Dayton long time ago. Ole Birginey he all time drink too much whisky. One day he bully drunk, he get on pony ; pony he run, he buck one bully buck and Ole Birginey go over pony head. One foot stay in stirrup and pony drag ole man on ground and kill him. Me help dig one grave, bury Ole Birginey, down Dayton, by Carson River. Well, well," said the old redskin, reflectively, " boss kill um Ole Birginey, Comstock he kill heself. Com- stock owe me fifty-five dollar; Ole Birginey owe me forty- five dollar ! Me think," shaking his head, " maybe both time too much whisky!" The sage old Piute was mistaken as regarded Comstock ; he was a man who drank but little. CHAPTER XI. OLD VIRGINIA AND HIS STORIES. OLD VIRGINIA used to tell of a terrible fight that took place one evening in Gold Hill. The stakes, he said, were two short bits (twenty cents). The fight lasted half an hour and was most stubbornly contested on both sides. The contest was, as he would here explain, between his appetite and his "drinketite." He held stakes, and fora good while was unable to decide which had won. At last, however, drinketite got his opponent down and kept him down so long that he decided in his favor, and all three struck out for the nearest saloon appetite grumbling at him all the way about his decision. As has been already mentioned, Old Virginia was a great hunter. When not engaged in mining or prospecting, he was off in the hills with his gun ; most generally alone wandering and philosophizing through the wilderness as he viewed the stupendous works of nature. He used to tell a story of a feast he once had in the desert regions of the Humboldt, which was quite amusing. It ran as follows: OLD VIRGINIA'S FISHER STORY. "In '53, six or eight of us were out on a huntin* trip and camped on the Humboldt River, down to'ards the sink of the same. " We'd been havin' miserable luck. Couldn't strike any game and had 'bout devoured what grub we'd carried out with us when we left Johntown. This being the case, we nat'rally had to keep stirrin' about to try to skeer up some- thin' that would do to eat. So, one afternoon, when the pot was 'bout empty, all hands struck out to try for something in the way of game; some goin* one way and some another. 89 90 PROSPECTING FOR A DINNER. " Old Captain Crooks and one or two more, went off down the river, while the rest of our fellers struck back from the stream and kind o' promiscuously diversified themselves out across the sand-hills and sage-brush flats in search of sage-hen and rabbits; you see we couldn't expect to find big game in that section deer, and antelope, and them sort of fellers. "I finally went off up the river alone. I jogged along up the stream, 'bout half a mile, and then laid down in a big bunch of weedy-lookin' bushes. As I was reposiri' thar in the silence, gazin' up at the deep blue sky, I fell to ruminatin' on the unsartainty of all things here below on what is above, and why we are here. "I had jist arrived at the conclusion that man can no more help bein' born than a blade of grass can stay in the ground when spring comes; and, as the blade of grass can't help fadin* and dyin' when winter comes on, so man goes out of the world with about as little say in the matter as when he comes into it. "All of this I was a-thinkin* about as I lay thar lookin' up' at the sky, half-way noticin' a solitary raven as was a sailin about high above. I'd fixed it up that thar was a great head mind up in them blue heavens somewhar, as was a-seein' to all matters for me and the grass, and that things was liable to work jist about as that mind willed, whether me and the grass made a fuss about it or not, when all at once I heerd a small racket, near me in some dry grass. "Erectin' myself cautiously, and peepin' over the top of my clump of bushes, I seed a all-fired big skunk, rootin' under the dry, matted grass near the brink of the river. He war lookin' after mice, worms, bugs, grass-nuts, and sich like provender. " I brought my gun to my shoulder and knocked the unsus- pectin' critter over so dead that he never kicked. He was jist as good game as I wanted I wouldn't have traded him for any number of blue-meated rabbits. u Bein' shot in jist the right spot, thar wasn't a particle of smell about him. You see I'd knocked over many sich fellers back in Ole Virginney and knowed percisely whar to hold on him to do the work. Many's the fine fat one I'd cooked and devoured ! But it's not every place whar they'll eat skunk it's a thing that runs in streaks and through sartain settle- ments, as you may say. " This was a prime feller ! I think I never, in all my experience, killed a finer or fatter one. I shouldered my game and trudged back to the camp, which I found vacant. None of the boys had yet returned. I sat down and skinned my skunk, then tuck and hid the A SKUNK STOR Y. 93 skin in some low bushes, a few rods from camp, in order that none of the fellows might know the exact natur of the game I'd brought in. " If they knowed it war a skunk, not one of 'em would eat a bite of it some people's so prejudiced, you know 'bout outside appearances and the little nat'ral peculiarities of birds and beast. "'Well, to'ards night, Captain Crook's and all the fellers got into camp, and not one of them had killed a thing. They soon spied the fine plump animal I had hangin' up on a stake, near camp, and wanted to know what for critter it war. I told 'em I didn't know for sartin the blame thing ruther headed my time, and I war convarsant with most of the four-footed quadrupeds perambulatin' the present hemisphere ; yet I reckon the thing might do to eat on a pinch. " All hands now wanted to see the skin. I pretended to look for it, then told 'em I'd seed the dogs a worryin' with somethin* a bit ago' and ruther guessed they'd drug the skin into the river. 11 Captain Crooks seemed to be took with a idea. Says he : 'Was it a kinder brownish-black lookin' thing, with a kinder middlin'-like bushy tail ? ' " ' What would it be apt to be if it was that way ? ' says I. " A fisher,' says he. ' ' Is a fisher good to eat ? ' says I. "'Yes, fisher's bully eatin,' says he. ' That's the way its tail looked,' says I " ' How about the color ? ' says he. " ' Air fishers as good as rabbit ? ' says I. "'Much bulleyer! ' says he. "'Then,' says I, 'you've guessed the color.' " The old Captain then turned to the boys and said he knowed it was a fisher the moment he sot eyes on it, and he hadn't seen one for goin' on eleven year, now. " Then he went to braggin' so much about what good eatin' fisher was, that the boys all got awful anxious to be tryin* some of the critter. " But the Captain said fisher warn 't good till it had first been well parboiled ; that we must put him in the camp-kettle and bile him that night, then stew him down in a pan for breakfast. " When we went to bed. we left the fisher gently simmerin' over the fire, and by mornin' he was not only biled, but too much so was biled to rags. "The Captain looked alitle puzzled at this phernominon, but the boys said it was all the better. "We fried as much of the animal as we could stack into two pans and had a reg'lar feast of fisher ; as the fellers all believed the thing to be. 94: O'RILEY'S MISTAKE. " Old Captain Crooks was delighted. He had his plate filled about five times, and told the boys, as all were squatted in a circle round about on the ground, how he used to have big times up in Wisconsin a catchin' and a cookin' of fishers. " I'd finished my breakfast and started to go and ketch up my horse, when I came to the skunk skin, layin- in the bushes whar I'd hid it away. An idea popped into my head. I looked at the great black-and-white, woolly hide, then at the ole Captain, who, with his knife and fork balanced acrost his fingers, was showin' the boys how to set a trap for a fisher. He still had in his lap 'bout half a plate of greasy, steamin' fisher stew, and the fellers was all still a shovelin' in fisher, watchin,' between mouthfuls, the trap the Captain was fixen up for 'em. " * I'll do it ! ' says I, to myself. Pickin' up the skin by 'bout six of the long white hairs in the end of the tail, I marched up to where all war squatted. "'Hyar, fellers,' says I, 'blame me if hyar ain't that dam fisher skin now ! " " Gentlemen, if I war to talk from now till next week I could'nt do full justice to what follered ! Old Captain Crooks was just raisin' a forkful of stew to his mouth, when he ketched sight of that air skin. The fork dropped from his hand; his eyes bugged out like the horns of a snail, and a sort of convulsive shudder shook his whole animal system as he yelled : ' Skunk, by all that's stinkin' and nasty ! " " ' Skunk, by thunder ! ' howled all the rest in chorus. " Sick ! well, I need'nt mention what follered. But, fellers, that like ter cost me my life that trick did. When them boys finally got convalescent and riz up and come for me, it was close papers for a time. " Ole Captain Crooks picked one lock o' hair out o* my head before I had time to make the least explanation, It tuck awful hard swearin' to make them fellers believe I had'nt never seed a skunk afore." " Peter O'Riley, in the early days, when mining on Gold Canon and along Six-mile Canon, was an honest, hard-work- ing, good-natured, harmless kind of man, yet when aroused displayed a most fierce and ungovernable temper. When he flew into a passion he was ready to do anything or use any kind of weapon that first came to hand. Even then, he showed, in this, signs of that insanity in which he ended his days. Many instances of his exhibitions of blind and furious rage are related by the early miners. During these early days a sham duel was got up at John- town between O'Riley and a young man named Smith, a A DUEL. miner working in Gold Canon. As in most real duels, there was a woman in the case, a girl living up in Carson Valley. Both O'Riley and Smith found pleasure in the smile of the young girl in question, and the light of her eyes was as sun- shine to their hearts. O'Riley was so much smitten that he would sometimes go and work all day on the farm of the father without money and without reward of any kind, other than the pleasure of being near the daughter during the time he was taking his meals. Such hard-working love as this must have been strong and honest. /As O'Riley could neither read nor write the "boys" fixed up letters purporting to come from the girl, in which she expressed uubounded love for both men, but the trouble was that for the life of her she could not say which she most loved. At last there came a letter in which she said she had thought of a way of deciding the matter. O'Riley and Smith were to fight a duel, and her hand was to be the prize of the victor. O'Riley was ready for this at once, for, as I have said, he was a man who was quite desperate when the deeper feelings of his nature were aroused, and Smith, though he pretended to dislike the proposition, finally agreed to stand up to the rack ; there appearing to be no other way in which the diffi- culty could be settled. It was left to the friends of the principals to make the necessary arrangements. These decided that as but one of the men could have the girl, the duel should be to the death. They therefore announced that the fight must be with double- barrelled shotguns, at twenty paces. The appointed time arrived, and the rival lovers were placed in position, each armed with a shotgun. The guns were heavily charged with powder and paper- wads, but O'Riley, who was in downright earnest and thirsted for blood, sup- posed that all was on the square and that each barrel of both guns contained not less than nine revolver-balls. At the word, both men fired; but O'Riley, who was deter- mined to put his rival out of the way, turned loose with both barrels of his gun, firing his second barrel almost before the smoke had drifted away from the muzzle of the first. Young Smith fell groaning to the ground, where his brother FLIGHT OF THE VICTOR. who was standing near with his left hand filled with the blood of a chicken, ran to him, crying : " Oh ! my poor brother, my poor brother! " at the same time smearing his brother's breast with the blood he held in his hand. O'Riley was brought to the spot by his seconds, and while they were asking the seconds of the opposite side if their man had received satisfaction, the brother of the man lying on the ground suddenly drew his six-shooter, and shouting : " You have killed my brother, now I'll have your life ! " made at O'Riley, who ran like a deer for the house of a neighbor, where he knew a loaded shotgun was kept. As he ran, the brother of the man supposed to be killed, occasionally fired his pistol, causing O'Riley to do some lively zigzaging, after the manner practiced by the Piute Indians under similar circumstances. The farce of the duel having been carefnlly studied in all of its details, long before going upon the ground, and know- ing that at this stage of its progress O'Riley would go for this shotgun, the boys had rammed tremendous charges into both barrels of the ponderous old family weapon, putting a number of paper wads down upon the powder. Leaping into the house and getting possession of the gun, O'Riley rushed out and was about to make his way across Gold Canon, when his pursuer, now dangerously near, blazed ^way at him again with his revolver. O'Riley, standing on the brink of the canon, wheeled about and let drive at his relentless pursuer. He had cocked both barrels of the gun and both went off together, the breech striking him full on the nose and mouth, sending him rolling fifteen or twenty feet to the bottom of the canon. He landed in active retreat, however, and went up through the canon like an antelope." O'Riley made directly for the village of Franktown, distant twelve miles, over the mountain, and remained there some two weeks, though the Johntowners several times sent word to him to come back and work his claim that he had not killed Smith, that all was right and the duel was only a sham affair. But not a word of all this would O'Riley believe. He had O'RILEY AND HIS GUN. 97 seen his rival stretched upon the ground in his gore, had heard his dying groans, and was not to be fooled back to Johntown to be shot by the incensed Smiths or hanged by the miners of the camp. Taking with them young Smith, the man supposed to have been killed in the duel, a party of Johntowners went over to Franktown to see O'Riley. No sooner did the latter see that Smith was really alive than he flew into a terrible rage and it was all that the friends on both sides could do to prevent shooting that was not sham and bloodshed in earnest. Peace was finally made by young Smith agreeing to renounce all pretensions to the hand of the young lady. Peter O'Riley, one of the discoverers of the Comstock lode, as has been stated, held his interest in the Ophir mine, longer than any of the original locators, and realized nearly $50,000. He seemed to be " fixed " for the remainder of his days. Being a man used to roughing it all the days of his life, his wants, both real and imaginary, were few. Had he placed his money at interest he could have taken his ease all the rest of his days. But he built a big stone hotel in Virginia City, and then allowed persons to persuade him that he was a great man, a man of financial genius, who should make himself felt in the stock-mar- ket. As he could neither read nor write, he was obliged to find persons to do that part of the business for him. He and his assistants then speculated speculated until one day "poor old Pete " found himself with pick, shovel, and pan, on his 6 98 WHA T THE SPIRITS SAID. back, again going forth to prospect ; as we have seen Comstock wandering in unrest through the wilds of Montana. Being a spiritualist and having always the latest advices from the ghosts of the departed, in regard to mines and all else worth knowing about, O'Riley did not find it necessary to wander as far as to Montana. The spirits pointed out a place in the foot- hills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where they said was stored up far more gold and silver than in the whole Comstock lode. The place shown O'Riley by the spirits was nothing more than a bed of rotten granite. Here he toiled alone at running a tunnel worked for two or three years under all manner of difficulties. The ground in which he was at work was full of water, and caves frequently occurred in his tunnel. The work of many weeks was often lost in a moment by a cave, which crushed in his timbers and drove him back almost to where he first began; but the spirits said there was a whole mountain of silver and gold ahead, and he believed them and persevered. He was without money but not without friends. One and GUIDED BY SPIRITS. another of his friends among the old settlers, purchased for him what he required in the way of provisions and tools. As he worked alone in his dark tunnel, month after month, far under the mountain, the spirits began to grow more and more familiar. They swarmed about him, advising him and directing ALAS! POOR DUPE. 99 the work. As he wielded pick and sledge, their voices came to him out of the darkness which walled m the light of his solitary candle, cheering him on ; voices from the chinks in the rocks whispered to him stories of great masses of native silver at no great distance ahead, of caverns floored with silver and roofed with great arches hung with stalactites of pure silver and glittering, native gold. The spirits talked so much with him in his tunnel under the mountain, and had made themselves so familiar then, that at last they boldly conversed with him under the broad light of day, and in the city as well as in the solitude of the mountains. He was heard muttering to them as he walked the streets, and a wild and joyous light gleamed in his eyes as he listened to their promises of mountains of gold and caves of silver. News at length came that O'Riley had been caved on and badly hurt; then that the physicians had pronounced him insane. When he recovered from his Hurt, he was anxious to return to his tunnel the spirits under the mountain were calling to him but he was sent to a private asylum for the insane, at Woodbridge, California, and in a year or two died there ; the spirits to the last lingering about him and heaping on him reproaches for having left the golden mountains and silver caverns they had pointed out to him. CHAPTER XII. MISLED BY THE "SPIRITS." COMSTOCK was a believer in spirits. Mrs L. S. Bowers- one of the early settlers at Johntown and at Gold Hill, and now known as the "Washoe Seeress," on account of her many predictions about fires in the mines and rich bodies of ore is a Spiritualist, and very many of the early settlers and those who were one way and another connected with the discovery of silver in Nevada, were Spiritualists. Old Virginia was also a believer in " spirits." O'Riley was not the only person who did mining in Nevada under the direction of the spirits. Much money has been lost in that country with spirit superintendents in charge of the work. The most ridiculous work of the kind ever done there however, under the direction of spirits was that by some parties who were led to believe that Mount Davidson the mountain on the side of which Virginia stands and which towers nearly 2000 feet above the city was an immense tank of oil. This was about the time of the excitement in regard to the oil wells of Pennsylvania; while "Coal-oil Tommy " was " swinging round the circle." The great coal oil revelation was made through an old lady of Virginia City who was a great medium, and the great oil deposit, according to this old lady and her spirits, was near the summit of Mount Davidson. To Joe Grigg, an engineer at the old Savage mining-works, the medium made known the spot where the great subterranean lake of oil was to be found. Joe got some tools and began a tunnel in the flinty granite, or rather gneiss, which was stratified and stood as would the shingles on a house if turned upside 100 THE GREA T OIL TANK, 101 down. For a long ^ime Joe dug away in his tunnel, en- couraged by new revelations almost daily. The medium could see the oil and was carefully observ- ing the progress of the tunnel. Joe was getting closer and closer to the vast reservoir every day. At last it seemed to Joe that he must be al- most on the point of breaking through into it. Just ahead of him the medium could see the great lake of oil an ole- aginous ocean. Joe, at work away up there all alone on the steep slope of the moun- tain began cogitating on the situation and became fright- ened. It seemed altogether too big a thing too great an abundance of oil. Then, too, he began to think of the consequences to the town, and the innocent and unsus- pecting inhabitants thereof. There he was, blasting and banging away on the mount- ain-side, with a mere shell of granite perhaps not ten inches thick between him- self and the great lake. He pondered upon the matter until at last he became afraid to continue, and decided the blast he was then putting in, should be his last. He feared even that might break through THE LAST BLAST. the shell of rock and set on fire the great lake of oil. In 102 AN UNTAPPED RESERVOIR. imagination he already saw this vast tanl; of oil pouring down the side of the mountain, overwhelming and destroying the city. In this emergency the spirits were again consulted. They declared that a large iron pipe must be procured and laid from the tunnel down into the town, when the oil might be tapped and its flow controlled. The spirits also asserted that the time for forming a company had now arrived and advised that certain persons be let into the secret. Joe having hitherto been "going it alone." The persons to whom the secret of the existence of the great subterranean reservoir of oil was made known were nearly all spiritualists. The " Mount Davidson Oil Company " was formed, and all concerned kept very quiet about the matter in hand. All was now in readiness for tapping the oil so soon as the pipe could be procured and laid. In order that they might not lack the pipe, the medium who was at the head of the com- pany and was managing the whole business proceeded to levy an assessment of $5 per share on the capital stock. That assessment exploded the whole arrangement. Every shareholder turned tail and "got out of the wilderness." To this day that lake of oil remains untapped, and as it is not likely that the spirits would lie about the small matter of a few million hogs- head of coal-oil Mount Davidson stands to-day the greatest natural reservoir of oil in the known world. Patrick M c Laughlin, who, with Peter O'Riley, made the dis- covery of silver in the Ophir mine, was alive at last accounts (in 1875) and was at work at the Green mine, San Bernardino county, California. He was doing the cooking for some half- dozen men, employed at the mine named. He sold his interest in the Ophir mine for $3,500 and probably received considerable sums for shares owned by him in other mines on the Comstock range, all of which he doubtless lost in speculations of various kinds speculations undertaken with a view to securing millions. Few of those who were original locators anywhere along the Comstock lode received large prices for their claims, and in a few years all were again as poor as before the silver was found. Those who bought and continued to buy at what seemed like enormous figures were they who have made the most money out of the mines. GOING IN AND COMING OUT. 103 The first winter after the discovery of silver: 1859 60, was one of the severest the country has known. As I have al- ready stated, there were very few buildings in Vir- ginia City that were wor- thy of the name. The majority of the inhabi- tants lived in mere shan- ties and in underground caves and dens -a tribe of troglodytes. , Many men who were in the country during the summer and fall, left for California before winter set in, some with the in- tention of returning and others cursing the coun- try. These last were men who had for years been working in the placer- mines of California and who had rushed over the mountains to Washoe as soon as news reached them of the great wages being taken out with rockers. They supposed there were extensive pla- cer-mines in the new region. When they found none but such as had already been gutted by the Johntowners and the Chinese who had worked about the mouth of Gold Canon, they wanted nothing more to do with the country. They N WASHOE. 104: EXPERIENCES OF THOSE WHO STA had no taste for working quartz veins or for deep mining of any kind. They lingered in the country till toward fall, hunting for rich pockets in veins of quartz that appeared to be gold-bear- ing, then rose up and in a flock crossed the Sierras to the more congenial hills flats, and gulches of the "Golden State." Many persons, however, remained at Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City, and Dayton, and a rough time they all had of it before spring. The first snow fell on the 22nd of Novem- ber ; it snowed all day, and four days later again set in, when snow fell to the depth of five or six feet, cutting off all com- munication between Gold Hill and Virginia, though the two towns were but a mile apart. The worst of the winter was between this time and the ist of February. In December many cattle were dying of cold and hunger about Chinatown (Dayton), where they had been sent to find a living in the valley along the Carson River. Not only cattle, but also horses, donkeys, and animals of all kinds died of cold and hunger. Most of them starved to death. It was impossible to procure foqd for them. In March, 1860, hay was selling at 50 cents per pound and barley at 40 cents. Men could not afford to keep horses, and therefore shot them or let them wander away into the valleys and flats and take their own time about dying. Food for man was about as dear as that for beast. Flour sold for $75 per 100 pounds in Virginia City; coffee at 50 cents per pound, and bacon at 40 cents. Lumber was worth $150 per thousand feet, and all else in proportion. None of the settlers starved, but the stomachs of many of them had frequent holi- days. Fuel was scarce, it being necessary to pack it through the deep snow from the surrounding hills, where, at that time, was to be found a sparse growth of stunted pines and cedars. The stoves of the saloons and lodging-houses were well patronized. Bean-poker and old sledge were the principal amusements, aside from talking over the great expectations, which all cherished. Every man who had a claim expected to sell it for a fortune when spring came. Little work could be done in the mines, but that little showed them to be growing richer and richer for-every foot of progress made or depth attained. The excitement was at APPROACH OF SPRING. 105 fever heat in California, and a grand rush of capitalists was expected as soon as the mountains could be crossed. This being the case, those who were wintering in Washoe though physically uncomfortable were comfortable in spirit. Gold lent its hue to all of their visions of the future. Some Indians lingered in the neighborhood, and they were quite as hard up for provisions as the whites. They fre- quently came to the cabins of the miners to beg food. On such occasions like some white beggars they began business by presenting a paper to be read. The paper very often read as follows : "This Indian is a d d old thief. He will steal anything he can lay his hands on. If he comes about your camp, break his head. A Friend." In the early part of Feb- ruary it began to grow warm. Many days were al- most as warm as summer, but of nights it continued to freeze. Building soon began, and in March many houses were going up in Virginia City, in all direc- tions, and the town was roughly laid out for many a mile along the Comstock lead. People began to flounder through the snow from California, during the latter part of February, and early in March began to cross the Sierras in swarms. Great hardships were endured by some of the first parties that crossed the mountains, and a few persons lost their lives in storms that suddenly arose. Although there was much fine weather in February, March, and April, snow-squalls were of frequent occurrence in May and even as late as June; this, however, was not particularly out of place in that country ; it still does the same way out BUSINESS. 106 "ZEPHYRS" AND A VALANCHES. there. It is a region that has no climate of its own. What climate it has is blown over the Sierras from California and comes in fragments. But for the towering, snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Nevada would have a climate similar to that of California, but these mountains chill all the " weather " that passes over them. They may be having a fine, warm rain in California, but any portion of it that reaches Nevada is transformed during its passage over the Sierras and descends in the shape of snow. Owing to the altitude of Virginia City, whenever clouds shut off the sun for any considerable length of time it becomes cold. The early settlers at Virginia made the acquaintance of the " Washoe zephyr" during this first winter of their sojourn in the town. This "zephyr," as it is sarcastically termed, is a furious westerly gale which is a frequent visitant during the fall and spring months. It appears to come sweeping from the Pacific Ocean, passing over California, and only plunging down to the earth when it has crossed the Sierras. It made wild work that first winter with the frail tenements of the first settlers. Canvas-houses, tents, and brush-shanties were scattered right and left. During the prevalence of a zephyr, early in the spring of 1860, some enterprising Washoeite performed the feat of steal- ing a hot stove. A canvas-house occupied by a lone woman was blown down, and while she was gone to find some men to set it up, her stove disappeared, and never more was seen. Avalanches also put in an appearance, and in March, a man who was cutting wood on a hill just north of Virginia was buried by one, and his body was not recovered till the snow had melted away. Avalanches are still of occasional occur- rence, and several lives have been lost and a number of buildings demolished in the southern part of Virginia City, by heavy slides of snow rushing down the side of Mount Da- vidson into the western suburbs of the town. In the spring of 1860, an- avalanche which fell near Silver City, covered the mouth of a tunnel in which half a dozen miners were living. It came down in the night when they were all asleep. At the usual hour in the morning some of the men awoke, but finding it still dark, turned over and went A LONG NIGHT. 107 to sleep again. Others of the party did the same. After a time all were tired of sleeping and began talking about what a long night it seemed. However, they concluded it was all right, and each again addressed himself to the task of trying to sleep the night through. All would not do, and in an hour or two they were again discussing the apparent great length of the night, wondering, also, whether or not all hands might not be unusually wakeful. At length, one of the party said he would go out to the mouth of the tunnel and see if he could perceive any sign of the approach of daylight. On reaching the mouth of the tunnel, he ran his nose into a solid bank of snow. The exclamation of surprise he uttered, brought all to their feet. They soon com- prehended the situation. Luckily they had several shovels in GOOD MORNING. the tunnel. Lighting a candle, they set to work, and in half an hour had dug their way out, when they found that it was almost sundown. When warm weather came, and men and money were pouring in from California, those who had wintered in the several ne\r towns of Washoe forgot all the troubles they had had and all the hardships they had passed through. They were on the alert to sell claims, and many did realize handsome little fortunes, as all the new comers were wild with excitement, and all were 108 QUEER INCIDENTS. anxious to get hold of ground near the mines. Newcomers who had no money, prospected for new leads, or "jumped "the claims of parties who had made locations the previous fall. This made times lively, and numer- ous battles, with guns and pistols were the result. One day while a battle was raging at a claim on the hillside, near the town, a big long-legged fellow, with GOING IN. a knife and pistol slung to his belt, 'started up to where the fight was raging, on a dead run. Those who were fair said : " Now, fly, when that f el- ground ! " When the hill, a pistol ball took off a portion never for an in- but as the ball cut he spun round on running he did the other direction. watching the af- we shall see the fur low gets on the about half way up came along and of his goatee. x/ He stant ceased to run, through his goatee his heel and the after that was all in From his start till was unbroken. his return, his gait CHANGE OF MIND. An honest Dutchman who, at great pains and expense, had built him a cabin in the northern part of the place, came into town one eve- ning to make some purchases. When he went home he found his cabin jumped. To add insult to injury the jumpers were fiddling and dancing, had a lot of whisky, and were having a regular house-warm- ing. The Dutchman had to go and raise an army of his friends before he could drive the intruders out. It was three or four days before he regained possession of his cabin. Such occurrences were not COMING BACK. rare, and persons were often placed iii very annoying situations. CHAPTER XIII. EARLY MINING. DURING the spring of '60, two mining companies were at war about their locations, and one company threat- ened the other with an injunction. There had been considerable talk among members of the threatened company about this injunction being put on their claim. Two green Irishmen of the company, who heard this, and who were at work on the claim, concluded that they would keep a bright lookout for this injunction. They had no idea what it was like, but if anything of the kind was going to be put upon their claim they'd see about it. Every day they kept a bright eye open for the injunction, but saw nothing stuck up any- where about their claim that looked like one. About this time, however, it so happened that a party of surveyors were engaged in running out a road in that neigh- borhood. The surveyors arrived at the disputed claim just at noon, and, leaving their theodolite standing on the line they were running, went into town to get dinner. Pat and Mike were also away at dinner, but got back to their claim before the party of surveyors returned. It so chanced that the theod- olite had been left standing on the bank immediately above the cut in which the two sons of Erin had been at work. The first thing that caught the eye of Pat and Mike, was the large and costly instrument, standing on the bank, as though on guard over the cut in which they had been working. "By the powers 'o war, Pat! "cries Mike, "what divilish thing is that, standing there on its three legs?" " It looks like some quare kind of patent invintion," said 109 110 BRING ON YOUR INJUNCTIONS." Pat, "wid all of its brass muzzles and stop-cocks. What would it be, anyhow ? " " Well, now," said Mike, " I wondther if it isn't the thaving injunction thim rascally divils over beyant have been swearin' they'd put upon the claim ? " " By the sivin churches, ye've said it ! " yelled Pat. " Let's afther it ! " With this, one seized a pick, the other a crowbar, and rush- ing upon the theodolite they smashed it into a hundred pieces, BUSTIN THE INJUNCTION. crying " This for all of yer infernal injunctions ! " Pat flung one leg of the instrument as far as he could send it, yelling : " To the divil wid all injunctions ! " Mike sent another whirl- ing down the hill, shouting: "Bring on yer injunctions, we're the lads that can knock the stuffin' out of the best and the biggest of thim ! " Just as the pair had succeeded in " bustin' up the injunction " the party of surveyors returned. The interview between them and the two Irishmen was short, but, as Pat afterwards acknowledged, it was " mighty improvin." The newcomers who swarmed across the Sierras spread along the Comstock range for miles, pitching their tents and establishing their camps wherever wood and water were to be found. Having thus established their headquarters they scouted out on prospecting expeditions in all directions TESTING ORES FOR GOLD. HI among the hills. In places on the ravines and in the flats, where good water and some grass were to be found, there were to be seen considerable villages of tents and brush shanties. Of evenings, when the prospectors returned from the hills, there was a big time among them, as they exhibited specimens of ore from the ledges they had discovered and compared notes. All gathered about and opinions were passed in regard to the value of the ores brought in. The next business was to test the ores for the precious metals. In gold-bearing quartz, small specks of gold were often to be seen with the naked eye or aided by a small mag- nifying glass, such as every prospector carried in his vest pocket for use in the examination of ores. If gold could be seen at all, either with the naked eye or the glass, it was considered a good sign. In order to further test the specimen, it was then either beaten to a powder in a mortar or was ground as fine 1 as flour on a large flat stone, using a smaller stone for a muller. This pulverized ore was then placed in a " horn," a little canoe-shaped vessel made of the split horn of an ox, when it was carefully washed out, much as auriferous gravel is washed in a pan. The gold, in case the ore experi- mented upon contained that metal, was found lying in a yellow streak in the bottom of the horn ; generally small particles of gold dust, almost as fine as flour. This was the test for gold, and any miner was able to judge, from the "prospect" obtained in his horn, whether or not the quartz from which it came was rich enough to pay for working in a mill. In testing ores for silver, the miners in the early days used acids. If a specimen of ore was supposed to contain silver, it was pulverized in the same way as gold-bearing quartz, then was placed in the horn and the lighter matter it contained washed out. When that which remained in the horn appeared to be principally sulphurets and other metalline matter, the washing ceased. The heavy residuum was then washed from the horn into a matrass (a flask of annealed glass, with a narrow neck and a broad bottom). Nitric acid was then poured into the matrass until the matter to be tested was covered, when the flask was suspended over the flame of a candle or lamp and boiled until 112 TESTING ORES FOR SIL VER. the fumes escaping (which are for a time red) came off white The boiling operation was then presumed to be completed. When the contents of the matrass had been allowed to cool and settle, the liquid portion was poured off into a vial of clear, thin glass, called a test-tube. A few drops of a strong solution of common salt was now poured into the test-tube. If the ore oper- ated upon contained silver, the contents of the test-tube would at once assume a milky hue. This would begin at the top of the liquid in the tube, where the salt solution first touched the solu- tion of silver in the acid and would be seen to gradually descend to the bottom of the vial. If there was much silver in the ore, the milky matter formed was quite thick, and clinging together descends to the bottom of the tube in the form of little ropes. Muriatic acid poured into the tube produced the same effect as the solution of salt and water. The white matter formed was the chloride of silver. In case the prospector had any doubt about what he had obtained being genuine chloride of silver, he held the test- tube in the strong light of the sun for a few minutes, when the chloride would be seen to asume a rich purple color a color which no photographer would ever mistake. Those who wish to try this experiment may do so anywhere. If no silver ore is to be had a few filings of a silver coin, or anything containing silver, may be used. The boiling in nitric acid may be performed in a small saucer of ordinary table ware and a common vial may be used in lieu of a test-tube. The chloride of silver obtained in the bottom of the tube may easily be reduced to the metallic state. To do this it is dried and placed in a small hole scooped out in a piece of charcoal, when the flame of a candle is blown upon it until it is melted, and a bright little button of pure silver is obtained. Lead ore (galena) treated with nitric acid, as in testing silver ore, will produce a chloride somewhat resembling that of sil- ver, but is more granular in appearance, does not turn purple in the light of the sun, and is dissolved in twenty times its bulk of water ; whereas washing with water does not dissolve the chloride of silver, no matter how many times the washings are repeated. If the presence of copper is suspected in the ore tested for A FIRE ASSAY. H3 silver, a bit of bright iron wire or the blade of a penknife may be dipped into the solution obtained from the specimen, either before or after adding the salt, when, if copper be present, the wire or knife will show a coating of it in the metallic state. Chloride ores of silver cannot be tested by the acid method they being chloride of silver in advance of the operation. These ores must be subjected to the test of a fire assay must be smelted in a crucible. This being the case, our prospectors were not utterly cast down when their pet specimens failed to show silver when tested by the acid process. They at once declared that the silver was in the form of a chloride, and were not satisfied that they were not millionaires, until they had carried their specimens to some assay office and had a regular fire assay made. Then, when the certificate of the assayer came, they were generally obliged to take a back seat, receiving the imprecations of the camp. Occasionally, however, a " big assay" was obtained. Then there was a grand excitement. Every man in the camp wanted the lucky man to put him down in his notice of location for a claim of 200 feet the amount of ground that could be taken up by one man under the revised laws of the district. In order to get an interest in a claim that promised to turn out a " big thing," there was much pulling and hauling, buzzing and log-rolling, among the miners who knew of the " strike." The miners all did their own cooking, but this was no great task, as when you had mentioned slapjacks, beans, bacon,, and coffee, you were at the bottom of the bill of fare. A few men, however, in every camp, developed a decided genius in the art culinary and concocted some wonderful dishes, the raw material at hand considered. About three-fourths of the prospecting miners who came over from California, packed their traps on the backs of don- keys, and, driving these before them, boldly, if not swiftly, scaled the Sierras. These donkeys became a great nuisance about the several camps. All became thieves of the most accomplished type. They would steal flour, sugar, bacon, beans, and everything eatable about the camp. They would even devour gunny sacks in which bacon had been packed, old woollen shirts and almost everything else but the picks 7 VALUABLE DONKEYS. and shovels. The donkeys would be seen demurely grazing on the flats and on the hillsides when the miners left camp in the morning to go out prospecting, but all the time had one eye upon every movement that was made. Hardly were the miners out of sight ere the donkeys were in the camp, with heads in the tents devouring all within reach. When the miners returned the donkeys were all out picking about on the hillsides, as calmly as though nothing had happened ; but the swearing heard in camp, as the work of the cunning beasts came to light, would have furnished any ordinary bull- driver a stock of oaths that he could not exhaust in six months. One of these donkeys too confiding was caught in the act. Many of the miners used a kind of flour, called " self-rising." There was mixed with it when it was ground all of the ingred- ients used in the manufacture of yeast powders. All the miner had to do in making bread from this flour was to add the proper quantity of water and mix it, when it " came up " beautifully. The donkey in question had struck a sack of this flour and had eaten all he could hold of it. He then went down to a spring, near the camp, and drank a quantity of water. When we came home that evening Mr. Donkey was still at the spring. The self-rising principle in the flour had done its work. The beast was round as an apple and his legs stood out like those of a carpenter's bench. He was very dead. Here was one of the thieves. Cunning as he had been, he was caught at last, and with " wool in his teeth." A queer genius thus described the donkey, called by every- body in. that region, " The Washoe Canary " : SOME ACCOUNT OF YE WASHOE CANARY. Let it be proclaimed at the outset that ye Washoe canary is not at all a bird ; and, though hee hath voice in great volume, lyke unto that of a prima donna, yet is hee no sweet singer in Israel. Hee is none other than ye un- gainly beaste known in other landes as ye jackass. You may many times observe ye Washoe canary strolling at hys leasure high up on the side- of ye craggy hill and in ye declivous place, basking in ye picturesque and charging hys soul wyth ye majestic. Hee rolleth abroad hys poetic eye upon ye beauties of nature ; yea, expandeth hys nostryls and drinketh in sublimity. Hee looketh about hym upon ye rocks and ye sage-bushes ; he beholdeth ye lizard basking in ye sun, and observeth ye gambols of ye horned toad. Straightway hys poetic imagination becometh heated, he feeleth ye spirit upon him ; hee becometh puffed up with ye ardent intensity of hys elevated THE W A SHOE CANARY. H5 sensations ; he braceth outwardly hys feet and poureth forth in long-drawn, triumphant gushes hys thunderous notes of rapture, the meanwhile wielding hys tayle up and down in the most wanton manner. Hys musick does not approach unto ye ravishing strains whyche descended 'through ye charmed mountain of Alfouran, and overflowed with melody the cell of the hermit Sanballad. It hath, in some parts, a quaver more of Chinese harmoniousness. A wild, uneducated species of canary was thought worthy of mention in ye booke of Job, among the more note-worthy beasts and birds of ye earth ; now, how much more .worthy of description must be the cultivated and highly accomplished warbler whyche is ye subject of this briefe hystory ? We shall presently see that hee will compare favorably with any fowl or beaste of whyche we have mention in ye goode booke. Of ye leviathan we read " Who can come to him with a double bridle ? " But, ah ! who dare come to ye Washoe canary wythe a Spanish-bitted double bridle, two rope halters and a lasso ? Again, of ye leviathan : *' Lay thine hand upon hym, remember the battle, do no more." Verily, I say of ye Washoe canary lay thine hand upon hym, remember hys heeles, do no more. Of ye behemoth it is said : " He moveth hys tayle lyke a cedar," but when ye Washoe canary giveth vent to hys sudden inspiration in an impromptu vocal effort he moveth hys tayle like unto two cedars and one pump-handle. Again, of ye behemoth " He eateth grass as an ox." Ye Washoe canary not only eateth grass, but in ye wild luxuriance of hys voluptuous fancy, and hys unbounded confidence in hys digestive -capacity, rioteth in ye most reck- less manner on sage-brush, prickly-pears, thorns and greasewood. Of ye horse : " He smelleth ye battle afar off and saith, ' ha, ha ! '" Now, not any horse can further smell -out a thing presumed to be hidden sugar, bacon, and ye lyke than ye Washoe canary then, indeed, hys "yee-haw" far surpasseth the " ha, ha ! " of 'a. horse-laugh. What are ye wings of ye peacock or ye feathers of ye ostriche to ye fierceness of hys foretop and ye widespread awfulness of hys ears ? Of ye horse : " He swalloweth ye ground in fierceness and rage." Now, ye Washoe canary swalloweth woolen shirts, old breeches, gunny sacks and dilapidated hoop-skirts when in a state of pensive good nature what, then, must we suppose hym capable of swallowing, once hys wrath is enkindled and all ye fearful ferocity of hys nature is aroused ; Such is ye Washoe canary. Be in haste at no time to proclaim a victory over him. CHAPTER XIV. MIGRATION ON A LARGE SCALE. ON the Pacific Coast there is felt every spring a kind of unrest men of all classes feel as if they should go some- where. This feeling is particularly strong among miners, and they look about to see if some region cannot be thought of into which they may make a prospecting raid. Others feel like going up into the mountains, or some wild and far-away region, on general principles just to be rambling and seeing something new and picturesque. To desire to be on the move when spring opens appears to be natural to all mankind to be a sort of animal instinct implanted in the human race, and an instinct probably never wholly eradicated by the influences of even the most refined civilization. With the opening of spring, our Indians and all savage tribes of people are on the move. Even among wild animals the same migratory instinct is to be observed. Bear, deer, elk, and other animals that have wintered in the valleys, move up into the mountains, when the snow has disappeared under the warmth of the returning sun. The spring unrest is doubtless now much less strong within us, than at that remote period when we sported tails, yet we still retain in some degree this instinct of our former savage state ; it is still in us, and at each return of the season for breaking up camp and moving out of winter quarters it takes pos- session of us. In the older settled communities, the people may not think of wandering to any great distance, but even there the farmer feels best when he is rambling in his farthest fields, and his wife prefers working in her garden and roving in the open air, to remaining in her house. 116 THE MIGRA TOR Y INSTINCT. 117 No doubt in the dim and distant ages of the past when we still retained our caudal appendages spring ,was a stirring season with the race. There was then a general awakening of the tribes. Knowing nothing, at that time, of the means by which we might provide artificial warmth, when the rigors of winter began to be felt we all left the mountains. Descending into the deepest and most sheltered valleys, we there hibernated, as best we might, in the mouths of caves and in sunny nooks among the hills, till the spring sun again warmed us into life. When it was judged time to be on the move toward the mountains, the sagacious elders probably took up their position on some prominent ledge of rock above the sheltering ravine in which the winter had been passed, and addressed the assembled tribe. What a glad chorus of yelps applauded the sage chatterings of the orators, and what a wildly exultant waving of tails was there when it was known all were to migrate " to fresh woods and pastures new ! " The discovery of the silver mines in Nevada gave all an excellent opportunity of gratifying their migratory instincts, and miners and men of all classes and all trades and profes- sions flocked over the Sierras, in the spring of 1860. At first they came on foot, driving donkeys or other pack- animals before them, or on horseback, riding where they could and leading their horses where the snow was soft, but soon sleighs and stages were started, and in some shape floundered through with their passengers. Saddle trains for passengers were started, however, before vehicles of any kind began to run, and the snow passed over was in many places from thirty to sixty feet in depth. At first there was not sufficient shelter for the newcomers, and they crowded to overflowing every building of whatever kind, in all the towns along the Comstock range. But houses were rapidly being built in all directions, and the weather soon became warm enough to allow of camping out in comfort almost anywhere ; men who had rolled up in their blankets and slept on the snow, high up on the frosty Sierras, did not much mind sleeping in the open air on the lower hills. The newcomers from California not only prospected in the neighborhood of Virginia, Gold Hill, Silver City, and all 118 THE PIUTE WAR. the hills surrounding these towns and the Comstock, but scouted out in all directions to the distance of from fifty to one hundred miles. They generally went in parties of from five or six to a dozen or more men, and when they traveled any great distance, were mounted, and had pack animals with them, to carry their provisions and tools. The excitement in regard to the mines discovered and being worked, those newly found and those yet to be found in regard to town sites, mill sites and all manner of property in the new land was at its greatest height, when that occurred which for a time paralyzed every industry, and alike brought business and prospecting to a stand. A Pony rider the mail was then being carried across the Plains and over the Sierras to California by Pony Express came in and reported that the Piute Indians, till then friendly toward the whites, had burned Williams' Station, on the Carson River, thirty-one miles below Dayton, and had murdered two or three men whom they found in charge. The news that the Piutes were on the war path, and had begun killing and burning, spread like wild-fire through the several towns and settlements of the country. It was deter- mined that the murderous redskins should be punished. There was a call for volunteers in all the towns, and the call was promptly responded to everywhere. The news of the burning of Williams' Station, and the mur- ders there, reached Virginia City, May 8th, 1860, and May pth a party of 105 men, volunteers from the several towns, under command of Major Ormsby, of Carson City, marched down the Carson River for the purpose of overtaking the Indians, and inflicting upon them a proper chastisement. As I am not writing a history of Nevada I shall leave a detailed account of the "Indian war" to be given by some future writer. I shall but briefly sketch this first and last Indian trouble in Nevada, not attempting to give the names of more than a few of the men who were prominent partici- pants in the battles at Pyramid Lake. The men under Major Ormsby were poorly armed, badly mounted, and almost wholly unorganized. The majority of the men thought that there would not be much of a fight. BA TTLE OF P YRAMID LAKE. H9 They thought they should probably have a bit of a skirmish with the Indians, kill a few of them, capture a lot of ponies, and on the whole have rather a good time. Major Ormsby and a few of the leading men and old settlers doubtless knew the Indians better, but most of the recent arrivals from Cali- fornia who volunteered on the occasion thought it would turn out a sort of pleasure excursion. They were wofully disap- pointed. Finding no Indians at Williams' Station on his arrival there, Major Ormsby and command marched toward Pyramid Lake, known to be the headquarters of the Piute tribe in that region of country, and distant less than two days' march. On the morning of the i2th of May, on the Truckee River, at a point about three miles from Pyramid Lake, they found a party of Indians occupying a strong position on a rocky hill. They attacked these Indians, who retreated after firing a few shots, falling back along the sides of a ravine. As the Indians fell back they continued a scattering fire. The whites charged into the ravine in pursuit. They had proceeded some distance when a body of two or three hundred Indians suddenly confronted them, pouring into their ranks in quick succession several deadly volleys. On the side of the whites many men and horses fell at this spot. The volunteers were staggered by this sudden on- slaught, and made but a feeble reply to the fire of the enemy. At this critical juncture it was observed that the Indians were gathering in the ravine behind them, when a precipitate retreat was made for a piece of woods on the river. The Indians hotly pursued them, firing as they advanced. At the edge of the wood the whites dismounted and tried to make a stand, but the Indians gathered from all sides, pouring in a rapid and galling fire, killing several men and horses. The men were then ordered to mount for another charge. While this was being done the Indians rushed forward, firing and yelling, throwing the whites into a confusion which ended in a precipitate and disorderly retreat. Many men had no horses, and these fell an easy prey to the elated and victorious savages who pursued the whites a dis- tance of fifteen or twenty miles, even overtaking and killing men who were tolerably well mounted. 120 SECOND EXPEDITION. The trail of the retreating volunteers was strewn with dead bodies, saddles, guns, knives, pistols, and blankets, thrown away when the chase became desperate, and every man was trying to save his own life. Of the 105 men who went into the fight 76 were killed and a few wounded, slightly, who managed to escape. Among the killed was Major Ormsby, the commander of the expedition, an old resident in the country; and Henry Meredith, a young lawyer from Nevada City, California, a man well-known and highly esteemed on the Pacific Coast. At the first volley fired by the Indians, in the canon into which the command had been entrapped, Meredith was wounded and fell from his horse, but rose on one knee and fired three shots from his revolver as the foe advanced upon him. When the survivors of this slaughter reached Virginia City and told the news of the defeat, the excitement was intense. In all the towns it began to be feared that the Indians, elated by their victory, would come in and sweep everything before them. It was said that there were 500 warriors in the fight at Pyramid Lake and it was supposed that the Piutes could muster 5,000 men. Dispatches were sent to California for regular troops, and as the news spread men volunteered and companies were formed in Sacramento, Nevada City and Downieville, California. Men also volunteered again in the several Washoe towns, and soon an army of several hundred men, regulars and volunteers, was in the field for the effect- ual putting down of the savages. CHAPTER XV. TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS. MEANTIME there was a grand panic in the several towns along the Comstock range. Many men, women, and children at once left for California. The night after the survivors of the fight at Pyramid Lake came in, it was reported in Virginia City and Gold Hill that the Indians were advancing in full force and were but twenty miles away. This news caused a grand stampede, many men suddenly remembering that they had business on the other side of' the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At Virginia City, during this season of alar*is, the women and children who remained were corraled for safety in a large stone hotel, that was being built by Peter O'Riley, and the walls of which were up to such a height that it made a pretty fair sort of a fort. There were frequent night alarms and at times it was reported that the Indians were on their way up Six-mile Canon to attack the town. There were but two classes of persons in the place, those who were not at all frightened, and those who were frightened almost out of their wits. One night when there was an alarm at Virginia, a Dutchman got his partner to let him down into a shaft, about fifty feet in depth, thinking that about the safest place that could be found in case of an Indian raid. After the Dutchman had been deposited at the bottom of the shaft his partner went down into the town. He had been there but a short time before a lot of horses and mules were stampeded somewhere down the canon and came charging up toward the 121 122 AN UNL UCK Y D UTCHMAN. town with great clatter. All thought the Indians were surely coming this time, and not a few went out of the town by the back trails and struck out for California. Among these was the Dutchman's partner. In his fright he thought only of himself. The poor Teuton roosted at the bottom of the shaft for three days and nights before he was dis- covered, and was almost dead when taken out. The people of Silver City determined to stand their ground. They were on the war-path. Just above their town, on Gold Canon, rugged rocks rise to the height of two hundred feet or more, leaving a very narrow pass. This place is called the Devil's Gate, and here the Silverites determined to make the Indians smell "villainous saltpeter." They went up on top of the Devil's Gate, and built a stone fort about two rods in diame- ter. The genius in command of this enterprise then bored out a pine log, hooped it with iron bands, and mounting it in the fort as a cannon, filled it full of pieces of scrap-iron, bits of chain, and the like. The muzzle was so pointed that when fired it would sweep the canon for a great distance, making it very un- pleasant for any Indians who might happen to be jogging up that way. After the war was over, some parties one day concluded to fire this wooden gun off. They took it from the fort and carried it to a considerable distance back on the hill, rigged a slow match to it, and then got out of the way. When the explosion finally came, the air was filled in all direc- tions, for many rods, with pieces of scrap-iron, iron bands, and chunks of wood. Had it ever been fired in the fort it would have killed every man near it. At Virginia City, when the news of the defeat at Pyramid Lake came, among other business transacted was the unanimous adoption of the following resolution : " Resolved, That during the next sixty days, or until the settlement of the present Indian difficulties, no claim or mining ground within the Territory, shall be subject to re-location, or liable to be jumped for non-work." This gave many persons who had urgent business in California an opportunity of going over and attending to it doubtless many started soon after voting upon the resolution. On the 24th of May, the second expedition against the Indians SKIRMISHING. 123 left Virginia City. It consisted of a force of 207 regular soldiers and 549 volunteers, all armed with minie-muskets and well equipped in every respect. The regulars had with them two twelve-pounder mountain howitzers, and all felt in starting out that they were now prepared to give the Indians a good substantial battle, in case they should be found in fighting humor. About noon, June 2d., the Piutes were, found in force near the old battle-ground at Pyramid Lake, and fire was opened on them. As soon as the firing began, the plain, the ravines, hillsides, sand-drifts, and mountain tops seemed alive with Indians. The battle was short and decisive. The Indians were severely punished. They lost 160 killed and had a great many wounded, while the whites had but two men killed and only three or four wounded. Captain E. F. Storey, from whom Storey county, Ne- vada, takes its name, was shot through the lungs, and died in camp in the evening. Captain Storey was taking aim at an Indian who was lying behind a rock at the time he received his death wound. The Indian was too quick for him and got the first shot. Storey's men instantly riddled the fellow. This expedition brought in the remains of Meredith and Major Ormsby. The bodies of many of the dead were found to have been horribly mutilated. About the place where the bodies of the volunteers were found, the ground, for the space of two hundred yards, was beaten as solid as a brickyard. Ap- pearances indicated that the Indians had taken these men alive, and had held a big dance about them before killing them. After this battle no more was seen of the Indians in a long time, and there has been no trouble with them since. In September of that year, Winnemucca, chief of the tribe, visited Fort Churchill, (a fort that was built on the Carson River, near Williams' Station, after the last battle at Pyramid Lake,) accompanied by several leading men of his tribe. The old fellow said that he not only desired at that time, but at all other times had desired, to live at peace with the whites. The late trouble had been brought about by a few Bannocks, a lot of Shoshones and Pitt River Indians, with some bad Piutes. The whites had, he said, charged in among his people without seeking an interview with him and he had defended himself to APPEAL TO INDIAN JUSTICE. the best of his ability. He hoped that the peace would be permanent, arid desired that the whites and Piutes should now become firm friends and allies. After the trouble was all over the cause of it was ascertained. It was this. In the absence of Williams, proprietor of the station where the massacre, as it was called, occurred, two or three men left in charge had seized upon two young Piute women and had treated them in the most outrageous manner, keeping them shut up in an outside cellar or cave for a day or two. The husband of one of the women coming in search of his wife, heard her voice calling him from the place in which she was hidden. When he attempted to go to his wife's assistance the men at the station beat him and drove him away, threaten- ing to kill him if he did not leave at once. It so happened that the women who had been outraged were of the branch of the Piute tribe living at Walker Lake who had married men of the Bannock tribe. The Indian who was driven away from the station hastened to Walker Lake and informed the chief man there of the outrage, asking him to send a band of braves to punish the men at the station. But the sub-chief at Walker Lake* would send no men. The wronged Indian then went to Old Winnemucca, who said he would send no men, that he wanted no trouble with the whites. His advice was that the whites be informed of the outrage, and requested to punish the men in their own way, in accordance with their laws. Not satisfied with this, the Bannock went to young Winne- mucca, the war chief. Here he was given the same advice that he had already received from the old chief. Thirsting for vengeance, the man then hastened to his own country and his own chief. When the chief of the Bannocks had heard the man's story he at once gave him thirty of his best men, and told him to go and avenge the wrong that had been done him. He went and the result is known. After killing the men and burning the station, the Bannocks marked their return trail with blood. They murdered in cold blood several small parties of unarmed prospectors. The bodies SAVAGES. AFTER THE SCALPS. 127 of these were not discovered until after the last fight at Pyramid Lake, when the murders were charged to the account of the Piutes. Old Winnemucca was not at the first fight at Pyramid Lake, he being on the Humboldt River at the time, but young Winne- mucca, the war-chief, was there, and commanded. Before the fight began he showed a white flag and wished to explain 'matters, but a man among the whites, who had a tele- scope rifle, fired and killed an Indian who showed himself on the rocks, and thus precipitated the battle which ended so disas- trously for the whites. When the volunteers returned victorious from the second battle, they were the heroes of the hour, until some of them began to walk into stores and help themselves to clothing. They called this mode of obtaining clothing " pressing " it, and declared that it was a military necessity. Some of the merchants thought they were " pressing " it a little too strong when they began to help themselves to fine calf-skin boots and cassimere pantaloons, and in two or. three instances fights ensued in which pistols were used, one of the merchants and two or three of the raiders receiving severe wounds. This "pressing" was done by a " hoodlum " class that came over the Sierras among the volunteers. These were the men who took Indian scalps after the battle. In one instance one of them found an Indian lying with his back broken by a minie musket-ball. Drawing his bowie-knife he proceeded to scalp the poor devil alive. As he was sawing away at the tough scalp, the Indian spat in his face. This had the desired effect the white butcher drew his revolver and blew out the Indian's brains. The officers allowed no scalping, yet two or three scalps found their way to Virginia City. ' " Old Gus," an old Dutchman, marched about the town, from saloon to saloon, with an Indian bow stuck in the muzzle of his musket, at the end of which dangled a scalp. This gave " Old Gus" all the whisky he wanted. Wherever he came it was: " Hurrah for Old Gus, he got his Injun ! " The captain of one of the volunteer companies afterwards told me that in passing over the ground after the fight he chanced to come upon Old Gus, behind a rock, industriously engaged in skinning the head of a dead Indian, meanwhile calmly smoking his pipe. CHAPTER XVI. STATE OF SOCIETY. OWING to the breaking out of the war with the Piutes, and to the fact that th'e precious metals existed in solid quartz, and, in most instances, far beneath the surface, where it could only be reached by means of deep shafts or long and expensive tunnels, many men who came to the country early in the spring of 1860, left in disgust. ; Hundreds of prospectors came in the expectation of being able to find rich placer-mines, or at least large deposits of decomposed quartz, rich in gold, which they might wash out with rockers and sluices, as they were accustomed to wash the auriferous gravel of the California gold-fields. Being unable to find anything of this kind, except the ground already taken up and being worked at Virginia and Gold Hill, these men said that-, x though rich, the mines were of "no extent," and made haste to return to those they had left on the western slope of the Sierras, in the Golden State. The Indian troubles greatly assisted many of these men in a speedy arrival at the conclusion that Washoe was no good country in which to abide. Few of those who first rushed to the country possessed sufficient capital to enable them to undertake the expensive works required for the proper open- ing and development of the claims they had located, and not being able to sell a "pig in a poke," they wanted nothing more to do with silver mining, while many of those who had the means lacked faith in the value of the leads discovered. The business of working silver mines was then new to our people, and at first they depended much on what was told them by the Mexican silver miners who flocked to the country. 128 ORGANIZA TION BEGUN. 129 Mexicans were in great demand. The man who had the word of a Mexican that his lead or his location was " bueno," felt that his fortune was made. It has since been suspected that many of these Mexicans were but " vaqueros " from the " cow counties " of California, who knew no more of silver and silver mining than a Digger Indian. They were shrewd enough, however, to keep their own counsel, and any man who spoke the Spanish language was supposed to have mined all his days in the richest silver mines of Mexico. There were, however, undoubtedly in the country many old and skilful Mexican miners skilful after the fashion of min- ing in Mexico and with what our people were able to learn of these men, and what they soon themselves discovered, it was not long before very good work was being done, both in the mines and in the works erected for the reduction of the ores. In the reduction of ores much that was of great practical value was learned from the scientific Germans who flocked to the mines, men who had had much experience in the silver mines of their own country, both in mining and in the work- ing of ores. Although rapid progress was made in mining and milling, in building roads and making substantial improve- ments of all kinds, Washoe was a region almost destitute of laws of any kind, and all carried pistols and knives at their belts, each man a " law unto himself." The people of Western Utah, now Nevada, were supposed to be living under Mormon law, but the laws of the Saints were distasteful to the Gentiles and they would have nothing to do with them. They preferred living under some such "rules and regulations," as we have seen were adopted at Gold Hill, in June, 1859, or to settle their difficulties in a fair fight. Such a dislike had the people to the Mormon laws that they early began to agitate the matter of a separation from Utah and the erection of a new Territory out of its western half. Delegates were sent to Congress to urge this, but nothing was accomplished, and at length the people took the matter into their own hands and determined to secede from Utah. A convention was called, and met at Genoa, July i8th., 1859, when steps were taken for the formation of a "Provisional 130 IN SEARCH OF THE GOLD. Government." A "Declaration" and "Constitution" were drafted, submitted to a vote of the people, and adopted. An election for Governor and members of the Legislature was held, and, December i5th., 1859, this Legislature met at Genoa, the capital, organized, received the " first annual message " of Gov- ernor Roop, passed a number of resolutions, appointed a few committees, and then adjourned. This was their first and last adjournment; they never met again. The silver mines were discovered and Governor Roop and all hands had other things to think of. The new population created by the grand rush to the mines so altered the whole face of affairs that it was considered inexpedient and impolitic to proceed further in the Provisional Government at that time. The discovery of silver and the rapid settlement of the country soon brought the people of Western Utah to the notice of Congress: the Terri- tory of Nevada was created, and in July, 1861, Governor Nye and a number of the Federal appointees arrived in the country and set in motion the wheels of a government that was in accord with the feelings and traditions of the people. In 1860, however, the Mormon laws were the only laws left to the people; the Legislature of the provisional government having adjourned before making any new laws. Having an abun- dance of "rules and regulations," with that ready-reckoner the revolver, laws were not much missed for a time; besides, all were too eagerly engaged in the pursuit of wealth in the shape of mines of silver and gold to give much serious atten- tion to matters politicalA Soon after the last l5attle at Pyramid Lake, prospecting parties again began to scout out into the wild and then unknown and unexplored regions lying to the eastward and southward of the Comstock range. Stories of wonderful dis- coveries of all kinds in these regions kept the people in the several mining towns and settlements in a constant state of excitement. Reports of these new discoveries, greatly exag- gerated in most instances, reaching California, a return tide of miners from that State soon set in. The marvellous richness of the Ophir and other Comstock mines continuing, and constantly increasing, capitalists came flocking back to Virginia and Gold Hill, and it was not long before all "FIGHTING SAM BROWN." enterprises were in a condition as flourishing as before the Indian troubles began. With the miners and capitalists also came gamblers of both high and low degree, roughs, robbers, thieves, and adventurers of all kinds, colors, and nationalities. Not a few noted and well-known desperadoes arrived and walked the streets and presided in the saloons as "chiefs." It was the ambition of men of this class to be considered as being "chief" in whatever town they might conclude to infest. Early in the spring of 1860, Sam Brown, known all over the j Pacific Coast as "Fighting Sam Brown," arrived at Virginia. He was a big chief, and when he walked into a saloon, a side at a time, with his big Spanish spurs clanking along the floor, and his six-shooter flapping under his coat-tails, the little " chiefs " hunted their holes and talked small on back seats. In order to signalize his arrival and let it be known that he was no " King Log," Sam Brown committed a murder soon after reaching Virginia. He picked a quarrel one night in a - saloon with a man who was so drunk that he did not know what he was saying, ripped him up with his bowie-knife, killing him instantly; then, wiping his knife on the leg of his pantaloons, walked across the saloon, lay down on a bench and went to sleep. After this, where was the chief who dared say that Sam Brown was not the big chief? Sam had then killed about fifteen men, doubtless much in the same way as he killed the last man. Not long was Sam chief in Washoe. He took a ride down into Carson Valley, and stopping at Van Sickle's Station, near Genoa, took a shot or two at the barkeeper, then mounted his horse and rode away. Van Sickles was soon informed of what had occurred, and mounting a fast horse, with a heavily-loaded double-barrelled shotgun in his hand, started in pursuit. He overtook the desperado before he reached Genoa. Sam no doubt felt that his hour had come, for an enraged ranchman on his track meant business, as he well knew it was very different from having to do with a "chief." Sam turned in his saddle and began firing, as Van Sickles ap- proached ; but the ranchman was uninjured, and raising his shotgun riddled the great fighter with buckshot, tumbling him dead from his horse, just in the edge of the town of Genoa. 8 132 THE KNIFE AND THE PISTOL. Thus died " Fighting Sam Brown " died with his " boots on ; " an end which all " chiefs " dread. After the death of Sam Brown, numerous chiefs rose up and there were many bloody fights in regard to the succession. Also, there were many bloody fights in which the chieftain- ship was not the mooted question. Having knives and pistols ever at hand, men of all classes too frequently used them. The reports of pistols were heard almost nightly, and in pass- ing along the streets frequent stampedes from the gambling- houses were to be seen. As innocent parties were as likely to be killed as the persons engaged in the shooting, those who were not directly interested in a fight always withdrew when pistols were drawn in a saloon or gambling-house. At such times they came out into the street much as a flock of sheep would go through a gap in a fence with a dog at their heels. The street gained they turned and stood peeping back. If the war did not presently begin they gradually ventured to return and resume their interrupted occupations and pleasures, not expecting an apology from the gentlemen who had incon- venienced them. Thus were those not directly engaged in mining, or other productive industry worrying along. CHAPTER XVII. EARLY COMSTOCK MINING OPERATIONS. IN the mines rapid advances were soon made, both in the de- velopment of the various claims and in the machinery and appliances used. Whereas, the first shafts sunk were mere round holes, precisely similar in every respect to an ordinary well, now began to be seen well-timbered square shafts of two or more compartments; the old hand-windlasses gave place to horse-whims and to steam hoisting machinery, and large and sub- stantially constructed tunnels took the place of the " coyote holes " which were at first run into the hills. The first steam hoisting and pumping machinery seen on the Comstock lead was put in at the Ophir mine, in 1860. The machinery was driven by a fifteen-horse-power donkey-engine. The mine was at that time being worked through an incline (an inclined shaft) which followed the dip of the vein. A track was laid down in this incline and a car was lowered and hoisted through it by steam-power. The pump then used had a pipe but four inches in diameter, and it was hard work to keep the mine drained, even at the slight depth then attained. At this time the dip of the vein was to the west, and all supposed that that was the true dip of the Comstock lode : on this account loca- tions lying to the west of the Comstock were considered to be much more valuable, and were much more sought for than those lying to the east. The westward dip of the great lode would carry it directly into and under Mount Davidson, on the eastern slope of which, and 1500 feet below its summit, the croppings of the vein made their appearance ; all, therefore, were desirous of obtaining mining ground on the side of Mount David- 133 134: IN THE HEART OF THE BONANZA. son and the mountains flanking it north and south. But when the depth of 300 feet had been attained in the Ophir mine, the lead began to straighten up and soon assumed its true dip to the east, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, a dip it has maintained ever since, and not only at that particular point, but throughout its entire length of nearly three miles. When the true dip of the vein had been ascertained, it was then seen that its apparent dip to the west was owing to the pressure of the superincumbent rock and earth, on the steep side of the mountain, having pressed down the upper part and bent it over to the east. When those who had located claims on the side of Mount Davidson, and adjacent mountains, saw the Comstock lead thus .turning tail and leaving them, they stood aghast. Those who had located to the eastward and had mourned because they could do no better, were now happy men the Comstock was making toward them. In December, 1860, the Ophir folks had attained a depth of but 180 feet in their mine. They were working down in the heart of the bonanza, or rich ore-body, and at that depth the breadth of ore was forty-five feet. No such great width of ore had ever before been seen, and the miners were at their wits' end to know how to work it and keep up the superincumbent ground how to support such a great width of ground with timbers, was the question. The ordinary plan of using posts and caps would not do, as posts of sufficient length could not be obtained, and, even though they could be had, would be inadequate to the support of the great weight and pressure that would be brought to bear upon them. In this emergency the company sent to California for Mr. Philip Deidesheimer, a gentleman who had had much practical experience both in the mines of Germany and those of the Pacific coast. After Mr. Deidesheimer arrived and was placed in charge of the mine as superintendent, he worked upon the problem before him for three weeks before he arrived at a satisfactory solution. He then hit upon the plan of timbering in "square sets " which is still in use in all the mines on the Comstock, and without which they could not be worked. The plan was to frame timbers and put them together in the shape of cribs, four by five or six feet in size, piling these cribs one upon another but all neatly INSIDE THE MINE. 135 framed together to any desired height. Thus was the ground supported and braced up in all directions. Where the vein was of great width, a certain number of these cribs could be filled in with waste rock, forming pillars of stone reaching up to the wall of rock to be supported up to the roof of the mine. Previous to the invention by Mr. Deidesheimer of the system of timbering by means of " square sets," the only supports used in the mines were round logs cut on the surrounding hills. These logs were from sixteen to thirty-five feet in length. When of the latter length they were manufactured, that is, were made of two logs spliced and held together by means of iron bolts and bands. Owing to the stunted character of the pines and cedars found in the neighborhood it was almost impossible to pro- cure a log more than twenty feet in length. After setting up two of these long logs, a log about eighteen feet long was placed upon them as a cap. These posts and caps were placed as close together as they could be made to stand, but then would not hold up the ground when it began to slack and swell from exposure to the air. Besides this difficulty there was no safe way of working either above or below these sets, in the vein. To take out ore, either under or over the timbers, loosened them and caused a disastrous cave. Many accidents happened and many men lost their lives while this method of timbering was practiced, but no lives have ever been lost in timbering by the square-set or Deidesheimer plan. In the mines at Gold Hill was where the timbers thirty- five feet in length were used, and there was where the greatest number of accidents happened ; but in the Ophir mine, timbers sixteen feet long had been used. When the miners of Gold Hill heard of the new mode of timber- ing practiced in the Ophir mine, they went up to Virginia to see it, and found it was just what was required. Mr. Deidesheimer sent some of his carpenters down to Gold Hill to show the workmen there how to frame the new timbers, and how to. set them up. In 1861 this style of timbering was adopted along the whole line of the Comstock and has been in use ever since. The Ophir was probably the first mine in any part of the world where such a system of timbering became a necessity, as no ore- body of such great width had ever before been found. Nothing 136 EXTRA ORDINAR Y EXPERIMENTS. seen in the Comstock mines more surprises and pleases the mining men of Europe than this mode of timbering. It is a thing none of them has ever before seen or thought of, and its utility is so strikingly obvious that they can hardly find words in which to adequately express their great admiration of it. In 1861, Mr. Deidesheimer prevailed upon the Ophir Company to put up a forty-five horse-power engine, an eight-inch pump and improved hoisting machinery for the incline of the mine. The company thought this a fearfully extravagant move, and were almost frightened out of their wits when this " tremendous " machinery was first mentioned. Now there is hardly anything in the shape of a mine anywhere along the Comstock range on which there is not in operation more powerful and costly machinery. At the depth of 180 feet, at what was called the third gallery, the width of the ore was, as I have said, 45 feet ; at the fourth gallery it became 66 feet in width, and the miners were delighted to find that the new timbers supported the ground in the most perfect manner. At this time the ore extracted from this first bonanza was assorted as it was extracted. That which would average $1,000 per ton was sacked up and shipped to England for reduction, while the remainder was piled up as second and third-class ore, to await the erection of proper mills for working it at home. At the Mexican and other mines in the neighbor- hood, about the same disposition was at this time being made of the ores taken out, while at Gold Hill they had not yet attained a sufficient depth to reach the silver, and were working their ores for gold alone ; though much silver was obtained with the gold. The first mill started up for the reduction of silver ores was that known as the " Pioneer," located at the Devil's Gate, just where the warlike " Silverites " built their fort at the time of the Indian troubles. Other mills started up within a few days after this first one went into operation and soon there were many at work in all directions. The early millmen knew but little about working silver ores, and all manner of experiments were tried with a view to the thorough amalgamation of the silver contained in the rock that was crushed. This, in the opinion of most superintendents of mills, was to be accomplished by the use of TIMBERING OF A MINE. PROCESS-PEDDLERS" AND THEIR DEVICE*. chemicals. A more promiscuous collection of strange drugs and vegetable decoctions never before was used for any purpose. The amalgamating pans in the mills surpassed the caldron of Macbeth's witches in the variety and villainousness of their contents. Not content with blue-stone (sulphate of copper), salt, and one or two other simple articles of known efficacy, they poured into their pans all manner of acids; dumped in potash, borax, saltpetre, alum, and all else that could be found at the drug-stores, then went to the hills and started in on the vegetable kingdom. They peeled bark off the cedar-trees, boiled it down till they had obtained a strong tea, and then poured it into the pans where it would have an opportunity of attacking the silver stubbornly remaining in the rocky parts of the ore. The native sage-brush, which everywhere covered the hills, being the bitterest, most unsavory, and nauseating shrub to be found in .any part of the world, it was not long before a genius in charge of a mill conceived the idea of making a tea of this and putting it into his pans. Soon, the wonders performed by the " sage-brush process," as it was called, were being heralded through the land. The superintendent of every mill had his secret process of working the silver ore. Often, when it was supposed that one of the superintendents had made a grand dis- covery, the workmen of the mill were bribed to make known the secret. To guard as much as possible against this, the superin- tendent generally had a private room in which he made his vile compounds. " Process-peddlers," with little vials of chemicals in their vest pockets, went from mill to mill to show what they could do and would do, provided they received from $5,000 to $20,000 for their secret. The object with many inventors of " processes " appeared to be to physic the silver out of the rock, or at least to make it so sick that it would be obliged to loose its hold upon its matrix and come out and be caught by the quick- silver lying in wait for it in the bottom of the pans. Had it been in the dark ages that these experiments were in progress, the efficacy of the blood of human victims would doubtless have been tried; they would occasionally have hoisted an honest miner up from the subterranean depths and cut his throat over a pan. The "process-peddlers " finally became a worse nuisance than evei lightning-rod men have been the limited space of THE VALUE OF "TAILINGS! country to which they were confined being considered and the millmen became disgusted with all the patent processes their own as well as those of others and soon little, save salt and blue-stone, was used in the pans. It was found that thorough grinding and careful working of the ore was. what was required. During the first few years that they were experimenting on the Comstock ores, in the many new and inefficient mills, millions of dollars in silver and gold were lost in the tailings ; that is, in the pulverized ore that ran away from the mills after it had been operated upon in the pans, settlers, and other apparatus for the saving and amalgamation of silver by the wet-process. These tailings flowed from the mills into the canons and were swept down into the Carson River, thence down to the " sink " or lake into which the river empties. These millions still lie in the bed of the Carson River and in the bottom of the sink. Had any man thought of saving these tailings in the early.days of milling, by putting a flume into Gold Canon and running them to some flat or valley where they could have been dumped in a great heap, all that is now lost would have been saved, and the origi- nator of the enterprise would have made half a dozen big for- tunes. The Mexicans knew the value of these tailings and worked them, but they always do things on such a small scale that what they obtained was a mere trifle, and nobody thought of collecting the whole of the tailings running to waste in the canons and saving them in bulk ; besides, the price of milling at that time was so high about $50 per ton that the general im- pression was that it would not pay to save the whole mass of tailings. Two Mexicans were at work all one summer in Gold Canon, at Silver City, at concentrating and working the tailings that were flowing down the stream, a mere rill of muddy water. They caught the tailings in a small ^ reservoir, from which they took them and spread them on a table that stood at an inclina- tion of about thirty degrees. They then threw water over the tailings with a small dipper, beginning at the top of the table and gradually working downward until they reached the bottom, at which point, where the end of the table rested on the ground, would be found some pounds of sulphuret of silver, with some particles of amalgam and quicksilver that had escaped from the NEA T WAY OF MAKING RINGS. mills. This they placed upon a platform of boards, called a "patio" and when several hundred pounds had been saved, sul- phate of copper, salts, and quicksilver, in proper proportions, were added to the mass of sulphuret and tailings, and the whole was mixed up as builders mix mortar. When thoroughly mixed, the whole mass was drawn together into a round heap, and allowed to stand and sweat and digest in that shape for a certain number of hours. It was then spread out and worked over, giving it the benefit of the air for a time, when it was again heaped up to di- gest. This being several times repeated, the operation . was complete, and the silver, amalgamated with quicksilver, was washed out in a pan or rocker. This is the famous Mexican ''patio ' process on a small scale. At the mines in Mexico they have large, circular patios, paved with stone or tamped with tough clay, in which horses are driven about to tread and knead the pulverized and moistened ore. It is, however, the same thing in effect as the process described above. The two Mexicans mentioned worked all summer, and the supposition was that they were about "making grub," but after they left, the butcher of whom they obtained their meat stated that they took away with them about $3,000 each ; that they were in the habit of bringing their bullion to his shop every Saturday night to weigh it, therefore he knew what they had been doing all the time, but had promised to keep their secret, as they were afraid of being driven away before winter if it were known that they were making money. After freshets in the canon the miners used to go out and col- lect amalgam by digging it out of the crevices in the rocks with knives, or scooping it out with spoons. Having retorted this, they would take it to a blacksmith's forge, and make rings out of it by melting it and pouring it into a mould cut in an adobe or piece of brick. In this way they made rings that would weigh an ounce or more, and of nights, when going into town to have a good lime with the " boys," would slip three or four of these rings upon the fingers of their right hands, for use in lieu of brass knuckles. Notwithstanding all these evidences of the richness of tailings it was long before men began to work them in any regular or scientific manner. At length, however, shallow flumes were put 142 WASTE OF GOLD AND SILVER. up on the canons in which the tailings were concentrated and the sulphurets caught on strips of coarse blanketing placed in the bottom of the sluices, and, finally, huge reservoirs were construct- ed in which the whole of the tailings were caught and saved in bulk, it being found that they could be worked at an expense not exceeding four or five dollars per ton. With the tailings there is always caught more or less amalgam and quicksilver. It appears to be impossible to save all the gold and silver con- tained in ore by any one process; indeed, after it has been worked over several times, and in several different ways, the tailings that finally escape still contain gold, silver, and quick- silver, but a much larger per cent is at present saved than for- merly. CHAPTER XVIII. LOSS OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. THE divisibility of quicksilver, and also of silver and gold, as shown by the milling operations conducted in Nevada, is incomprehensibly great, and would seem to be almost unlimited ; particularly in the case of the metal first named. A globule of quicksilver may be divided until no longer visible to the naked eye, and, indeed, until scarcely visible under a microscope, and yet even the most minute subdivision shall be found to contain both gold and silver. How infinitesimally small, then,' must be the particles of silver and gold contained in one of these almost invisible and immeasurable globules of mercury! In regard to the remarkable divisibility of the precious metals, the following instance may be given in illustration : The superintendent of a water mill on the Carson River, when working for a considerable length of time an ore in which gold largely predominated, used every precaution to guard against loss. In addition to the usual settling-tanks, he caused to be dug in the ground a number of large pits, into which the waste water flowed after leaving the tanks. After leaving these pits, the water passed off in a small flume, and to the eye appeared as clear as the water of the purest mountain stream. For the sake of experiment, the superintendent coated a copper bowl with quicksilver, and placed it in such a position that the water from the .flume should fall into it. He also placed in the flume, below the bowl, some copper riffles, properly coated with quicksilver. Although the water passing through the flume appeared to be 143 144: FLOATING TREASURE. perfectly clear, yet at the end of three months the bowl and riffles were cleaned up and over $100 in amalgam was obtained. This mill is driven by water taken from the Carson River, and carried for a considerable distance through a large wooden flume. At one time it became necessary to shut off the water, for the purpose of repairing this flume. In making the repairs it was found that in many places that the heads of the nails driven into the bottom of the flume were thickly coated with amal- gam. Within a distance of about three rods along the flume, the workmen engaged in making repairs collected over an ounce of amalgam. The water flowing through the flume was taken from the river, below a number of large mills, and, though far from being clear, would never have been suspected to contain floating quicksilver in such quantity as to form collections of amalgam on the heads of iron nails. In order that quicksilver may amalgamate with iron, the iron must be scratched or polished while immersed in the quicksilver; it will therefore be seen that much amalgam must have passed by before the accidental occurrence of the conditions under which the collection of amalgam on the heads of the nails could begin. As a beginning, a passing pebble must have pricked through a globule of quicksilver just at the moment when it was roll- ing over the head of a nail. By a succession of these acci- dental collisons the head was finally covered with quicksilver, and the collection of amalgam then went on rapidly. As further evidence that quicksilver in considerable quanti- ties floats in the water of flumes and streams, below reduction- works, in a state of invisible division, and yet carries with it the precious metals, I may give an additional instance. At a mill on the Carson River one of the workmen required a piece of copper. Remembering to have seen some old sheets of that metal lying near the waste-gate of the flume, through which water was brought to the wheel of the mill, he went to the spot and hauled them out of a puddle in which they were lying. Much to his surprise he found the sheets heavily coated with amalgam and so eaten up by quicksilver that they were as thin as writing paper. The water pouring out through the waste-gate had a fall of about fifteen feet. It did not fall directly upon the copper plates, but in such a way WHERE THE QUICKSILVER GOES. 145 as to keep them constantly splashed and wet. The plates had lain where they were found four or five years. Over a pound of amalgam was scraped off them. It would seem that in these striking instances of the unsuspected floating away of the precious metals there is for millmen food for reflection, and for inventors a field of profit and distinction. Just what becomes of all the quicksilver used in the reduc- tion-works of Nevada is a question which has never yet been fully and satisfactorily answered. Much floats away with the water flowing from the mills ; but it cannot be that the whole of the immense quantities used is lost in that way. Quick- silver in great quantities is constantly being taken into the State, and not an ounce is ever returned. When it has been used in the amalgamation of a batch of ore, it is taken to the amalgamating-pans, and is used over and over again until it has disappeared. Whether it may float away with the water used in amalgamating, or is lost by evaporation while in the hot-bath of the steam-heated pans, there must be a vast amount of the metal collecting somewhere, as it is a metal not easily destroyed. In case it is lost by evaporation it must condense and fall to the ground somewhere near the works in which it is used, and if it floats away in the water it must eventually find a resting place on the bottom of the stream in which it is carried away. It is an axiom among millmen that " wherever quicksilver is lost, silver is lost ; " therefore there must be a large amount of silver lost, as we shall presently see. The amount of quicksilver used by mills working the Comstock ores alone averages 800 flasks, of 76 J pounds each; or 61,200 pounds per month. This in one year would amount to 734,400 pounds of quicksilver that go somewhere, and counting backwards for ten years shows 7,344,000 pounds that have gone somewhere either up the flue or down the flume. The quantity of quicksilver distributed monthly among the mills shows just how much is lost per month. None is sold or sent out of the country in or with the bullion ; therefore, if there were no loss, the mills would never want any more quicksilver than enough to give them their first start, as the same lot could be used over and over again, ad tnfimtum. CHAPTER XIX. THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF THE TERRITORY. IN 1862-3, with mills running in all directions and mines open and hoisting ore for a distance of a mile or more along the Comstock, Virginia City was a lively place. Where but two or three years before was nothing but a rocky slope covered with sage-brush and scrub cedar, were now to be seen large fire-proof brick and stone buildings, and streets crowded with men and teams. As all goods were at that time brought across the mountains by teams, and as hundreds of teams were required to haul ore from the mines to the mills, and to bring wood and timber from the hills and mountains, as well as to do all kinds of local freighting, there often occurred most vexatious block- ades in the streets. A jam of teams would take place, owing to some accident or to mismanagement on the part of some teamster, and teams rolling in from each side, there would soon be seen a regular blockade. These blockades were of daily occurrence and sometimes lasted for hours. Teamsters waiting for the road to open grew hungry, and producing their lunch-pails sat on their wagons and ate dinner, still waiting patiently for the blockade to be broken. Half a dozen stage-lines were running into the place, and these arrived loaded down with passengers capitalists, miners, "sports," thieves, robbers, and adventurers of all kinds. Cutting, shoot- ing, and rows of every description became of much more frequent occurrence than at any time in the early days. The stages on all the roads leading to the city were very frequently robbed by masked men, who halted the driver with revolvers 146 FOOTPADS ON THE "DIVIDE." 147 or double-barrelled shot-guns and called upon him to hand out Wells, Fargo & Go's treasure-box. One driver was halted so often and became so well acquainted with the routine of the business, that whenever he happened upon a man with a shot-gun, he went down into the boot of his vehicle for the treasure-box. The usual plan of the robbers, after securing the treasure-box, was to form the passengers in line by the roadside, and while one masked robber stood guard over them with a shot-gun, another would search them and relieve them of their coin, watches, and other valuables. After this ceremony they would be ordered on board the stage and told to " go along." The stages were robbed scores of times, bars of bullion, coin, and all manner of valuables being taken. It was finally ascertained that the gang who did most of this work indeed, made it a regular business were men living on Six-mile Canon, only about five miles from Virginia City. They were ostensibly engaged in mining and had leased a mill, but the bars they produced were those captured in their raids upon the stages. The mill was only a blind. Without it they would not have dared to dispose of their stolen bars. The capture of stage-coaches being considered not quite up to the genius of the gang, they finally took a whole train of cars on the Central Pacific Railroad, and got a spoil of over $50,000. But this was their last exploit. All were soon captured and the greater part of the stolen treasure recovered. On the ridge between Virginia City and Gold Hill, called the " Divide," and forming the suburbs of both towns, was for some years a place where footpads prowled nightly, and rob- beries there were of constant occurrence. A belated Gold Hiller would be hurrying to his home when a man would suddenly step out from behind a lumber-pile and tell him to hold up his hands. With a cocked pistol pointed at his head the Gold Hiller, or any other man, uniformly obeyed the order, when he was quickly relieved of his loose change and told to " move on." A footpad would sometimes rob three or four men in quick succession in this way, provided they hap- pened along one at a time. They were quite industrious, and were not the men to borrow or beg while they were able to make a living by the labor of their hands. 148 ATTACKING A DUTCHMAN. On one occasion a Virginian was coming up over the Divide from Gold Hill late at night. He had three twenty-dollar gold pieces in his breeches' pocket, and, happening to be saun- tering along with his hands in his pockets, had the coin in his hand. Suddenly a masked man stepped before him and thrusting a pistol into his face, cried : " Hold up your hands, sir ! " The gentleman held both hands high above his head, when the footpad searched his pockets and found nothing. The gentleman had closed his hand upon the three "twenties " and held them above his head while submitting to the search. The footpad was evidently much disappointed, as he said : " If you ever come along here again without any money, I'll take you a lick under the butt of the ear. That's what I'll do with you ! " One night a stout young German was passing over the Divide, when he was suddenly confronted by two masked robbers, one of whom placed a six-shooter at his head. The level-headed German just reached out and twisted the pistol out of the robber's hand ; whereupon he and his partner in the business of collecting tolls from belated travelers took to their heels, zigzagging and dodging industriously in the expectation that a bullet would be sent after them. Some one asked the young German what put it into his head to go for the pistol. " Py dunder," said he, " I did vant him ; because in der spring, you see, I goes to der Bannock country ! " Although few dead bodies were found on the roads, it is supposed that many murders were committed about this time, the majority of the victims being strangers in the country; yet not a few well-known residents of the State have from time to time mysteriously disappeared. Almost every year the remains of human beings are found in old shafts. In- quests are held by the coroner of the county, but the remains are generally so much decomposed that they cannot be iden- tified, and the witnesses summoned can only make mention of the several men known to them who have at various times suddenly and unaccountably disappeared. In one old shaft, when work was resumed on it after the lapse of some years, no less than three dead bodies of men were found. Pieces of rope were found tied about the arms and legs, as though for MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES. the purpose of making the bodies up into a bundle convenient for transportation to the shaft. This shaft was located below the town of Gold Hill, a short distance from a road on which there were few houses. Many persons have also, no doubt, accidentally walked into these old abandoned shafts, which everywhere cover the face of the country, in the night or in the winter, when their mouths were covered with drifts of snow. There are many instances of this where persons have narrowly escaped death. In Virginia City and other Washoe towns many goats are kept by families for their milk. There are hundreds of goats to be seen everywhere on the hiljs and mountains. The goat is an animal that is fond of caves and caverns. De Foe was right in putting an old goat into a dark cavern, in his " Robin- son Crusoe." The goats in Washoe constantly frequent the old tunnels high up on the side of Mount Davidson and other mountains. In many of these tunnels, at a distance of from two hundred to five hundred feet from the mouth, vertical shafts have been sunk, to the depth of from one hundred to two or three hundred feet. It often happens that the goats, in the darkness of the old tunnels, walk into these shafts. Some years ago a man living on Gold Canon went out to look up a strayed goat. He found the fresh tracks of goats leading- into an old tunnel, and ventured in. In walking back along the tunnel in the darkness he fell into a shaft in its bottom, The shaft was about eighty feet in depth, and he would prob- ably have been instantly killed, but that there were at the bottom the bodies of four or five dead goats ; as it was, he had an arm and a leg broken. The man being missed, his neighbors turned out in search of him. They found his tracks leading into the tunnel and went in after him, in Indian file. Suddenly the head man disap- peared, he having in the dim light of the place, stepped into the mouth of the old shaft. From the groans heard below his friends knew that he had not been killed, and at once pro- cured a windlass and rope and descended to his rescue, when, to their surprise, they found that they had two men in the bottom of the shaft. The man who last fell in had a leg broken, and by his fall came so near jolting the life out of the 9 150 SEARCH FOR THE MISSING. man of whom they at first came in search, that when first taken out it was thought he was dead. In Virginia City, some men who were one day at work in a lumber-yard, concluded it would be a good plan to pile a lot of boards over the mouth of an old shaft that was in a part of the yard, not far from the principal street leading to the town of Gold Hill. After they had commenced the work, one of the men said that as he put down a plank he thought that he heard a groan in the shaft. All listened. After a time another man said he had heard what seemed to be a faint moan at the bottom of the shaft. All again listened, and hearing nothing more were. about to go on with their work, when there came up from the bottom of the shaft a deep groan that was heard by all. A windlass was procured, and on de- scending the shaft a man was found lying at its bottom in an unconscious condition. He was brought to the surface, when it was found that he had a leg broken in two places, and was badly cut and bruised in many parts of his body. He was a man weighing about 180 pounds, and had fallen a distance of over one hundred feet. He proved to be an engineer employed at one of the mills at Silver City, and finally fully recovered. He remembered nothing about falling into the shaft; he only remembered that on a certain day he was in Virginia City and started for home very drunk. From this it was shown that he had been in the shaft three days and nights when found. He stated, that while in the shaft he regained his consciousness for a time, and to some extent comprehended his situation, as, looking about, he saw the walls of the shaft and the light of day at its top. When he recovered he " swore off" drinking never would drink another drop as long as he lived and did not get drunk again for nearly a month. One day a boy about six years of age was lost at Virginia City. His parents and their neighbors searched in vain for the missing child. The police turned out to their assistance, and many firemen and miners joined in the search. Bell- ringers had been through the city, and every place above ground had been searched. A dog had accompanied the boy when he left home, and this dog was also missing. Finally some one went up on the side of the mountain above town, and entered an old tunnel, in the floor of which was a vertical A BONANZA OF BEEF. A BONANZA OF BEEF. 153 shaft over one hundred and fifty feet in depth. Calling at the mouth of this shaft, a faint cry was heard below. A windlass was hastily rigged, and a miner descended the shaft, and at its bottom found the missing child with not a bone broken. He had fallen upon the dead bodies of two or three goats that lay at the bottom of the shaft. The dog was also found alive at the bottom of the shaft. The man who descended was almost suffocated when he came to the surface. The air was bad in the bottom of the shaft and the stench from the dead goats almost unendurable. The child was nearly dead when taken out, and was covered with a mass of flies that had insinuated themselves into his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes ; but in about ten days the little fellow had fully recovered and was ready for fresh adventures. Many other instances scores of them might be given to show the dangerous character of these traps, which every- where cover the face of the country, for miles about the prin- cipal mining towns, but I shall cdnclude with the following: A teamster, stopping at noon two or three miles from the city, unhitched eight yoke of oxen from his wagon, in order to let them graze about among the sage-brush while he was eating his dinner. Although unhitched, they were fastened together in a string by a heavy log-chain which passed through their several yokes. The teamster, seated on his wagon, eating, was astounded at seeing his whole team of cattle, then distant about one hundred yards, suddenly disappear into the ground. In picking along they reached an old shaft, round which those in the lead had passed, then moving forward had so straightened the line as to pull a middle yoke into the mouth of the shaft. All then followed, going down like links of sausage. The shaft was three hundred feet in depth, and that bonanza of beef still remains unworked at its bottom. The Comstock range is a region in which a stranger should never venture to wander at night, either on foot or on horse- back. Even in daylight, in the midst of a driving snow-storm, a man once rode his horse into a shaft over fifty feet in depth. The city authorities have caused most of the old shafts to be filled up or securely planked over, but scores of open shafts are still to be seen everywhere in the suburbs of the town. CHAPTER XX. THE MOUNTAIN REGION OF NEVADA. MOUNT Davidson, of which frequent mention has been made, was originally called " Sun Peak." This was the name given it by the early miners of Gold Canon Old Virginia, Comstock, O'Riley, and the other pioneers of the country. It was a very appropriate name, as the towering granite peak reaching far above all others about it is the first to be lighted by the morning sun and the last on which rest his evening rays. The mountain was given its present name in honor of the late Donald Davidson, of San Francisco, who in the early days purchased the ores of the Ophir and other companies on the Comstock, sending them to England for reduction. On one of his trips to Virginia, Donald Davidson accompanied a party of men to the summit of the mountain. On their return to the town it was unanimously agreed that the tall peak which they had that day scaled should be called Mount Davidson. Half a score of the hardy miners whose camps were pitched along the lead had accompanied Mr. Davidson up the mountain, and while on their way a number of quartz veins of more or less promising appearance were found. In the evening, while in a saloon, talking over the events of the day, it was thought that it would not be a bad idea to locate some of the ledges they had seen. The charge was then fifty cents per name for recording a claim of two hundred feet on a ledge. A man called " Joe Bowers," but probably not the original " Joe " immortalized by the poet, took the lead in making out the notices and arranging for the recording. Joe swore that all the ledges they had seen 154 PROVIDING FOR HIS FRIENDS. 155 were immensely rich millions in them ! and would make the fortune of any man who had an interest in any one of them. As the names were mentioned and written down on the notices, Joe called for " four-bits." This must be put up, in order that it might be handed over to the recorder of the district the first thing in the morning. Donald Davidson would say: "Well, here is Mr. A., a neigh- bor of mine in San Francisco, and a very worthy man ; suppose we put him down for a claim in this mine ? " "All right, Mr. Davidson," Joe would cry, "all right, sir; put up for him and in he goes ! " "Then there is Mr. B., a friend of mine and a worthy fellow; we might put him down." "All right, Mr. Davidson," cried Joe, who cared not how long the string of names might be, provided each name were repre- sented in his pocket by a half-dollar, " down he goes ! " All the notices were finally made out, and all the half-dollars paid in. Joe was to attend to the recording the first thing in the morning, but that night he struck a " little game of draw," and to this day those claims have not been recorded at least not by Joseph. As the leads upon the side of Mount Davidson have turned out, it was no doubt a fortunate thing for the old Scotchman's " worthy friends " that Joe found his " little game.," The height of Mount Davidson above the level of the sea is 7,775 feet, and the altitude of C street, the principal business street in Virginia City, is 6,205 feet. Thus, it will be seen, the peak of the mount- ain towers to the height of 1,570 feet above the town. As the city stands on the eastern face of the mountain, the sunsets in Virginia are rather early. In winter the sun sinks behind the top of Mount Davidson about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the city lies in shadow and it at once begins to grow cold. The altitude of the place is so great that, at any season, when clouds obscure the sun and shut out his rays it rapidly becomes cold. During the summer, however, clouds are seldom seen weeks and weeks pass without a cloudy day. In order to have the benefit of the sun in winter, until a late hour each day, a Washoe genius once proposed to run a large tunnel through the peak of Mount Davidson. Through this tunnel he proposed to bring 156 THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. the light and heat of the sun after it had gone down behind the mountain. As he could not expect the sun to shine directly through the tunnel at all points in his course down to the west- ern horizon, our inventor proposed to set at the western terminus of his tunnel a huge mirror, moved by clock-work, which should pour the rays of the sun in a constant stream through the tunnel. At the eastern terminus was to be placed a large receiving mirror, which should catch the rays coming through the tunnel and throw them to a distributing mirror down in the town, arid from this the sunlight would be reflected throughout the town by smaller mirrors placed at proper points on all the streets. Although this grand scheme was much admired, capital which is proverbially timid could never be found to begin the work. There is a grand view from the summit of Mount Davidson. On a clear day the eye reaches hundreds of miles in many directions. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, twenty-five miles away to the west, and extending north and south as far as the eye can reach, form a magnificent panorama of wild mountain scenery, embracing hundreds of tall snowy peaks and dark, pine- clad ridges reaching upwards toward naked granite towers. To the southward along the great range, the peaks are taller and more imposing than those rising along the northern part of its course. To the southward, then, we turn and see at the distance of from forty to seventy-five or eighty miles, scores of massive peaks standing stately and clearly defined against the sky. Seen when robed from head to foot in glittering snow, these peaks present a particularly striking appearance. They may easily be imagined an army of giants marching up from the desert wilds of Arizona in meandering array. Far away the tail of this procession of the peaks is seen to sweep miles on miles to the eastward, while above the white hoods of the giants forming this lagging curve, is dimly discerned through the haze a hint of heads in the still more distant rear, swinging back to the west and falling, as it were, into the general line of march to the northward. All above, beyond, and about the giant army, looks so settled, calm, and silent that one is awed into all manner of wierd imaginings in regard to its motionless march. These -mighty peaks are impressive at any time, but when they come before us in procession robed in their trailing THE ASCENT OF MOUNT DA VIDSON. 157 i . shrouds they set us to thinking ponderous, solemn thoughts that we don't more than half like. The view to the eastward is unobstructed for over one hundred miles, and by its vastness and its stern ruggedness is made imposing and grand, though but a region of rocky sterile mountains and broad deserts crested over with salt and alkaline exudations from the sandy and bitter soil. Far as the eye can range, not a tree, not a house, not a sign of life is seen. All is as dead, and as arid and wrinkled in death, as the valleys and the mountains of the moon. On this side the east clinging along the face of the mountain, we see below us Virginia City ; turning again to the west, Washoe Lake is seen shimmering almost at the base of the peak on which we stand, its waves washing the feet of the hills that flank the Sierras. Where we stand, on the narrow circle of granite forming the apex of the mountain, is planted a tall flag-staff on which, upon each recurrence of the natal day of the nation, the Stars and Stripes are unfurled. The flag is run up during the night, by a man who is annually sent to the top of the mountain on this errand, and those who turn their eyes toward the peak, on the morning of the 4th of July, will always see the flag of their country floating there through the "dawn's early light." On the occasion of the total eclipse of the moon, which occur- red on the night of October 24, 1874, it was not only cloudy at Virginia City, but there prevailed a furious and blinding snow- storm. Not a glimpse of the heavens or of the rising moon could be obtained when evening set in. Not to lose a spectacle so grand as a total eclipse of the moon, I determined to make the ascent of Mount Davidson and so reach a point above the clouds. Accompanied by half a dozen friends, I started a few minutes before 8 o'clock in the evening, and, pressing upward through the fast-falling snow, and through the dense cloud-mass, which we entered on the upper slopes of the mountain, at 10 o'clock we reached the topmost peak, and to our delight found that we at last stood above the clouds and the storm. It was one of the grandest sights ever witnessed by mortals. As far as the eye could reach, on all sides, stretched a level sea of clouds. All the surrounding mountains were shut all the lower world was hidden ; all but the extreme point of the bare granite peak on which we stood, a little island some fifty feet in 158 AN ECLIPSE. circumference, with the tall flag-staff standing in its centre. High above, the full moon shone in splendor, and in all quarters of the heavens the stars twinkled brightly. The air was keen and frosty, but we were provided with blanket-overcoats and mufflers. For some minutes after rising out of the sea of clouds in which we had so long been enveloped, our little party stood at the foot of the flag-staff and gazed on all around in speechless awe. It almost seemed that we had left the world. Our little island appeared to be all that remained of earth. Hundreds of miles on all sides, as it looked to us, stretched a smooth and level sea of pearl. In the distance this appeared to be motion- less, but nearer it all moved slowly and majestically from west to east, while, at the same time, a peculiar swaying up and down was seen as it passed along. On and along the crests of these cloud-waves, or rather cloud-swells, were observed to run and faintly flicker such tints as are seen in mother-of-pearl. All this was very beautiful, but with it came a sense of isolation from the world a feeling of loneliness that was most depressing. However, as the moon began to enter the shadow of the earth there were so many and such wonderful changes in the appear- ance of all about us, that our loneliness and littleness were for- gotten. The sea about us, which before had shown only the tints of the pearl, now took on the hue of amber, but still floated past and gently waved up and down as had the sea of pearl. As the obscuration progressed, the more distant portions of the cloud- sea changed from amber to brown, and this to black, gradually closing in upon us from all sides, but most from the northward. In our immediate neighborhood all had changed from amber to a deep burnt-sienna tinge. So deep and decided was this tint that at one time, for the space of some minutes, it seemed to pervade the whole atmosphere ; our clothing partook of it, and the flag-staff near which we stood looked like a great rod of rusty iron. During this dark stage a heavy breeze sprang up, and the swells in the vaporous sea surrounding us were tossed far higher than before. At times these billows rolled many feet above our heads, and the eclipse being then nearly total, we were some- GOING BACK TO THE CITY. 159 times, for minutes, left in midnight darkness, and but for the lanterns we had carried up the mountain, and which were stand- ing at the foot of the flag-staff, we could not have seen our hands when held before our faces. But these waves of darkness seldom lasted more than two or three minutes, and we had, from first to last, an imposing and deeply impressive view of the eclipse. It is probable that a total eclipse of the moon was never before observed under precisely such circumstances as was this by our little party, standing on a mountain peak above the clouds. As the eclipse passed off, about the same phenomena' were observed above and about us as in its coming on. Being chilled to the very marrow in our bones, we left the top of the mountain, however, while nearly half the face of the moon was still obscured. Taking a last lingering look at all about us, observing that our cloud-sea was again assuming the hue of amber and that the horizon was widening and brightening in all directions, as the light spread abroad and drove back the brown and the more distant black, we plunged down into the thick cloud- stratum, and, guided by the light of our lanterns, made the best of our way down the bed of a huge gorge in the face of the mountain, and went back into the city. Strange as it may appear to some, we found it much warmer in the midst of the clouds and drifting snow than above on the summit of the mountain. Not one of the party will ever forget that total eclipse of the moon, seen from old Mount Davidson's topmost height, nearly 8,000 feet above the level of the sea. CHAPTER XXI. THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. THE Virginia range of mountains, of which Mount Da- vidson is the principal peak, is separated from the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a series of small valleys, the principal of which are Washoe Valley, Eagle Valley, Steamboat Valley, and the Truckee Meadows. The range can be traced for a distance of about one hundred miles from the point where it diverges from the Sierras, as they trend to the northwest, to where it finally dies out in the Mud Lake region. The average width of the range is about eighteen miles, though it is quite irregular. The great mass of the mountains composing the range is made up of volcanic rocks, the accumulation of several successive outpourings. On the eastern face of Mount Davidson, about 1,500 feet below the summit, are found the croppings of the Comstock lode. The rock on the west side of the vein called the " country rock" by mining men, because it is the general rock of the country outside of the lode is syenite, a rock which forms the mass of Mount Davidson ; on the east side of the vein the country rock is propylite, a volcanic rock of of much more recent origin than the syenite, (syenite is much the same as granite, and propylite is a rock of a por- phyritic character.) Between these two rocks, by some throe of nature, was formed the immense fissure in which lies the Comstock vein a fissure known to be nearly four miles in length and from one or two hundred to nearly fifteen hun- dred feet in width. This vast chasm was undoubtedly formed by volcanic action. It is not one fissure, but more properly speaking, a series of rents running parallel with the main 160 HOW THE FISSURES WERE FORMED. 161 opening. The smaller parallel fractures are principally in the propylite or east country rock. It is but natural that they should be in this, as it was the stratum that was lifted up and shattered when the main fissure was formed. In depth, all of these rents will be found to be lost in the prin- cipal opening. After the rending apart of the rocks and the formation of the chasm, there doubtless burst up through the opening im- mense volumes of hot mineral waters, steam, and gases, from solfataras or hot springs underneath, and these charged the vein with its rich sulphurets and other ores of silver. Signs of hot springs are seen everywhere on the hills to the eastward of the vein, and hot springs that are still active are found in various directions, at the distance of a few miles, the most remarkable of which are those known as the Steamboat Springs; which, even at this day, are briskly sending up hot water, steam, and columns of heated gases through a fissure over a mile in length, in fact are actively engaged in the form- ation of a metallic lode. It is not improbable that the fissure in which the Comstock lode was formed was originally rent by the upward pressure of the confined steam and gases of hot springs formed between the syenite and propylite far beneath the surface of the earth. Be that as it may, the rent was formed, and afterwards was charged with its present mineral contents. When the rocks were rent apart, fragments from the edges of the chasm principally from the east or propylite side, the side reared up fell into the opening, and sliding down the smooth slope of the syenite, blocked the fissure, preventing its closing. Some of these fragments were at least one thousand feet long and from three to four hundred feet in thickness, and many of them were from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in length, with a proportionate thickness. These still rest in the vein, the ore, quartz, etc. having formed about them. By the miners these are called "horses." They are gener- ally composed of propylite (commonly spoken of as porphyry in the mines, owing to its inclosing crystals of feldspar and fragments of hornblende), but there are some that came from the west side of the fissure and are syenite. 162 FORMATION OF QUARTZ AND ORES. After the fissure was thus propped open, still other frag- ments of propylite fell from its roof during the time the vein was filling with its present precious contents, and these are found to be surrounded on all sides by ore of the richest character. The cavities caused by their displacement were also filled with quartz and ore. This makes the east wall or propylite side of the vein very jagged and uneven, while the less disturbed west or syenite wall is quite regular, descend- ing to the eastward at an angle of from thirty-five to fifty degrees, being throughout quite smooth and covered with a heavy coating of clay. The fragments of rock that fell into the chasm during the time it was being charged with the precious metals,* formed each a nucleus about which the quartz and ores collected. In all parts of the vein are to be seen pieces of country rock, from the size of a filbert to many pounds in weight, about which quartz has formed, and with the quartz ore. After the vein was filled, it appears to have again several times opened, when fresh fragments fell into the newly formed fissures, and were surrounded by quartz and ores by the action of the waters and gases forced up from below. These several convulsions pulverized the quartz and ore previously formed in the vein, leaving it in such a condition that in most of the mines the greater part of it can be dug down with picks. In most places in the ore-bodies in the lower levels, appear- ances indicate that while the ore and quartz were in this shattered and pulverized state, floods of hot water poured in upon it and boiled it as in a caldron, and that at the end of this cooking operation it finally settled down, assuming a hor- izontally stratified position. In this way must have been formed the occasional streaks of clay and the numerous strata of various shades of color and degrees of fineness of subdivis- ion of component parts seen in the ore as it now rests in the vein. It is as plainly sedimentary in form as any gravel deposit seen on the surface. This is not seen everywhere in the lower levels, but in such places as were most subject to dynamical action. All who have visited the lower levels of the mines on the Comstock lode must have observed, even upon the most HOW THE COM STOCK VEIN WAS FORMED. 163 cursory examination of the ores, the peculiar^tratification of which I speak. The chasm in which is formed the Comstock lode was doubtless at one time a seething caldron, and at the great depths now attained, not only great quantities of hot water are found, but the rock itself is in many places suffic- iently hot to be almost painful to the naked hand. The course or " strike " of the Comstock vein is a little east of the magnetic meridian, about north twenty-five degrees east. The lode crops out in several places along the face of Mount Davidson, throwing up huge piles of quartz at intervals of from three hundred to five hundred or one thousand yards, as it takes its course southward across the " Divide," and through and beyond Gold Hill ; also, to the northward, in the direction of Cedar Hill and Seven-mile Canon. When the ledge crops out it has a first or false dip to the west, but after being fol- lowed down it becomes straight, then turns, and takes its regular dip to the east at an angle of from thirty-five to fifty degrees. In the Ophir, when the true dip was first discovered, the vein turned to the east at the depth of three hundred and thirty feet. The croppings of the vein being above and to the west of Virginia City, this eastern dip carries it under the whole length and breadth of the town, and it also passes under the town of Gold Hill, a mile further south in the same way. The lead follows the curved outlines of the hills on the surface, swinging in at the ravines and bearing out on the points of the ridges, but as depth is attained it will doubtless be found to straighten in the direction of its present general course. The only gangue of the vein is quartz, though, in places, there are found detached patches and masses of gyp- sum and carbonate of lime. The ore contains native gold, native silver, sulphuret of silver (silver glance), stephanite, chloride of silver, some rich galena and antimony, and a few rare forms of silver in small quantities; also, mingled with the whole mass of the ores, iron pyrites, copper pyrites, zinc- blende, and a few other minerals. The early miners began the work of opening their claims along the Comstock by sinking shafts on the croppings and by running short tunnels to pass under these croppings and tap the vein at depths varying from two hundred to six or 164: DISAGREEABLE "PINCHING." seven hundred feet. The shafts were mere circular holes precisely like an ordinary well, and a common windlass, rope, and bucket, constituted all there was coming under the head of machinery. When more water was encountered than could be hoisted out with a bucket, these early miners were at the "end of their string." Those who were running tunnels, however, were not incommoded by the water they tapped during the progress of their work, as it flowed out as fast as it came in. The Ophir mine was at first worked by means of an incline which followed the dip of the vein to the west. They soon began to be bothered with water and were obliged to set up a small pump, as has already been stated. All of those who had locations on the Comstock, however, were able to find means for the erection of machinery as soon as it was found necessary to use it, though much of the first hoisting and pumping apparatus was too light and was badly arranged. But almost any kind of steam machinery was better than hoisting by the hand-windlass or with the horse-whim. After starting up with steam hoisting-works, it was not long before a number of companies began to extract ore from the upper series of bonanzas, and these being exhausted, car- ried their work to lower levels and searched out new bodies of ore. It often happened that when the ore in sight was exhausted, the company was obliged to drift in all directions for a long time before again finding paying ore. In case a level was opened and explored in all parts without finding ore, sinking was resumed in the main shaft, and a new level was opened at a greater depth in the vein. The miners are never discouraged so long as they find a good width o'f quartz and other vein-matter between the two walls of the lode, as there is then always a chance of finding ore somewhere in the mass. What they do not like, however, is to find the walls coming together "pinching," as they call it. The coming together of the walls pinches out or cuts off the vein ; yet, even at the " pinch," there is always left a seam of clay, or sgme such sign, by which the lead may be followed until the pinch has been passed and the vein again widens and becomes ore-producing. CHAPTER XXII. BONANZA AND BORRASCA. THERE are always some companies in " borrasca " out of luck ; in barren rock while others are in " bonanza " in good luck ; working large bodies of rich ore. In a year or two, those who are to-day at work in barren quartz may have a rich body of ore, while those who are to-day in rich ore may in a year or two be delving through barren rock in search of a new bonanza. When a company has for a long time been engaged in the un- successful search for ore, their stock very frequently falls to a very low figure and few care to buy it at all, when of a sudden they come upon a great body of rich ore. A rumor of this reaches the surface, and those who have money to invest buy " take in " a few shares at a venture. The officers of the company and their friends in San Francisco who are daily informed by tele- graph of all that is going on in the mine begin to quietly gather in all of the stock that they can find, and soon the secret is out and the stock at once bounds upward to a high figure. Everybody then becomes wild to possess a few shares of the stock. Men who would not touch it when it was selling for a mere trifle, now rush in and pay the highest prices. Some appear never to think of buying stock until they see the whole com- munity excited about it and recklessly bidding for it ; they then rush in and pay the highest figures. It is like piling bricks one upon another till the whole column begins to topple and finally tumbles to the ground. When stock goes down in this way it nearly always goes as far below as it has before been above true merit. 165 166 SPECULA TION. Many men who are good judges of mines make large purchases of stock in mines that are in borrasca that are out of ore and appear to be out of luck, biding their time for profit. They have confidence in the mine from the position it occupies on the Comstock lode and from its having had rich bodies of ore above. These, they will contend, were never rained down into the mines from the heavens, but came up from the regions below ; there- fore in the regions below, whence came the rich ore already found, there must be more of the same kind. To find it, say they, is a mere matter of time. In November, 1870, an immense bonanza was found in the Crown Point mine, Gold Hill, at the depth of 1,100 feet. Four months before the discovery of this bonanza, that is, in August of the same year, the stock of the mine was selling at three dollars per share; in May, 1872, the stock was selling at one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five dollars per share. The same bonanza extended south into the Belcher mine, the stock of which was selling for one dollar and fifty cents per share in September, 1870; in April, 1872, it sold for one thousand five hundred and twenty-five dollars per share. At this time, how- ever, there was a grand stock excitement and the stock of many mines in which there was little if any ore sold at very high figures. The masses had come into the market as purchasers and were blindly buying right and left ; they were all industri- ously engaged in adding bricks to the pile, stocking them up higher and higher, as idiotically strong in the faith that they were building for all time as were the builders of Babel. Finally down went everything in a grand crash. During this excitement there was an increase in the value of the mines on the Comstock, in about two months, of over forty-five million dollars. It frequently happens that when a company have been a long time in search of ore it is at last found at a time when the officers and leading men have but a small amount of stock in their posses- sion. They then not only keep their strike a secret, but in case of anything leaking out through their men they bear their stock in the market, throwing in all the shares they dare venture for the purpose of breaking down the price in order that they may buy in a great amount at a low figure. Sometimes they succeed in this, but it often happens that the " outsiders " are too well THREE FAMOUS MINES. AN INFALLIBLE MAXIM. 167 informed in regard to what is in the mine, when there is a general scramble for the stock and it at once goes up with a rush. Not a few persons nearly always make money in stocks by observing the simple rule of buying them when they are down so low that nobody appears to care to touch them, paying for them in full and then holding them for developments in the mines, and it seldom happens that there is not a time within two years when they can sell for twice or three times the price origi- nally paid. If there should be no strike in the mines in which they hold stock there may be valuable developments in adjoining mines, which sends up the price of the stocks of all the mines in the neighborhood, While work is being done in a mine there is always a proba- bility of something being found, sooner or later. When a company whose claim is well situated on the lead has been a longtime out of luck not a few will buy stock in their mine, because they consider that it is about time for the luck of the company to change. The Mexican silver-miners have an aphorism, in the infallibility of which they have unbounded faith. It is as follows : " As many days as you are in borrasca (barren rock), so many days shall you be in bonanza " rich ore. Such faith have they in this maxim, that in Mexico they frequently go to work in a mine that has ceased to be productive with no other contract or understanding than the simple one that they are to be allowed to work as many days in the " bonanza " as they spend days in finding it. Such a contract as this was once made on the Corn- stock lode. It was at the time when the upper or first line of bonanzas was opened in the Ophir, Mexican, Gould & Curry, and other leading mines. Otto H. Frank was at that time superintendent of the old Central mine. He was anxious to find a bonanza in his mine, but found only barren quartz in all of his drifts and cross-cuts. Some Mexican miners were very desirous of getting into the mine. They " felt it in their bones " that they could find a bonanza. The terms they proposed to Superintendent Frank were simply these : " As many days as we are drifting in search of the bonanza, so many days shall we be allowed to extract ore from the bonanza." 10 168 MR. FRANK'S DEVICES. Mr Frank thought it all over. He had failed in his search for a bonanza ; what was proposed by the Mexicans seemed fair enough ; he would let them try their luck, anyhow, to get a bonanza. So the bargain was struck : " So many days in borrasca, so many days in bonanza." The Mexicans went to work in high spirits. Mr Frank ajso was quite cheerful, as he thought those "knowing cusses " from the mines of Mexico would drift into a big body of ore the first week, when he would step in the week after and turn them all out before they had done more than get a taste of the bonanza. But they didn't strike it the first week, nor the second, nor the third. The fact is they didn't strike it the first month, nor the second, nor the third. Indeed, at the end of six months they had found no bonanza. Now it was that Superintendant Frank began to be frightened began to curse all Mexican mining aphorisms and rules and regulations. Should the Mexicans now strike a bonanza, what kind of a bonanza, he reasoned, would it be by the time it came into his hands ? In six months those Mexicans would have it completely skinned and gutted. He might as well have no mine. He now began to suspect that the fellows knew exactly where to drift to open out in a bonanza of vast size and incalculable richness probably nearly all silver but were only drifting about on the outside of it in order to get more time inside. He began to hate the very sound of those words : " As many days as you are in borrasca, so many days shall you be in bonanza." Being greatly worried about the bargain he had thoughtlessly made, Mr. Frank went to see old man Meer, an old Castilian who had but one eye, but who was the greatest " ore expert " that ever set foot upon the Comstock whose one eye bored into the rock further and faster than any diamond drill. He told Meer about the bargain he had made and the fears and suspi- cions he entertained, asking him to go into the mine, give it a thorough examination, and tell him if there was a bonanza any- where about. Old Meer went into the mine, traversed all the drifts, cross-cuts, and coyote-holes, boring into the rock at all points with that eye of his. When they came out and again and stood upon the surface at 'NAD A BONANZA." 169 the mouth of the tunnel, in the broad light of day, Mr. Frank turned to Meer and said : " Well, what do you think ? " Meer uttered only two words, but those two words lifted a great load off Mr. Frank's breast. Old Meer simply said : "Nada bonanza," and " no bonanza " it proved. The Mexicans worked on for another week or two, when they became disheartened and gave up their contract, and with it, doubtless, some portion of their faith in their favorite saying : " So many days as you are in borrasca, so many days shall you be in bonanza." They had toiled more than six long, weary months and the result was " nada bonanza" CHAPTER XXIII. HOW THE MINES ARE WORKED. WHEN the upper line of bonanzas had been worked out, and the shafts were sunk to greater depths in search of new bodies of ore, they eventually attained such a depth as brought them down upon the barren syenite forming the west wall. The shafts were then deflected from the ver- tical and passed down along the syenitic foot-wall to the eastward, in the shape of an incline. At length it was seen that these inclines were becoming too long to permit of their being worked through to advantage with the machinery then in use, and company after company moved to the eastward, a distance of a thousand feet or more, and then established a new line of shafts, over which they set up new and more powerful machinery than had yet been seen on the lead. These shafts did not strike the lead until they had been sunk to the depth of one thousand or one thousand two hundred feet, whereas the first line of shafts were either sunk on the lead, or at such a distance in front of the croppings as to tap it at the depth of from two to five hundred feet. A third line of shafts had been commenced in 1875, and one of these, which is now being sunk by the Savage, Hale, & Norcross, and the Challar-Potosi Companies combined, is nearly a mile east of the croppings. This is intended to be a shaft for all time. It will be of vast size, containing several spacious compartments for hoisting and pumping purposes, and will be supplied with the most powerful machinery that can be manufactured. It will require some years to sink this shaft to a point where it will intersect the vein ; meantime the 170 HOISTING THE "GIRAFFE" 171 several companies will continue to work through their pres- ent shafts and inclines. The Savage Company are prepared to sink the incline of their present shaft to the great depth of four thousand feet. For this purpose they have set up new hoisting machinery of novel construction and of the most powerful description. The reel on which the hoisting-cable winds is a novelty for the first time introduced on the Comstock lode, and a brief description of it and the cable used upon it may not be with- out interest for the general reader. The reel is fifteen feet in length, and at the larger end is twenty-two feet in diameter, while at the smaller end the diameter is but thirteen feet. It is suspended upon a wrought iron shaft about sixteen inches in diameter, the ends of which revolve in ponderous bearings supported by foundations of cut stone reaching into the earth to solid rock. The shell of the reel is covered with thick wooden staves, and the whole somewhat resembles a great tapering cask. Over the staves are securely bolted heavy iron plates forming a strong armor outside of the wooden structure. In this iron armor is a deep groove which, starting at the smaller end of the great conical drum, runs in a spiral manner to the larger end; just as the groove between the threads of a screw is seen to run. In this groove winds the cable as the incline-car ("giraffe") is let down into or drawn up out of the mine. When the car is at the bottom of the incline, the greater part of the cable is off the reel, and when the hoisting begins it is wound up on the smaller end of the drum, where the engines have greater purchase on the load. As the hoisting proceeds, and the weight to be raised becomes momentarily lighter, on account of the heavy steel cable being wound up, the lifting force is steadily moved toward the larger end of the drum, and each revolution adds to the swiftness of the ascent of the car that is being raised. The cable is round, and is made of the best steel wire. It is 4,000 feet in length, and weighs 25,190 pounds. The upper part, for a distance of 1,500 feet down, is two inches in diameter; for the remainder of its length, 2,000 feet, it gradually tapers till at the lower end its diameter is one and three-quarter inches. The taper 172 DESERTED SHAFTS. is not made by dropping wires in the several strands of the rope, but by drawing each wire (as it is manufactured) slightly tapering for the last 2,500 feet of its length. The incline hoisting-works stand a short distance from the building in which is contained the hoisting machinery of the vertical shaft, and the cable, after entering the latter building is carried over a large iron pulley or sheave that is placed over the main shaft. Thence it passes down a compartment of the main shaft a vertical distance of 1,300 feet, when it passes under a second sheave and continues down the incline to its bottom. The car used in the incline runs on an iron track, holds, about five tons of rock, and is capable of hoisting (easily) from 480 to 500 tons per 24 hours. The car is made wholly of iron and steel. When this incline car has been hauled up as far as the bot- tom of the vertical shaft, that is, to within 1,300 feet of the surface, it there dumps its load by means of a self-acting gate in its bottom. The rock thus dumped from the incline-car is then taken in smaller cars and sent to the surface on cages that ply up and down the hoisting-compartments of the main vertical shaft. The engines for driving the huge reel, and thus hoisting this iron car or "giraffe," with its load of ore and the 25,000 pounds of cable, are two in number and of 2oo-horse power each. A precisely similar hoisting apparatus has since been set up at the Ophir mine ; indeed, the drawings for this pow- erful machinery were first made for the Ophir Company. The length and weight of cable at the Ophir is the same as that in use at the Savage mines. Some of the old shafts opened on and about the first or upper line of bonanzas have quite gone to decay. They still stand, but the timbers in many places, far down in the bowels of the earth, are racked and rotten ; while the timbers built up in the mine to support the chambers from which ore was extracted, and set up in the galleries, drifts, cross-cuts, and chutes, millions on millions of feet in all, have quite gone to decay. It is perilous to undertake the exploration of these old worked-out levels. In many places they are caved in, A REMARKABLE SPECTACLE. 173 every direction, the old floors are rotten, water drips from above, a hot, musty atmosphere and almost stifles the explorer, and in places, the air is so foul that his candle is almost ex- tinguished. Down in these deserted and dreary old levels, hundreds of feet beneath the surface, are encountered fungi of monstrous growth and most uncouth and uncanny form. They cover the old posts in great moist, dew-distilling masses, and depend from the timbers overhead in broad slimy curtains, or hang down like long squirming serpents or the twisted horns of the ram. Some of these take most fantastic shapes, almost exactly counterfeiting things seen on the surface. Specimens of these are to be seen in most of the cabinets of curiosities in Virginia City. Some of the fungi that grow up from the bottoms of old disused drifts are wholly mineral and are composed of minute crystals of such salts as are contained in the earth from which they spring. These old, decaying places breed all manner of gases, some of them, as the firedamp (carburetted hydrogen gas), danger- ous to human life. One winter night, in 1874, some of the residents of the western part of Virginia City were startled by seeing what seemed a column of flame fifty or sixty feet in height, shoot- ing up from the mouth of an old shaft near the old upper works of the Ophir Company. It was at first thought that the timbers in the old mine were on fire, and three or four men ran to the spot to see what could be done toward smoth- ering the flames. , On reaching the shaft, however, they found that there was no smell of smoke, and also that the supposed fire was a light unlike anything they had ever before seen, in its weird white- ness and the strange coruscations of its component particles, the light shed about by the flame, the faces of the men were of a corpse-like palor. Their clothing and hair also partook in some degree of the same ghastly and unnatural hue. The light came up the full size of the large square shaft, and seen at a distance, as it rose through the falling snow, closely resembled one of the shooting spires *of the aurora borealis, and it exhibited something of the same waving and inconstant motion. 174: WHA T THE MINERS SA W. Although the men felt creeping over them a sort of super- stitious awe, they still had sufficient courage to approach the shaft and gaze into it. A strange sight was there seen. The whole interior of the shaft seemed to be at a white heat, and glowed like a furnace. The timbers on the sides were partic- ularly brilliant, Each splinter, excrescence, or bit of fungus seemed darting dazzling rays that streamed steadily out in all directions. A warm, strange current of air ascended from the sweltering regions below, and there was observed a musty, sickening smell. All of those who looked into the shaft afterwards felt a severe pain in the temples, and two or three were made sick at the stomach. This strange appearance lasted over half an hour, and before it ended a crowd of a dozen or more miners returning from their work had collected about the shaft. The light died out from the top downwards, and protuberances from the sides of the shaft continued to glow for some minutes after the light was no longer visible at its top. This remark- able phenomenon was undoubtedly caused by the belching forth of a highly phosphurated gas of some kind from the deep, underground chambers of the old abandoned works. The rush of this gas was probably caused by an extensive cave in a place where the timbers had rotted away. One of the men who witnessed the spectacle was of the opinion that the mingling of the gas from the mine with the atmospheric air had something to do with intensifying the light. He observed in the ascending current of pseudo-flame myriads of small particles of some substance of a floss-like texture, which appeared to flash and glow as they darted upward, and which presented in the general column of light much the same appearance as motes moving about in a sunbeam. In February, 1874, some miners at work in the Utah mine, just north of Virginia City, were all made temporarily blind by certain water or gases which they encountered. They were running a drift at the depth of 400 feet to connect with some old, flooded works. When the end of the drift neared the old works, the water they contained began to be drained oif. The water had attained a great height, and the pressure was so strong that it sent streams darting and hissing from POISONED t 175 every hole and crevice in the rock in which the drift was being run. In places, these streams of water spurted out with as much force as though they had been thrown by a hydraulic pipe. The water, or the steam and gases from it, poisoned all who worked in the drift. Their heads and faces were so swollen that their eyes were closed, and all were thus rendered blind for some days. A few years before, the same thing occurred in the Savage and the Yellow-Jacket mines, when drifts were run to tap old flooded works in which rotten timbers were soaking. Quite recently, all the miners at work in the Sutro Tunnel were poisoned, and had their eyes closed for some days by the tapping of a shaft which had been filled with water for two or three years. All who are thus poisoned speedily recover by remaining above ground for three or four days. CHAPTER XXIV. FIREDAMP. A MINE IN FLAMES. NO premature explosion of blasts, crushing in of timbers, caving of earth and rock no accident of any kind is so much feared or is more terrible than a great fire in a large mine. It is a hell, and often a hell that contains living, moving, breathing, and suffering human beings not the ethereal and intangible souls of men. It is a region of fire and flame, from which the modes of egress are few and perilous. A great fire on the surface of the earth is a grand and fearful spectacle, but a great fire hundreds of feet beneath the surface of the earth is terrible terrible beyond measure or the power of words to express, when we know that far down underneath the ground which lies so calmly on all sides, giving forth no sound, are scores of human beings pursued by flames and gases, scorched and panting, fleeing into all manner of nooks and corners, there to meet their death. A large mine in which are employed from five hundred to one thousand men is of itself a considerable village, though it be a village far below the light of day. In it are more timbers, lumber, and other, combustible matter than is found in all the houses of a town of two thousand inhabitants it contains millions on millions of square feet of timber in it whole forests have found a tomb. Besides being built up to a height of from one thousand to one thousand five hundred or two thousand feet, with cribs composed of massive timbers, each crib filling a space five by six feet in size, there are floors of heavy planks, six feet apart, one above another, all the distance from bottom to top. In many places, 176 YELLOW-JACKET MINE IN A BLAZE. 177 too, the main timbers are doubled again and so filled with blocks and wedges and braces that all is a solid mass of wood. In numberless places there are stairs leading from floor to floor, and then there are scores of chutes, built of timber and lined with planks, with verticle winzes, constructed in the same way, all of which, with the chutes, lead up through the floors from level to level; also numerous drifts and cross-cuts supported by timbers and walled in with lagging (split pine-stuff like staves, but longer), all of which serve as flues to conduct and spread the heat and flames throughout the mine. The mines of the Comstock have not escaped fires. They have not been, many, but they have been fearful as experiences, and have cost many lives. The first and most terrible of these fires was that which broke out in the Yellow-Jacket mine, Gold Hill, about 7 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, April 7, 1869, in which forty-five men lost their lives. The fire started at the 8oo-foot level (that is 800 feet below the surface) at a point two hundred feet south of the main shaft, near the line of the Kentuck mine. It was first discpvered at 7 o'clock in the morning, though it had no doubt been burning longer, as some of the miners asserted that they detected the smell of smoke as early as 3 o'clock A. M. The night shift (relay) left at 4 A. M. and the morning shift began work at 7 A. M.,, and it was supposed that the fire originated from a candle left sticking against a timber by men on the night shift. From 4 o'clock till 7 o'clock the only men in the mine were the car- men, but before the danger had been discovered many of the day shift had been lowered into the mines Yellow-Jacket,.. Crown Point, and Kentuck. The first thing done on discovering the fire was to try to get the men up out of the mines. The alarm of fire was sounded, and the fire companies of Gold Hill and Virginia City at once turned out. % Pending the arrival of the firemen with their apparatus, those about the several mines were doing all in their power to rescue the men who were left underground. At first the smoke was so- dense that no one dared venture into either of the shafts, but about 9 o'clock in the morning it seemed to draw away from the 178 A SCENE OF HORROR. Kentuck shaft, and men descended on the cage and recovered two dead bodies. At the Crown Point mine, when the cage was being hoisted for the last time, some of the men on it w.ere so far suffocated as to fall back and were crushed to death between the sides of the cage and the timbers of the shaft. Toward noon some of the firemen working at the Yellow- Jacket mine ventured down the shaft to the 8oo-foot level and and recovered three or four bodies of asphyxiated miners. About the same time, at the Crown Point mine, a cage was sent down with a lighted lantern upon it. It was lowered to the looo-foot level, and with the iantern was sent the following dispatch, written on a large piece of pasteboard : 44 We are fast subduing the fire. It is death to attempt to come up from where you are. We shall get you out soon. The gas in the shaft is terrible, and produces sure and speedy death. Write a word to us and send it up on the cage, and let us know where you are." No answer came back all below were dead. As soon as it was known that the mines were on fire, and that a large number of miners were imprisoned below, by the dense volumes of smoke and suffocating gases that poured up through the several shafts, the most intense excitement prevailed, both in Gold Hill and Virginia City. The wives, children, and relatives of the lost flocked to to the several hoisting works, approaching as near to the mouths of the shafts as they were allowed to come, and, standing there on all sides, their grief and lamentations caused tears to course down the cheeks of the most stout- hearted . " Lost ! lost ! lost ! " was the despairing cry constantly uttered by many of the women whose husbands were below. The Rev. Father Manogue, a pioneer of the country, and several other Catholic clergymen of Virginia City and Gold Hill, moved about among the people and did all that could be done to comfort and quiet the weeping women and children, but even the reverend fathers could find little to say in mitiga- tion of the woes of such an occasion. Many of the poor women, with weeping children clinging about them, stood round the shafts, convulsively clasping and wringing their hands, and rocking their bodies to and fro in excess of misery, yet uttering scarcely a word or a sob they at first seemed utterly stupefied and THE VICTIMS. 179 overwhelmed by the suddenness and awfulness of the calamity. Turn where they might there was no comfort for them. At the Yellow-Jacket mine the smoke and gases drew away to the southward, men descended the shaft, and all but one man known to be below at that point were brought up dead. As the cage containing the dead bodies rose up at the mouth of the shaft there was heard a general wail from the women, who could with difficulty be restrained from climbing over the ropes stretched to keep back the crowd . " Oh ! God, ! who is it this time ? " Some one among them would be heard to say. The dead bodies would then be lifted from the cage, and then borne in the arms of stout miners and firemen outside of the circle of ropes. As the men passed out with the dead, the women would crowd forward in an agony of fear and suspense to see the faces. " Oh ! Patrick ! " one would be heard to shriek, when the bystanders would be obliged to seize her and lead her away. At the Kentuck and Crown Point shafts there steadily arose thick, stifling columns of smoke and pungent gases, generated by the burning pine-wood and heated ores below. No person who stood at the mouth of either of these shafts could entertain the slightest hope that anyone of those in the mines could be alive ; yet wives and relatives would still hope against every- thing. In every direction almost superhuman exertions were made to extinguish the fire. By closing up the shafts and pouring down water, it was thought that the fire- might have been extinguished, but to have done so would have been equivalent to saying that all below were dead and would, indeed, have been death to any that might have been living besides, the order to close the shafts would have drawn from all present at all interested in the fate of those below such a wail as no one would have cared to hear. No one could enter the Crown Point or Kentuck shafts, but that of the Yellow-Jacket being cooler, the firemen began to work their way down it, carrying with them their hose and bravely battling with the fire. A long string of hose was attached to a hydrant and carried down to the 8oo-foot level, where the fight began. It was such work as few firemen in the United States have ever undertaken, and such as none but firemen in a mining 180 SUBDUING THE FLAMES. country could have done. The miners and firemen battled side by side. The firemen would advance as far as possible, extin- guishing the burning timbers, and when a cave of earth and rock occurred, or the blackened and weakened timbers seemed about to give way, the miners would go to the front and make all secure. The walls of the drifts were so heated that it was very fre- quently found necessary to fall back, even after the burning timbers had been extinguished, and play a stream on the rock in order to cool it down. In places boiling hot water stood, to the depth of two or three inches, on the floors of the drifts. Steam, fumes of sulphur, and gases from the heated ore and minerals rendered the air so bad that it became necessary to lead in an air-pipe from the main blower above, to enable the men to continue work. When caves occurred, flames and poison- ous gases were driven forward upon the men, singeing and partially suffocating them. Their position was one of great peril. Their only means of reaching the surface was through the shaft, and at any moment an accident might happen that would cut them off from this ; or the draught might change and overwhelm them with stifling gases before they could ascend to the surface. The situation below, when the fire broke out, was fearful. The smoke and gases came upon the men so suddenly that, although they ran at once for the shaft, many were suffocated and sank down by the way. At the Crown Point the men so crowded upon the cage at first (a cage holds from twelve to sixteen men.) that it was detained nearly five minutes; the station-tender being afraid to give the signal to hoist while so many men were in danger of being torn to pieces. A young man who came up on that cage told me, that as they were finally about to start, a man crawled upon the cage, and thrusting his head in between his (the young man's) legs, begged to be allowed to remain there and go up. He was permitted to keep the place, and his life was saved. As this cage started up, hope left the hearts of those remain- ing behind. They were heard to throw themselves into the shaft and to fall back on the floors of the mine. Another young man told me that in rushing toward the shaft, it occurred to him THE WORK OF DESTRUCTION. 181 that he might fall into it all being dark below when he got down on his hands and knees and crawled, feeling his way until he knew that he was at the shaft. While lying there, three or four men came running along from behind, and pitched headlong into it, to their instant death. At one lowering of the cage, a man who went down from the surface, finding that there were more persons below than could be brought up that trip, gene- rousJy got off into a drift and put on board a young man who was so far suffocated that he was unable to stand. The man who did this was afterwards brought up unharmed. The firemen not only went into the burning underground regions cheerfully, but there was strife among them to be allowed to go. To see them in their big hats, ascending and descending the shafts, as they relieved each other, was a novel sight. It was a new way of going to a fire. Although a stream was kept play- ing at the 8oo-foot level of the Yellow- Jacket all day, at 9 o'clock at night it was found that the fire was rising, and a second stream was put on at the 700. At 2 o'clock, on the morning of the 8th, thirteen bodies had been recovered. Some of these were found in the sump (place in which to collect water at the bottom of a shaft) at the 1,100- foot level where they had fallen from stations above, others were found at the looo-foot level, lying in all kinds of dispairing positions, just as they had sunk down and died when overtaken by the poisonous gases. At i o'clock, on the afternoon of the 8th, twenty-three bodies had been recovered. When the fire first broke out, an explosion of gases occurred near the Crown Point shaft, which is supposed to have killed- several men in that direction. Wherever the stifling gas swept in upon the men it left them dead. One dead miner was found clasping a ladder with death grip, his head hanging backwards. It was necessary to lower the body with a rope a distance of fifty feet to the bottom of the level. On the 9oo-foot level of the Crown Point mine, about thirty feet from the shaft, nine men were found in one heap. They had unjointed an air-pipe in the hope of being able to get enough fresh air to keep them alive. On the morning of the loth it was evident that the fire had increased to such an extent that no more bodies could be 182 SCENES A T THE MOUTH OF THE SHAFT. recovered, that none in that pit of fire could be alive and at, ii A. M, the mouths of all the shafts were covered with planks wet blankets, and earth. At noon, steam from the boilers was turned into the Yellow-Jacket shaft through the air-pipe leading from the blower (a fan revolving in a drum, used in forcing air into the mines) down to the 800 and poo-foot levels, whence it would go wherever it could find egress. On the 1 2th, a few more bodies were found, and there was so much fire that the mines were again closed and steam forced into them. Some of the bodies last taken out of the mines were so de- composed, owing to the great heat below, that in order to handle them it was necessary to roll them up in canvas coated with tar. Several bodies were in such a condition that the wives and rela- tives of the deceased were not allowed to see their faces. They were told to remember them as they had last seen them in life. One woman begged hard to see the face of her husband ; then to see his hair. Being shown his hair, she laid her hand on it, and said: "Good-bye, my husband." As she turned away, a little girl she was leading said : " Can't I see my papa ? " when the mother fainted. On the i4th, at 3 o'clock p. M., steam was shut off from the shafts and all the works stopped. Five bodies still remained in the mines. Three days later the shafts were opened and some explorations made. Spots of fire were extinguished, where they could be reached. Almost daily they were able to get into some one of the mines and direct streams of water upon some parts of the fire. At this work men were frequently asphyxiated, and then it was necessary to hasten with them to the surface. On the 28th, another body was recovered, and on the 29th, efforts were made to reach the bodies (four) still remaining on the upper levels of the Kentuck ; but some of the men fell down insensible from asphyxia, and the attempt was abandoned. Thus the miners struggled with the fire, until May 2nd, when it grew worse. The drifts between the Yellow-Jacket and the Kentuck and Crown Point mines were then closed, and the shafts of the latter mines were again sealed. The fresh air thrown into the mines by the blowers was supposed to have given the fire new life. On May 1 8th, the Kentuck and the Crown Point mines were ON FIRE FOR THREE YEARS. 183 opened, and miners descended to the lower levels of both. On the 2oth May another body was recovered in the south compartment of the the Crown Point shaft, when it was found lying on a scaffold at the looo-foot level, leaving three bodies not yet found. After this the fire again increased and drove the men away from places where they had been able to work. May 24th, it was discovered that the fire was on the 8oo-foot levels of the Crown Point and Kentuck mines, and the miners finally succeeded in walling it up and confining it to this space. As late as June 23d, men were occasionally brought to the surface in an insensible condition, and the fire continued to burn in that portion of the mines to which it was confined, for over a year. Nearly three years from the time of the breaking out of the fire the rocks in the 8oo-foot levels of the Crown Point and Kentuck mines were found to be red-hot. Only fragments of the skeletons of the three missing men were ever found. Their bodies were in those parts of the mines that were walled in and given up to the flames. 11 CHAPTER XXV. DEATH IN THE MINE. ON the 2oth of September, 1873, about 3 o'clock in the morning, a second fire and series of explosions occurred in the Yellow- Jacket mine, by which six men lost their lives and several were seriously injured. This fire originated in a winze on the i3oo-foot level of the mine. The winze was directly over the forge of an under- ground blacksmith's shop, for which it served as a chimney. The fire seems to have been burning in the wood-work of this winze in a smouldering way, generating a quantity of gas, and when an assistant blacksmith approached with a lighted lantern in his hand, a heavy explosion occurred. A great quantity of smoke rushed up the main shaft and hung in a black cloud over the works. When this was seen, an alarm of fire was sounded on the surface, and soon there were over two thousand persons collected about the mine. Among the wives, children, and relations of those in the mines were enacted the same heartrending scenes as on the occasion of the first great fire in April, 1869. When the firemen reached the works, the fatal mistake was made of throwing water down the shaft, thus driving the smoke and gases back upon the men in the lower levels, and causing the loss of life. This was stopped by Captain Taylor, superintendent of the mine, as soon as he arrived on the ground. About this time a man was sent to the old shaft of the mine, some distance above on the hill, to see that all was right there. Doors were shut down over the mouth of this shaft, and while the man was looking to see that these were properly closed, 184 EXPLOSIONS OF FIREDAMP. 185 he took the candle from his lantern and held it over the shaft. As he did so, he saw a streak of fire flash along up a post that stood in the middle of the shaft, between the folding doors. Thinking that a quantity of lint on the corner of the post had taken fire, he struck at it with his hat to blow it out. As he did this, an explosion occurred that shook the whole town. A sheet of flame darted from the mouth of the shaft, and the man, who was still over it, hat in hand, was thrown backwards a distance of several feet. This second explosion, which caused the solid earth to rock, not only added greatly to the terror of those on the surface, but it sent sheets of flame through all the mines as far as the Belcher, a distance of two thousand feet. Men who were in the Crown Point mine at the moment, stated that this fire seemed a solid mass that filled all the space about them, and that it flashed toward and past them as swiftly as lightning. At the same time the concussion which accompanied the flash was so great as to knock them down and drive them along the ground for a considerable distance. These streams of fire did not penetrate into the cross-drifts, but darted straight southward along the main drifts and galleries, owing to which fact, doubtless, several miners who happened to be in cross- drifts, escaped being killed or seriously injured. To add to the terrors of the situation, all of the lights were blown out by the explosions, and the lower levels of the mines were every- where in total darkness. Those who lost their lives died from asphyxia, while those who were injured were burned by the sheets of flame that darted through the several mines. The fire burned and stripped the shirts entirely off the backs of some of the men, and those who were touched by any part of the flame lost their whiskers, eyebrows, and the greater part of their hair. There being several hundred men in the mines, the utmost consternation prevailed when the first explosion occurred, and the smell of smoke and gases a smell well remembered by the old miners swept through the lower levels; but the work of hoisting these men to the surface was performed at the several shafts with safety, precision, and almost lightning swiftness. Notwithstanding the excitement that prevailed all 186 HOW GASES ARE FORMED IN THE MINES. about them, the engineers never for a single instant lost their presence of mind. They answered every tap of the signal- bells as promptly, and kept their eyes as steadfastly fixed upon the marks on their cables, as though nothing were wrong below. The cages and "giraffes" were rushed up and down the shafts and inclines with their living freight at a rate of speed which under ordinary circumstances would have been simply terrific. But by no means was this work too rapidly performed to suit the men who were fleeing up from the fiery furnace of the regions below. It luckily happened that the winze in which this fire raged was surrounded on all sides by solid rock, therefore when the timbers it contained were consumed, the fire died out. The man who at first approached the smouldering winze with his lantern, was found lying dead at a distance of about two hun- dred feet from it ; having been asphyxiated. Men who die of asphyxia in the mines, look like living men if brought to the surface at any time within a few hours after life is extinct. Their cheeks are flushed and roseate, and their bodies are as limp as though they were still alive. With their eyes closed, they appear to be men in a fever, lying in a sound sleep. It is a painless death. Several miners who were brought to the surface in an unconscious state, and who would no doubt have died in a few minutes had they been left in the mine, assert that a sensation of faintness was all they experienced, they did not even remember falling to the ground ; but all are very sick after regaining their senses. As it would have been impossible for the small fire in the winze to have generated such immense quantities of inflam- mable gases as must have been consumed in the two explo- sions that occurred during this last fire in the Yellow- Jacket mine, many men are of the opinion that a small quantity of the gas from pine-wood mingled with gases already in the mines, rendered the whole explosive. In this instance some such accidental compound must have been formed. Common air being mingled with the gases probably had much to do with causing the explosions. On the morning of May 24th, 1874, the hoisting works of the Succor Mining Company, near Silver City, were destroyed SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD. 187 by fire, and two miners who were at work in the shaft at the time, lost their lives. The fire was kindled by some cartridges of giant-powder that had been left lying on the boiler. The cartridges did not explode, but simply burned. They were about a dozen in number, enough to have blown the works to atoms, had they exploded. They burned-very rapidly, throw- ing up a fountain of fire. The flames were intensely bright, and wherever the jets struck they set fire to the wood-work. The roof and all that part of the works about the boilers were on fire in an instant. The only men in the works were the engineer and the car- man. Two miners were at work at the bottom of the shaft, five hundred feet below the surface. The engineer and carman shook the cable attached to the hoisting tub, which was at the bottom of the shaft, as a signal for the men below to come up ; also, shouted to them, but could not make them understand their danger. Soon the two men were driven out of the build- ing, which was speedily consumed. Two days later, when the fire in the timbers of the upper part of the shaft had been extinguished, a windlass was rigged and men were lowered to see how things looked below. It was not expected that the bodies of the dead miners would be found, as much earth had caved from the top of the shaft, and its bottom was supposed to be filled to the depth of twenty or thirty feet with broken timbers, rocks, and earth. Contrary to the general expectation, the men had not been lowered a great distance into the shaft before they signalled those above to stop ; they then shouted up the shaft that the bodies were found. A large crowd had collected about the shaft, and when this unexpected report came up, the excitement was great. The bodies of the poor fellows were discovered at the pump station a recess some feet square in one side of the shaft to which point they had ascended by almost superhuman exer- tions. This pump station was two hundred and sixty-five feet above the bottom of the shaft, and the whole of this great distance the men had climbed in their desperate strug- gle for life, with nothing to cling to but the slight cracks between the timbers walling the sides. Considering the small and uncertain hold afforded by the timbers of the shaft, their 188 CARELESSNESS OF THE MINERS. t- ____ climbing to such a height was a feat bordering on the miracu- lous, and one which could only have been performed by young and active men, as both were. Both men had died from as- phyxia. Neither their bodies nor their clothing were scorched. In the pump station they were protected from the falling brands and beams from the burning building, and there they had remained till suffocated by the deadly gases that settled down into the shaft. The face of one of the men was rosy and as natural as in life, while that of the other, who lay in the outer part of the station, was black and frightfully swollen. An inquest was held, and the verdict of the Coroner's jury was that the men who lost their lives by the fire, James Bil- lings and James Rickard " came to their death by suffocation caused by the burning of the Succor hoisting-works and part of the shaft, said fire having been caused by the combustion of giant-powder which was kept on the top of one of the boilers, and we strongly deprecate the custom prevalent in many mines of keeping giant-powder on the boilers about the works." And well they might find fault with this practice of cooking giant-powder on the tops of boilers ; also, they might mildly suggest that the custom of thawing frozen giant-powder and nitro-glycerine on stoves and at the forges of blacksmith's shops is a thing not to be encouraged. Several, however, have prospected about until they have found this out for themselves. It is now probably well known in the other world, as a few of those best informed on the point have gone there. OFFICE OF THE CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA. MINE. CHAPTER XXVI. DESTRUCTION OF THE BELCHER SHAFT. ABOUT 2 o'clock, on the afternoon of October 30, 1874, the air shaft of the Belcher mine took fire and was totally destroyed. The shaft was not completed at the time of the accident, but went down to a depth of 1000 feet below the surface. It was twelve by six feet in width, divided into two compartments, and substantially timbered from top to bottom. It had cost between $30,000 and 840,000, and was designed to ventilate and cool the lower levels of the mines those at the depth of 1500 and 1600 feet. As soon as the fire was discovered, the miners working below were notified, and all were safely hoisted out of the mine. It being found impossible to save the shaft, all connection between it and other parts of the mine was cut off and the fire allowed to have its way. The fire was first discovered by persons down in the mine, but it soon made itself manifest on the surface, in the dense volume of smoke of inky blackness that rose from the mouth of the shaft and ascended to a perpendicular height of three or four hundred feet. This large column of smoke was one of the grandest sights imaginable. The air was perfectly calm, and the smoke assumed the form of huge balloons rolling upward, one over the other. This ominous cloud of smoke was visible for many miles in all directions and filled the hearts of all beholders with terror. The steam-whistle at the Belcher hoisting works, near at hand, sent forth its long-drawn wail the fire signal as soon as the first black puffs of smoke rose above the surface of the ground. Instantly, the whistles of dozens of mills and hoist ing works joined in, and the whole air was rent for half an hour 191 192 PROGRESS OF THE FLAMES. with their steady unceasing shrieks. All who saw the awful pall of smoke rise up and hang over the mine, feared the worst, and all who had husbands, fathers, brothers, or friends at work in the Belcher, hastened to the mine. Firemen from Gold Hill and Virginia, with steamers and hand- engines, soon swarmed the place, but were not allowed to throw water into the shaft the effects of this had been seen at the last fire in the Yellow-Jacket mine. There were houses to save, all about the shaft, and to this work the attention of the firemen was turned. To attempt to describe the wretchedness and despair of the women and children gathered round the shaft and looking upon the awful column of smoke, would be futile, and to the imagination of the reader may be left their joy on being told that all who had been in the mine were safe upon the surface. After the great column of smoke had rolled upward from the mouth of the shaft for twenty minutes or more, and when a great crowd was collected about the spot, there came a flash, as of lightning, there was a dull, heavy report, which was heard at the distance of a mile, and a sheet of flame shot upward to the height of nearly five hundred feet. Instantly, the dark column of smoke was gone was consumed in the tall pillar of fire. The flame then gradually fell back to a height of about sixty feet, and to this height it continued to rush for over an hour, with a roar that could be heard at the distance of half a mile. Pieces of flaming wood and live coals larger than a man's hand, were shot sixty feet into the air, and fell in such showers that they covered the ground on all sides and rolled by bushels from the roofs of buildings in the neighbor- hood. At a distance the burning shaft bore a striking resem- blance to an active volcano. The draught through it was the same that would be seen on the surface, in a burning chimney a thousand feet in height. At this critical juncture it was decided to go below and close all of the drifts leading from the burning shaft. The main hoisting shaft and works stood at a distance of one hundred yards from the air-shaft, and in the buildings at this point were, collected the miners who had just escaped from the lower levels. Showers of live coals were falling upon the roofs of all the DESCENDING THE BURNING SHAFT. 193 buildings about and over the main working shaft, and a score of men engaged in pouring water over them could hardly prevent them from taking fire. In the hoisting works the engineers stood at their posts awaiting orders. A rope had been stretched about the mouth of the main shaft to keep back the crowd, and within the circle of this rope stood thirty or forty miners, also awaiting orders. The cage was below with two or three officers of the mine, who had gone down to ascertain the situation in the neighborhood of the bottom of the burning shaft. All were anxiously awaiting some news from these men, as 'since the escape of the miners from the lower levels, they were the first who had ventured back into the underground regions. Presently a cage a three-decker came up and stopped at the mouth of the shaft. On its lower deck stood an under- ground foreman. As the cage stopped, this official said: "I want eighteen men to go down to the looo-foot level with me." The men knew that on the level mentioned was the bottom of the perpendicular portion of the burning air-shaft, but they did not know the situation at that point, nor did they know what they would be asked to do on arriving at their destination. Yet no sooner had the call for volunteers been made than there was a rush of men to the cage. The lower compartment was instantly filled. The engineer, who stood with his hand on the lever of his engine, dropped the cage till the second compartment stood level with the floor, and this had no sooner been done than it was filled with men. The same was the case when the last compartment came down; indeed there was a quiet struggle among the men for a place on the cage, though few words were spoken. As the six men were taking their places on the last section of the cage, a young man pulled one of them off, and took his place, saying : *' No, John, you've got a family." The men were all brave, determined-looking fellows. The faces of all were calm and firm not a cheek was pale. While the men were filling the cage, as it hung in the mouth of the shaft. I said to a friend, "Those are all fine, brave men. See ! with what nerve they step upon that cage to go down into the burning mine ! It may be that some of those men will never reach the surface alive, yet not one shows a sign of fear." 194: DANGER! "Very true," said my friend, "but I don't think there is any real danger down there. The fire is confined to the air-shaft, all around it is safe enough." " Men never go into a mine at any time," said I, " but they are in danger ; and when there is anything wrong in a mine the danger is vastly increased particularly when there is a fire in any of the lower levels." " Well, but what can happen to these men ? " asked the gentle- man. " These men," said I, " will probably come out all right, if no cave shall occur in the burning shaft while they are below ; but it will now soon be time for the caving to begin. The timbers must soon begin to weaken." " Well, what would be the result of a cave in the shaft ? " " It would close up the shaft and suddenly send poisonous gases through the lower levels." Leaving the shaft and the works, soon after the men had de- scended on their dangerous mission, 1000 feet below the surface of the earth, we returned to the town of Gold Hill. As we entered the main street of the town, we turned and looked in the direction of the burning shaft, half a mile away. No sign of flame was visible, but there rolled up from the mouth of the shaft a great inky cloud of smoke. "See! " cried my companion, "the fire has gone out! It is all smoke now ! " " There has been a cave in the shaft ! " said I, and in less than half a minute the column of flame again darted into the air to the height of sixty or eighty feet, and instantly all the smoke disappeared. Now let us see what happened in the mine at that time. After the fire broke out in the air-shaft, the draught, which had always before been downward into the mine (contrary to the general expectation when it was made), changed, and rushed fiercely upwards. The draught in the main shaft at the hoisting works, one hundred yards distant, which had before been up- ward, was instantly changed, and in it there was found a strong downward suction. This allowed the men who went below to approach quite near to the bottom of the burning shaft. They were set to work at tearing out the woodwork and pulling up the A CA VE IN THE SHAFT. 195 car-tracks in a drift connecting with the air-shaft at the 1000- foot level, preparatory to filling it with a bulkhead of rocks and earth, in order to cut off its connection with other parts of the mine. While they were at this work the cave occurred in the shaft. When the mass of rocks and earth composing the cave fell down through the shaft perhaps a distance of five hundred feet- it forced back, down into the mine, and out through the drift in which the miners were at work, a vast tongue of flame as fierce as that from a blow-pipe forced back upon the men all the heat and flame there was in the lower part of the shaft when it fell. This deluge of fire lasted but the fraction of a minute, when it was all sucked back into the shaft by the draught, but while it lasted it was fierce as the flames of a furnace. The men work- ing in the drift were naked from the waist upwards, and below wore nothing but cotton overalls. In a moment the flames were upon them, and all were terribly burned, notwithstanding that they threw themselves flat upon the ground. In some instances their overalls were licked from their bodies turned to ashes in an instant. Nine of the eighteen men we saw so bravely descend into the burning mine were hoisted out, scarred and crisped ; their clothes burnt from their bodies, and the skin peeling off in great flakes, wherever they were touched. One man was brought up dead. He was not found till the next day, when his dead body was discovered at the bottom of a winze into which he had fallen while fleeing before the flames. All of those burned finally recovered, but several not for many weeks. When the first squad of men was disabled, others bravely took their place in the drift, and finally succeeded in completing a substantial bulk- head ; thus saving the mine. Though several caves occurred and drove them from their work, none were so disastrous as the first the mass of rock in the bottom of the shaft doubtless prevent- ing a free outpouring of flame. Although this fire occurred in October, 1874, in May, 1875, when a new shaft was being constructed, great masses of rocks, still almost at a white heat were encountered by the workmen. These lay at the bottom of the old shaft, and there was no burning 196 A WARM COMPARISON. timber, charcoal, or fire among them, but they were so hot as to set on fire the timbers the miners were trying to set up in the drift run by them, and in order to work at all it was found necessary to carry a line of hose into the place and play a stream of water upon the rocks. When we find so small a mass of rocks as can be contained in the bottom of a shaft, remaining red-hot for eight months, should we be incredulous on being assured by men of science that the centre of the earth, once a molten mass of rock, still remains in a molten state after untold ages ? CHAPTER XXVII. WAR IN THE MINE. LITTLE difficulty has ever been experienced from fire- damp, in the mines along the Comstock lode. Firedamp is a gas which is more frequently generated in, and more strictly confined to, coal mines than to any others ; yet in a few instances it has been found to exist in mines on the Comstock. It is probably generated by decaying pine-timber. On one occasion, a mining superintendent of Gold Hill went into an old drift of the Segregated Belcher mine, and while passing along it, happened to lift his candle to its roof, to examine the rock. Much to his astonishment, he set fire to a stratum of carburetted hydrogen (firedamp), which pro- duced a brilliant flash that extended the whole length of the drift. Some miners working in the Gould & Curry mine on one occasion had a similar, but much more lively, bit of experience. On tapping an old drift in that mine quite an ex- plosion occurred, though no harm was done, further than the singeing of the hair and whiskers of the astonished miners. In the early days of Washoe it occasionally happened that adjoining mining companies drifted into each other's works, far below the surface. On such occasions there was war down in the bowels of the earth. In case pistols and similar weapons were not used, the battles were fought after the Chi- nese stink-pot plan. Each company sought to smoke the other out. The latest instance in which these underground ameni- ties of the amiable miner were indulged in, was in May, 1874, when the Kossuth and the Alhambra folks ceased to admire each other. 197 198 SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. The works of the two companies made an unexpected con- nection several feet below the surface. As to what passages at arms may have occurred in and about the breach below when it was first opened, those of the surface world are not informed. However, the Alhambra folks presently smelt something burning. They were not long in doubt as to the nature of the fumigation. The odor wafted to them was not that of sandal-wood, neither of frankincense nor myrrh. That which reached them was the hot, pungent, stifling smoke and gas that told of burning pitch-pine. The Kossuth folks had secretly prepared and lighted in a drift of their mine, connect- ing with the Alhambra shaft, a large bonfire of pine-wood. There being a draught into and up the shaft named, the men working therein soon found themselves in danger of suffoca- tion, and made all possible haste to reach the surface. The superintendent of the Alhambra mine narrowly escaped losing his life. When he was hoisted to the top of the shaft, some hundreds of feet, he was asphyxiated to the verge of insensibility, and fell back, but luckily caught at the edge of some planks and held on long enough to give those standing near time to snatch him away. Had he fallen to the bottom of the shaft, it would have been certain death, for had he not been dashed to pieces by the fall, the smoke and gases ascend- ing the shaft would have prevented his friends from going down to his assistance, and he must have inevitably perished. Turning the tables on the Kossuthites was now tried by the men of the Alhambra. They covered the mouth of their shaft with planks and wet blankets, in order, if possible, to force the smoke back into the Kossuth mine. The smoke still appearing to gather in their shaft, several large casks of water were got in readiness, the planks and blankets were raised, and a flood of water turned suddenly down. To what extent this experiment discommoded the Kossuthites was never made public, but the indications were that they received at least a temporary hoist from their own petard, as, shortly after, their numbers above ground were observed to have increased. During the war, a deserter came over to the Alhambra side and informed them that he had been ordered to drill a hole under the bottom of their shaft, charge it with giant-powder, CA USES OF FEAR. 199 and blow them all to the lower levels of Lucifer's brimstone pit, when they came to work in the morning. Rather than become a second Guy Fawkes, the man threw up his situation ; at least this was his story. The Kossuth folks caused to be published a statement of the affair, in which it was said that their foreman was a second Uncle Toby he wouldn't harm a fly. As for the smoking business, they had explained to the Alhambra folks the fact that they were about to kindle a little fire to dry their drift, and had told them that in case they found the smoke disagreeable, they could "go aloft." There is nothing so much dreaded by the miner as fire. When millions of tons of rock begin to settle down he is not frightened. He goes among them when they are being splint- ered in all directions and are cracking like pistols; coolly puts in double timbers and braces, drives wedges, and builds up sections with rock, for he knows that the settling must be gradual, and that if it is not stopped it can only continue till all the timbers in the place are pressed out as thin as wafers shortly before which time he will depart. When caves of ore fall from the breasts in a stope, he knows that they only endanger the few men who happen to be under or near them. When the premature explosion of a blast occurs, only those in the immediate vicinity are killed or wounded. But when there is a fire in a mine, the life of every man is in peril. One great reason why a fire in a mine is so much dreaded, is because there are so few avenues of escape open to the miner. Probably there is but a single shaft (if the mine is connected with no other) and up this, a thousand or fifteen hundred feet, he must go to escape. The smoke and deadly gases may reach the shaft before he arrives, and then he can but sit down and await his death. In case of a fire, there is liable to be a panic. A panic in a church or other building on the surface is always a terrible thing ; then what must be a panic in a mine where there are eight hundred or one thousand men, perhaps, all to go up a single shaft a thousand feet, a cage-load at a time? At such times, too, there are explosions of gases which extinguish all of the lights, and the men rushing to and fro are exposed to the danger of tumbling headlong into scores of pitfalls in the shape of chutes, winzes, and other excavations. 200 BURNT RAGS. All these things being often in the miner's mind give him a wonderful delicacy of nostril. He can scent a fire afar. He knows the smell of burning fuse, of giant-powder, of black powder and of everything with which fire ordinarily comes in contact in a mine, and the scent of these are no more noticed than is noticed the air he breathes on the surface of the earth ; but let any unusual substance be ignited and, like the hunted stag, his nose is in the air at once. Let but a splinter of pine be held in a candle, and soon the smell of the burning wood is detected by the miners above and around, and there is a commotion such as is seen when a hive of bees is disturbed men drop down from, and rush out of, all manner of places where no men were seen before. A bit of burning rag or anything of that nature creates uneasiness. On one occasion, I was in the i5oo-foot level of the Consol- idated Virginia mine when a gentleman from San Francisco was getting some samples of ore. These he tied up in small sacks. When he tied up the first he found that he had left his knife above, in changing his clothes. Having no knife with which to cut the string he had tied about the sack, he held it in the flame of a candle and burnt it off. The string was of cotton, and a length of about two inches was consumed in all. In less than a minute afterwards a man from some part of the mine hastily approached, and said to the underground foreman, "What is burning?" " Is there anything burning ? " inquired the foreman, giving us a wink. " Yes, sir ; there is something burning in this part of the mine." "What makes you thinks so? " " Well, I smell it. It's cotton rags or something of that kind." The foreman then showed the man the cotton string that had been burned off, and he left, giving the San Francisco man a sour look as he departed. Even a dead rat in any close or heated part of the mine annoys the men, and is speedily scented out and sent above. So with everything else from which there can arise the slightest effluvium. CHAPTER XXVIII. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. ACCIDENTS are of constant occurrence in mines in every part of the world, and the mines on the Comstock lode enjoy no immunity from what appears to be the common lot or prevalent fatality, in this respect. Accidents of every imaginable kind have occurred since the opening of the first mine on the Comstock, still occur, and will continue to occur so long as a mine on the lode is worked. In the early days, when the miners worked in a primitive way with a hand-windlass, and sunk a small round shaft resembling an ordinary well, they quite as frequently broke legs, arms, and ribs, or were instantly killed, as at the present day. Though men were working in that which was but a straight round hole, only fifty or a hundred feet in depth, they were still able to injure themselves in many ways. They fell out of buckets, or the crank of a windlass was broken, and they went back to the bottom of the shaft " by the run ; " a blast exploded while they were yet standing over it ; rocks fell out of the walls of their untimbered shafts ; or dropped from a bucket as it was being landed at the top of the shaft in short, they were maimed and killed in ways innumerable and past finding out until the thing had happened. At the present day, with all manner of safety apparatus, and every avenue to accident seemingly thoroughly guarded, men are wounded and killed the same as before. They are con- stantly being hurt and killed in new and unheard-of ways in fact, in every way imaginable. It is a saying in the mines, that these accidents run in streaks ; that they occur in groups. When 12 201 202 THE ADVENTURE OF FOUR MINERS. two or three accidents have happened within as many days, you will hear the miners say : " Now, look out, we are going to have a regular run of accidents ! " and so it generally turns out. There will often be a dozen accidents within a fortnight, half of them, perhaps, of a fatal character. More accidents happen to old miners than to men who are new to the business. The old miner sometimes forgets where he is, while 'where he is' is just what the greenhorn is all the time thinking about. He is always on the lookout for trouble, and he is always holding on to something that has the appear- ance of being pretty substantial particularly when he is in the neighborhood of shafts and winzes ; but a man who has worked in the mines for years will walk into a winze or chute in a musing mood, or run a car into the main shaft and be pulled in after it, which is a thing a green hand has never been known to do. Shafts, chutes, winzes, and things of that nature are what he is always looking for, and you couldn't pull him into one of them with any yoke of oxen ever seen in a mine. Hundreds upon hundreds of accidents have happened in the Comstock mines, some hundreds of them fatal. A large volume would not contain their history. I may furnish a few examples at random by no means the worst that have happened in order to give the reader some insight into the nature of the accidents that occur in mines : In January, 1874, four miners met with quite a thrilling and perilous adventure in the bottom of the main shaft of the Ophir mine. No situation in a sensational play could possibly have been more blood-curdling than that in which the four men found themselves. They were at work sinking the shaft below the jyoo-foot level, and had drilled and charged four holes, all of which they in- tended to fire at once. All being in readiness, they pulled the bell-rope, striking five bells at the surface, which was the signal for the engineer to lower the cage to the bottom. The signal was answered by the cage coming down to where they stood. They now set fire to the fuses leading into the four blasts in the bottom of the shaft, and then hastened to place themselves upon the cage, when they gave the signal to hoist this signal being one bell. To their consternation the cage did not move. As ACCIDENTS IN THE MINES. A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 205 each second passed seconds were long thenthey expected to feel the cable taut and the cage start up, but it remained sta- tionary. The fuses were spitting fire and smoke as they burned down toward the powder ; still the cage moved not. The signal was again given, but the cage remained as steadfast as before. The fire was now just boring its way down through the fuses toward the four charges of powder tightly tamped deep in the rock, while the men were standing helplessly over the fearful spot. One of the men, as a forlorn hope, ran to the charges and wrenched away two of the fuses before they had burned down into the rock below his reach, but when he came to the others he found to his consternation that the fire had passed down into the rock. Rushing back to the cage, he shouted to his com- panions to save themselves by climbing the cable and timbers. A fierce struggle for life then ensued. The men scrambled, by means of the cable and the timbers, to get as far up the shaft as possible, each moment expecting the stunning explosion and shower of rocks which they knew must soon come. One of the men, who, it would seem, was completely paralyzed by the terrors of the situation, had hardly made an attempt to move when the explosion came. The three others managed to flatten their bodies against the walls, and screw themselves among the lower timbers of the shaft, and escaped unhurt; but the man below was struck in the forehead, above the right eye, by a small piece of rock which crushed in his skull. The charges in the bottom of the shaft were usually fired by means of an electrical machine stationed above, but this being out of order at the time, the men took the responsibility of firing the blasts in the manner described, and with the result stated. The trouble in regard to the giving of the last signal was that the bell-rope one thousand seven hundred feet in length had got foul on a timber, and no stroke was given on the bell above ; thus the engineer knew nothing of the thrilling scene that was being enacted below. Strange to relate, the man who was hurt got well. A surgeon took out a number of pieces of bone, and though a large hole was left in the skull, the man soon regained his senses and complained but little about his injury. In February, 1874, they had a new blasting experience at the Belcher mine, Gold Hill. They had this experience at the 206 DANGEROUS PLAYTHINGS. i2oo-foot level at a point where a patent drill run by compressed air was being used. It was the practice to drill a number of holes, charge them all with giant-powder cartridges (without any tamping), and explode the whole series at once by means of an electrical battery. On the occasion of the accident, the men on the forenoon shift had fired a number of holes in this way, but one of the holes, it seems, did not explode, the wire thrust into it having slipped out. When the afternoon shift came to work, they supposed this hole was one that had not been finished, and, inserting the drill, began working in it. The concussion of the drill fired the cartridge, and a terrific explosion followed. At the moment of the explosion there were five men standing about the drill, all of whom were more or less injured. The man who was guiding the drill was struck by a shower of small pieces of rock, which cut his face, and badly cut and bruised his arms and hips, and, in short, peppered him over the whole body. Another man had the bridge of his nose broken, was cut about the head, and had his eyes filled with gravel, and all the others injured were somewhat similarly cut and bruised. Scores of ordinary blasting accidents might be mentioned accidents that occurred from the premature explosion of blasts ; by trying to drill out blasts ; by blasts being discharged as the wires from the electrical battery were being inserted ; by persons coming un- awares upon blasts at the moment of their explosion ; and powder and blasting accidents of every conceivable nature but they can all be imagined. The caps used in exploding giant-powder and nitro-glycerine are filled with a powerful fulminating powder, and are very dan- gerous. They explode with the slightest scratch upon their contents. They are about half an inch in length, and their interior diameter is sufficient to admit the end of a piece of ordinary blasting fuse. Persons unacquainted with their uses always appear to be overcome by an ungovernable curiosity in regard to the nature of their contents, the moment they by any means get hold of any of these caps. The first thing they do is to begin probing and scratching in the interior of the little cop- per cylinders, in order to get out and examine a sample of their contents. It invariably happens that at about the first or second scratch the cap explodes, and the person engaged in prospecting LOSS OF NOSES AND THUMBS. 207 it loses the ends of two fingers and the thumb of the left hand. In Virginia Gity and Gold Hill, about one boy per week, on an average, tries this experiment, and always with the same result. In the two towns there must now be scores of boys who lack the ends of the thumb and first and middle fingers of their left hands. On one occasion a boy created quite a sensation in one of the public schools by prospecting the interior of one of these giant-powder caps. The report startled the whole school, frightened the school-teacher nearly out of her wits, and spat- tered blood and bits of flesh and bone over the faces and books of half a dozen of the pupils. Miners very frequently carry these caps loose in their pockets, often mixed with their tobacco, and thus occasionally get them into their pipes. Several favorite meerschaums have been lost in this way, and the ends of a few noses. CHAPTER XXIX. MINING FATALITIES. MANY miners are killed by thoughtlessly running cars into the main working shafts of the mines, when no cage is standing in the shaft. They probably suppose that a cage is standing in the shaft ready to receive the car, and, with- out looking, push it into the open mouth of the shaft. Accidents of this kind generally happen at the stations of the underground levels. It almost invariably happens when a car- man pushes his car into the mouth of a shaft, that he is pulled in after it. The sudden pitching forward arid downward of the car, upon the top of the rear end of which he has hold with both hands, causes him to so far lose his balance that he can never regain it, and down the shaft he goes after his car, dashed from side to side against the timbers and planking of the compart- ments of the shaft into which he has fallen, till the bottom is reached, hundreds of feet below. The effect of a fall through a vertical shaft 1500 feet in depth is much the same as though a man were shot from the mouth of a cannon and thrown a distance of 500 yards. Mount Davidson stands about 1500 feet higher than Virginia City, and to fall down a shaft 1500 feet in depth, is much the same as would be a fall from the peak of that mountain (if such a thing were possible) into one of the streets of the town. The body of a man falling a distance of one thousand feet or more, emits towards the latter part of its course, a humming sound, somewhat similar to that heard from a passing cannon-ball of large size. A few instances will serve to show the effect of a fall of this character upon the human body : A miner who was ascending 208 BLOWN TO ATOMS! 209 the Imperial-Empire * shaft, from the poo-foot level, accompa- nied by six companions, when within one hundred and fifty feet of the surface, spoke of feeling faint. He had hardly spoken before he reeled and fell. As he was falling, his friends caught him by the coat, but as the garment was only thrown loosely over his shoulders, it pulled off, and he fell off the cage and to the bottom of the shaft a distance of 750 feet. The cage was promtly lowered again and search made for the body, which was found to have fallen into the " sump " or well at the bottom of the shaft. As the sump contained a considerable quantity of water the efforts to fish up the body were not successful, until a good deal of bailing with the hoisting tank (a large tank with a valve in its bottom) had been done. When the body was at last recovered, it was found to be shockingly mangled. The left foot was pulled off at the ankle joint, the left hand at the wrist, the skull was crushed to pieces, and the bones of the right leg were crushed into small fragments. The face was but slightly disfigured. The left foot was found hanging by the torn tendons, to a timber some 200 feet below where the man fell from the cage. The left hand fell into the sump, and was not found/' Many lives are lost in this way. Men coming up from the heated regions below, when the thermometer indicates a tem- perature of from no to 120 degrees, faint on reaching the cold air at, or near, the top of the shaft. Strangers visiting the mines should always mention the fact to those with them on the cage, if they feel the slightest symptom of vertigo or faintness, as they may then be properly supported. On one occasion when I was in the Consolidated Virginia mine, a foreman who had gone up with a cage-load of men, some of whom were visitors to the mine, informed us on his return that one of the party just conducted to the surface had made a narrow escape. He said, that just at the moment of reaching the surface, the man fainted, and fell upon the floor of the cage. Had he fallen before, while the cage was in motion, we should probably have had him down with our party at the foot * This is not the name of a single mining company, else it would be as idiotic as it sounds, but the partnership shaft is owned by the " Empire" com- pany and the " Imperial " company hence the name. 210 A SINGULAR ACCIDENT. of the shaft, 1500 feet below, some minutes before the foreman returned. As our party got on board the cage, I said that a man who felt the slightest degree of uneasiness in the region of the stomach, or of 'faintness, should at once mention the fact. We were within about 200 feet of the top of the shaft when a gentle- man from San Francisco said : " I am beginning to feel sick I " Instantly two or three person took firm hold upon his arms and the collar of his coat, and thus held him until the surface was reached. At the surface he fainted, and a man under each arm carried him into the dressing-room, where he soon revived. The last time I visited this mine I had but just changed my clothes, and stepped outside of the building, when a miner fainted at the top of the shaft and fell to the bottom. His head was torn off, his arms and legs were torn off, and all that was left was his trunk, in which not a whole bone remained. The trunk was rolled up in a piece of canvas and brought to the surface, while pieces of his arms, legs, and head were scraped up and sent up in candle-boxes. In falling, the body bounded from side to side against the walls of the shaft, and, in passing the i4oo-foot station, a piece of one of the bones of a leg, with some flesh adhering, flew out of the compartments and fell on the station floor. He was a French Canadian, and had just purchased a lot of trinkets to send home to his wife and family by a friend who was going to leave for Canada the next day. Just as they were bringing up the remains in the canvas and candle-boxes, this friend arrived to get the trinkets which he was to carry to Canada. When cages are passing stations, men sometimes put their heads out into the shaft and 'have them crushed to atoms or pulled entirely off. In June, 1874, a miner was instantly killed by having his head caught by a descending cage at the Crown Point mine. He was at the time in the act of pulling the bell- wire at the station at the looo-foot level. As the man went to pull the wire to stop the cage, a friend who was with him turned to a box to get a candle. When he turned again he saw his companion going down with the cage. The cage passed down just below the level of the station, and stopped, having struck the head of the man who had fallen being wedged between it and A If TOM A TIC SAFETY. 211 the side of the shaft. The man left at the station, thinking his friend had gone to the bottom of the shaft, rang up the cage (a double-decker), wtfen the body came up with it, the legs still fast. In August, 1873, at the Chollar-Potosi mine, a miner ran an empty car into the shaft, and was pulled in after it, falling a distance of 890 feet. In the sump were found floating portions of the shattered car. but the body of the man had sunk to the bottom of the water. By the use of grappling-irons the body, mangled almost out of all semblance to a man, was finally recovered. The whole of the head was gone, down to the under- jaw, both legs and both arms were broken in dozens of places, and, indeed, not a whole bone was left in any part of the body. So torn and mangled was it so nearly reduced to pulp that it was found necessary to roll it in a blanket, and lash it to a piece of plank, in order to get it up to the surface. In pull- ing, the man was dashed from side to side of the shaft, striking against the timbers, now on this side and now on that, tearing all the clothing from his person. Shreds of clothing were found sticking to the shaft timbers in several places. In one place one of his gloves was found lying on a timber, and in another place hung a piece of one of his socks, containing a toe that had been torn from the foot The pump brought up bloody water for a considerable time after the accident, showing that the whole contents of the sump had been crimsoned. Although the ingenuity of the many mechanics about the mines is constantly exercised in devising means for the preven- tion of accidents, and although there are now in operation a great number of useful inventions of this kind, yet men continue to find ways of being wounded and killed never before dreamed of. In all of the leading mines safety-cages are in use ; also, safety incline-cars, or " giraffes," and these have saved scores of lives. With the safety-cage or giraffe in use the miners do not fall to the bottom when a cable breaks. The safety apparatus instantly comes in play, and the cage or giraffe is at once stopped, at the point of ascent or descent at which the cable parted. In all the hoisting works there is a strong cover of lattice- work over the mouth of each compartment of the main shaft, to prevent men from stumbling or thoughtlessly walking into it. 212 ORIGIN OF ACCIDENTS. When the cage comes up the shaft, the iron shield or " bonnet " on its top picks up this cover, and holds it up out of the way, the floor of the cage meantime filling the mouth of the com- partment, and guarding it in place of the cover; when the cage descends it leaves the cover behind on the opening through which it passed down, somewhat like the cunning little animal that pulls the door of its hole in after it when it retreats into the ground. With all these provisions for protecting life and limb, acci- dents continue, and must ever continue to happen, as there are so many things against which neither the owners of mines nor the miners themselves can guard. In case of a cable parting, for instance, the men who are on the cage are protected by the safety apparatus, but the upper part of the cable is liable to spring backwards and kill the engineer standing at his engine fifty or sixty feet in the rear of the shaft, quite at the opposite end of the building. A heavy cable of steel wire whipping back in this way, will cut a broad road through the whole length of the ceiling of a build- ing, taking off large joists and beams as though they were so many bars of soap. Huge fly-wheels of many tons' weight occasionally burst asunder, tearing the sides and roof of the works to pieces, killing or wounding all who may be in the way of the flying fragments; boilers sometimes explode, and leave hardly a vestige of the works in which they stood ; men are caught in the cog-wheels of the machinery ; and, in short, there is no safety either above or below ground. Below the surface, however, the accidents are most numerous and terrible. In the examples given by means of which to illus- trate the fearful velocity attained by the human body in falling through a space of from 1000 to 1500 feet, it maybe thought that I have selected the most shocking I could find ; but such is not the case. It is the usual experience that in falling such a distance, the hand, foot, or head of a man coming in contact with a timber toward the bottom of a shaft, is cut or torn off. It is by no means unusual for the remains of men to be collected at the bottom of a shaft and sent to the surface in candle-boxes ; to such an extent are the bodies and limbs of many who fall into shafts rent and scattered. On one occasion of this kind, THE PILGRIM IN A COFFIN. 213 when the jury of inquest had finished hearing the testimony and were sitting silent round the fragmentary remains, considering their verdict, a man came hurriedly in, with a candle-box under his arm, approached the foreman, and said to him in a reverent tone, " Wait a moment, please I've got some more of him." Speaking of undertakers, reminds me of a little story : One night a Virginia City policeman while going his round, found an THE PILGRIMS LODGINGS. inebriated " pilgrim " reposing on a bench in front of an under- taking establishment. The officer shook the fellow until he awoke him from his drunken slumber, and then explained to him that unless he found other and less public quarters he should be obliged to escort him to the station-house. The pilgrim sat up, and rubbing his eyes, explained to the officer that he was a stranger in the town ; that he had but fifty cents in his pocket, and, the night being warm, he had concluded to sleep out of doors, and save his money to pay for a breakfast the next morning. Not being a hard-hearted man the officer told the fellow that he might finish his sleep, provided he would get up 214 SHUFFLING OUT THE "CORPSE." and move out of sight before people were astir in the streets. Passing the same way, in the course of an hour or two, the officer found that his man had rolled off the bench, and was lying at full length in the empty case of a coffin that was stand- ing at the edge of the sidewalk, close beside the bench. Rous- ing his " pilgrim " again, the officer told him he must " get out of that ! " " Out o' what ? " growled the fellow. " Why, out of that coffin ! " said the officer though it was only one of those coffin-shaped cases in which coffins are shipped. " Who's in a coffin ? " asked the fellow, evidently becoming somewhat interested. "Why, you are ! " said the officer. " Not if I know it, I ain't ! " said the pilgrim. "Well, I know it," said the officer sharply, " and if you don't get out of it pretty shortly it will be the last of you. Don't you know that if these undertakers get up in the morning and find you snoozing away there, they'll clap a lid on that coffin, screw it down, hustle you out to the graveyard and bury you, then send in a bill and make the county pay your funeral expenses. It's just one of the tricks that our Washoe undertakers like to play!" Crawling out of his narrow quarters, the fellow rubbed his eyes and gazed at the coffin-shaped case for some time, then said : " I'd like to know what sort of a dod-rotted set of undertakers you've got out here in this country, anyway, that go and set rows of coffins 'longside the sidewalks, fur to ketch corpses ? " and without waiting for an answer, he shuffled away to find safer quarters/' CHAPTER XXX. THE TOWNS OF THE BIG BONANZA. AS not much has yet been said in regard to the principal towns of the " big bonanza," I shall now devote a few chapters to Virginia City and Gold Hill, but more particularly to railroads, water-works, lumber-flumes, and other things intimately connected with the growth and pros- perity of those towns, and the cheap and economical working of the mines. To begin, I may say that the two towns, Virginia City and Gold Hill, which were formerly over one mile apart, are now united, and the dividing line cannot be distinguished. The population of Virginia City is a little over twenty thousand, and that of Gold Hill about ten thousand, according to the directory for 1875. Virginia City, as has already several times been mentioned, lies along the eastern face of Mount Davidson, on a broad sloping plateau, and is surrounded on all sides by rugged hills and rocky mountain peaks. In the early days, these hills were covered with a sparse growth of nut pine-treesa sort of stunted pine, in size and form of trunk and branches somewhat resembling an ordinary apple-tree but the demand for fuel for the mines, mills, and domestic uses, swept all these away in a very few years, and even the stumps have been dug up and made into firewood by the Chinese. Gold Hill is situated at the head of Gold Canon, on the south side of Mount Davidson, and is shut in by the walls of the ravine, along which stand the principal buildings of the town. A ridge about two hundred feet in height, lies between 215 216 THE FIRST-BORN OF VIRGINIA CITY. the two towns, which is known as the " Divide." The Divide is covered with buildings, and is a fine airy location a place where the " Washoe zephyr " waltzes to and fro at will. In 1859, there were some scattering nut pine-trees on the sides of the mountains about Gold Hill, but these soon went the way of those about Virginia City, and now all the hills and mountains, as far as the eye can reach, are brown and treeless. The only covering of either hills or valleys is the eternal and ever-present sage-brush. This shrub grows to the height of from one to four feet, and its leaves are not green, but of an ashen-grey much the color and much the same in shape as the leaves of the common garden sage. The botanical name of this shrub is artemisia tridentata. Through the scanty covering of sage-brush the rocks everywhere rise up as though they might be the bones of the land peeping through its skin. The first house built in Virginia City was a canvas struc- ture, eighteen by forty feet in size, erected in 1859 by Lyman Jones, one of the pioneers of the country. Mrs. Jones was the first white woman who lived where Virginia City now stands, and her daughter Ella, was the first white child seen in the camp. The first white child born in Virginia City was a daughter of J. H. Tilton, one of the pioneer wagon-road builders of the country. She was born on the ist of April, 1860, and was named Virginia. She still lives in the town in which she first saw the light. In Virginia City are to be seen as many large and substan- tial buildings, both public and private, as in any town of like population on the Pacific Coast. The Catholics, Episcopa- lians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and other leading Christian denominations have fine and costly churches in the town, and these are as well attended as the churches in any other land. The Masons and Odd Fellows have fine halls, and both societies are in a very flourishing condition. There are in the city most of the orders and societies found in other large towns; as, the Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of Druids, Improved Order of Red-Men, Knights of the Red Branch, Champions of the Red Cross, Crescents, Irish VIRGINIA TILTON. A COMICAL NEWSPAPER OFFICE. 217 Confederation, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Caledonia Soci- ety, Society of Pacific Coast Pioneers, two Turn Vereins, Miners' Union, Printers' Union, and several similar societies. In the way of benevolent associations, there are, the Vir- ginia Benevolent Society, Italian Benevolent Society, Hiber- nian Benevolent Society, St. Vincent de Paul Benevolent Society, and several others. In the city is St. Mary's Orphan Asylum and School (under the charge of the Sisters of Charity), built at the cost of about $100,000, and the St. Vincent Hospital, which cost $40,000 or $50,000. In the town are five military companies the National Guard, Em- met Guard, Washington Guard, Montgomery Guard, and the Nevada Artillery. In the several wards of the city are handsome, commodious and comfortable school-houses, and there are several flourish- ing Sunday-schools, conducted under the auspices of various religious societies. The city is lighted with gas, is supplied with pure water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and has telegraphic communication with all parts of the world. Two daily papers are published in Virginia, the Territorial Enterprise, and the Evening Chronicle. The Enterprise is a morning paper, and the Chronicle, as its name implies, is published in the evening. The Enterprise is the oldest news- paper in Nevada. The first number (it was then a weekly), was issued at Genoa, on Saturday, December i8th, 1858. This was the year before the discovery of silver in Nevada, and Genoa was then a town of about 200 inhabitants. The office of publication was removed to Carson City, in November, 1859, and remained there till November, 1860, when it was removed to Virginia City. The office in which the Enterprise was first published in Virginia City, was a small, one-story frame building with a shed or lean-to on one side, and was a queerly arranged establishment. The proprietors had the shed part fitted up as a kitchen and dining and lodging-place. Bunks were ranged along the sides of the room, one above another, as on shipboard, and here editors, printers, proprie- tors, and all hands " bunked " after the style of the miners in their cabins. A Chinaman, " Old Joe," did the cooking, and three times each day the whole crowd of " newspaper men " 218 GROWING LIKE MUSHROOMS. were called out to the long table in the shed to get their "square meal." The "devil" went for numerous lunches between meals, and often came flying out into the composition- room with a large piece of pie in his mouth, and the old Chi- naman at his heels. The Virginia City Fire Department contains four fine steam fire engines, one Babcock engine and two or three hand engines, hook and ladder apparatus, and all else required in battling with fires in a town of the size. There are also in various places hydrants, to which hose can be attached and powerful streams thrown, in case of a fire occurring in their neighborhood. In the business part of the city are many large and substan- tial fire-proof brick and stone structures. There is a large frame theatre and several halls in which balls and lectures are given. The rooms of the Washoe Club are as fine as those of most similar clubs in large cities, and were fitted up at a cost of about $75,000. They contain a library, reading and billiard-rooms, dining-room, and all else required for the accommodation ot members. Many fine oil paintings adorn the walls, and the furniture and all the appointments are costly and elegant. Owing to the fact that the plateau on which the town is built slopes rapidly to the east, buildings that are but three stories high in front, are in places five or six stories in the rear. This configuration of the ground is of great advantage to those who wish to make a display in cellars and basements. On account of the altitude, the atmosphere is very light and thin, but the climate is as healthful as that of any town on the Pacific Coast. When the town was first settled, for some reason never explained, a notion prevailed that it was a bad place for children that children could not be reared there ; but this was a great mistake. Finer or more robust children can be seen in no town or city in the Union than those of Virginia. They grow like mushrooms. This is probably because they have to contend with but a small amount of atmospheric pressure there is nothing to prevent their shoot- ing up and expanding in all directions. It is a well known-known scientific fact that animals, as COUNTRY AND CITY. UNDERMINED ! 221 sheep and deer, found on elevated mountain ranges, have larger lungs than the same species when inhabiting places at or near the level of the sea ; therefore the children of Virginia City are likely to be large-lunged and broad-chested when they arrive at maturity. The air being thin and light, it is necessary for those breathing it to inhale it in greater volume than would be required in breathing the denser atmosphere of places at or near the level of the sea, and to do this, there must be a proper and proportionate expansion of the lungs. Children born in the country provide themselves with a proper supply of lungs without any looking after, but adults sometimes find the stretching of their lungs to the required standard, a somewhat unpleasant operation. The town of Gold Hill is well supplied with churches and schools, societies of all kinds, fire apparatus, and all else that should be found in a place of its population and business. What has been said of Virginia City in regard to these mat- ters, will apply equally well to Gold Hill. The town has one daily paper, the Evening News, contains the works of many of the leading mines of the Comstock, and is a lively, bustling business place is full of the thunder of machinery and the shriek of steam-whistles. Although but a mile from the centre of Virginia, the temperature of Gold Hill is about five degrees higher, winter and summer, than in the first-named town. The whole town is undermined, and may be said to stand on a foundation of timbers. The ground worked out under- neath the town has, however, been so thoroughly filled in with timbers and waste rock that there is no danger of it caving, though it is immediately but slowly settling. To the eastward of the town, and behind a large hill on which a portion of the town stands, a crevice has opened which is is nearly a mile in length, and in places over two feet in width. This shows that the whole place, hill and all, is gradually " subsiding." Both Virginia and Gold Hill have frequently been swept over by great fires, involving a loss of property to the extent of many millions of dollars. The burnt districts, however, have always been speedily rebuilt. The houses destroyed have been replaced with better and 13 222 AMONG THE RUBBISH-DUMPS. more substantial stuctures, and consequently the towns have improved in appearance by means of the fires they have passed through, though many persons have suffered great loss. A striking feature of both towns, and one which at once rivets the attention of all strangers, is the immense piles of rock seen in the neighborhood of all the principal mines. In these great dump-piles are heaped the rock and earth extracted in sinking the shafts, running the drifts, and in making other underground excavations. Persons from the Atlantic States, who are in the habit of judging of the depth of a well or other excavation by the amount of rubbish seen on the surface, are greatly surprised at the size of the dumps, and their first question is : " Did all that dirt come out of one mine ? " As soon as they see one of these mountains of waste rock, they begin a mental calculation as to the size of the hole left in the ground. It is no small pile of rubbish that comes out of a shaft six feet wide, twenty-two feet long, and from 1,500 to 2,500 feet deep to say nothing of the debris from innumer- able drifts, crosscuts and winzes. The dump-piles of the Savage and Hale and Norcross, mining companies, situated in the southeastern part of Vir- ginia City, are among the largest on the Comstock, the shafts of these mines having been carried down to a depth of nearly 2,500 feet; the waste -dump of the Bullion mine, at the north end of Gold Hill, is also of great size. In many instances, the waste rock hoisted out of the mines is utilized in filling in and leveling the ground surrounding the buildings above the shafts. In this way, acres of level ground are made, and the number of the unsightly dump-piles is much diminished. J. P. Jones, United States Senator from Nevada, has a residence in the town of Gold Hill, where live his mother and three of his brothers, one of whom, Samuel L. Jones, is super- intendent of the Crown Point mine, one of the leading mines of the Comstock. The mother of the Senator, although she might reside in any one of the cities of the Union, prefers to make her home at Gold Hill is really in love with the wild beauty of the surrounding hills, and the thunder of machinery, and all the sights, sounds, and excitements incident to life in the midst of the silver-mines. BIG LOADS. 225 Omnibuses ply between Gold Hill and Virginia City, and soon street-cars will be running between the two towns, and perhaps as far as Silver City, a distance of five miles. Gold Canon, between Gold Hill and Silver City, is filled with mills, hoisting-works, business houses and residences, and from the place last named to Virginia City, a distance of five miles, it may be said to be one town. In the early history of the Comstock towns, huge " prairie schooners," laden with goods, merchandise, and machinery, from over the Sierras, thronged the streets. Each " schooner " was drawn by a team of from fourteen to sixteen mules, and ach mule was provided with a chime of bells, suspended in a steel bow or arch above the bearskin housings of his collar. A few of these teams sufficed to fill a whole street with music, but it was a kind of music that sounded best when heard at a distance and far up in the mountains. These great teams are now no longer seen. The only big teams are those employed in hauling quartz to mills that are off the line of the railroad, and in similar local freighting. Many of the wagons still in use are capable of hauling immense loads. In that country they have a way of hitching a second and smaller wagon behind the first, which second wagon is called a " back-action." Often as many as three and four wagons are thus coupled together in a train. In this way twenty-four cords of wood have been hauled by a team of twelve animals; ten horses hauled on one occasion 73,050 pounds of quartz, and on another occasion twelve horses hauled 84,000 pounds of ore a distance of eight miles. Four wagons were used in each instance. These were, of course, unusually large loads, and were hauled on account of there "being some bantering between certain team-owners, but the teamsters of Nevada usually haul heavier loads than are hauled elsewhere. Being in Gold Hill, on one occasion, with two Western farmers who wished to see some of the mills and hoisting works of the place, I was somewhat amused at their anxiety to satisfy themselves in regard to the weight of the loads hauled by the Washoe teamsters. They had been told a good many stories in regard to big loads, and had made many 226 "SEE FOR YOURSELVES." memorandums of the same, but still could hardly credit what had been told them. Seeing a wagon-load of ore being weighed, they said: " Now we have caught them in the act ! Now we shall see for ourselves. They are just weighing that load. Two four six horses. We shall now see what is a Washoe load for six horses ! " As the wagon was driven off the scales, I said to the man who had done the weighing: "These gentlemen are farmers from the West. They are curious to know the weight of the load of ore that has just been driven off the scales." " It weighed just 28,000 pounds," said the man of the scales. The farmers looked at each other and smiled. "You may see for yourselves," said he of the scales; "the weights used, as you see, are still on count them up." " No;" said the farmers; "we are satisfied; but it will never do for us to speak of the loads hauled in Washoe, when we get back among our neighbors." Said the weigh-master, "I'll tell you what is a fact; a team of ten horses, drawing a train of four wagons, hauled a load of ore which weighed over 73,000 pounds along this street on which you stand." Said the Iowa farmer to the Ohio farmer : " Let us go ; we don't want to hear too much ! " The man at the scales then offered to show them a whole bookful of weights of loads hauled, if they would step into his office ; but they had seen and heard enough, and, as they said " More than we dare speak of at home." At present, the greater part of the ore that is not reduced near the mines, is exported by rail, and, indeed, the railroad does most of the heavy freighting of the whole country. CHAPTER XXXI. CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROAD LINES. THE Virginia and Truckee Railroad, runs from Virginia City to Reno, on the Truckee River, at which point it connects with the Central Pacific Railroad. The length of the road is 52 miles, and it is undoubtedly the crookedest road in the United States probably the crookedest in the world. Ground was broken for the road, on the ipth of February, 1869, and in eight months after, it was doing business between Virginia and Carson City a distance of twenty-one miles. The heavy work lies between these points nearly all of the tunnels, deep cuts and sharp curves and for the greater part of the distance the road was cut through solid rock. From Virginia City to the Carson River, a distance of 13 miles, the track is a continuous incline. The maximum grade is 116 feet. The maximum radius of curves is 300 feet, and the degrees of curvature amount in all between Virginia and Carson City to 6,120; or, in other words, are equal to going seventeen times round a circle. Thus, in traveling from Vir- ginia City to Carson twenty-one miles one passes through a sufficiency of curves to carry him round a circle, 360 degrees, seventeen times. This surpasses any "swinging round the circle," political or otherwise, that has ever been done in the United States. There are on the road six tunnels of an aggregate length of 2,400 feet. All of these tunnels are lined through their whole length with zinc, as a protection against fire. Wood is the fuel used on all the locomotives, and in tugging up the mountain with heavy trains such a Vesuvius of sparks is poured from the 227 228 CIRCULAR TRA VELLING. smoke-stacks, that without the protection of the zinc lining the woodwork of tunnels would constantly be taking fire. As I have said, the heaviest work on the road was between Virginia and Carson City. The cost of this section of 21 miles of road was $1,750,000, or about $83,000 per mile, which includes permanent way and graduation that is, with the track laid, and the road ready for business. The cost of the whole road was about $3,000,000. From Virginia City to Reno, the terminus. of the road, the distance in an air-line is 16^ miles, while by rail it is 52 miles. By the wagon-road, over the mountain, the distance from Virginia to Reno is only 22 miles. Over this wagon-road, known as the Ganger Grade, supplies of all kinds,, including heavy machinery for the mines, were brought to Vir- ginia, previous to the completion of the railroad ; the hauling being done by teams of ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen mules each, attached to huge wagons known as "prairie schooners." As will be seen, by the distance from Virginia City to Reno in a direct line, the traveler not only swings seventeen times round the circle, in going from Virginia to Carson, but has almost completed a grand circle when he reaches the end of the road and connects with the Central Pacific. He starts off in a southerly direction, and so continues until Carson is reached, when he turns and travels northward until he arrives at Reno. At Steamboat Springs, between Carson City and Reno, the traveler who starts from Virginia has traveled forty miles by rail, yet it is but 5-^ miles from the place whence he started,. Steamboat Springs being situated just back or west of Mount Davidson, on the eastern face of which Virginia City stands. Between Virginia and Carson the only piece of straight road is one little stretch about similes in length, but between Carson and Reno are found several miles of road tolerably straight. The road does an immense local carrying business. From 500 to 800 tons of ore are daily carried over it to the mills on the Carson River, and return trains bring great quantities of wood, lumber, and timber for use at the mines. From thirty to as high as forty-five trains per day pass over that part of the road lying between Virginia and Carson City. Notwithstanding the crookedness of the road, trains run over it at a high rate of speed, as the road is kept in perfect order RUGGED WAYS. 229 and steel rails are used on the mountains where short curves most abound. So crooked is the road that in places, in going down the mountain with a long train, the locomotive seems^ to be coming back directly toward the rear car, when directly it gracefully sheers off and heads down the mountain again, the train being thrown into the form of the letter S, reminding one of what the Bible says of the "way of a serpent on a rock." From Reno over the whole length of the road come vast amounts of machinery, stores, and supplies of all kinds for the mines and mills, and goods and merchandise for all of the towns along the river and in the mines. Along the road are a great number of side tracks and switches leading to mills and mining works. Some of these are of considerable length and, as more are constantly being constructed, the indications are that the added length of these will possibly exceed that of the main road. Branch roads, all of a permanent and substantial character, are being built to the shafts of the leading mines, to be used in taking in machinery, wood, timber, lumber, and other supplies, and for sending ore out to the mills. Many of these side-tracks are laid in places where it would be almost impossible to con- struct an ordinary wagon-road, and to see trains darting out of tunnels, and rushing along the face of almost perpendicular hills, disappearing behind a great tower of rock one moment, and the next coming in sight again and swinging round a second rugged tower, looks somewhat too "lively." All the wonderful engin- eering required in the construction of these side-tracks, as well as in the the main road, was done by Mr. I. E. James, an old resident of the country the man who has done nearly all of the intricate surveying that has been required in the leading mines on the Comstock lode. Although one of the most modest and unassuming men on the Pacific Coast, with him nothing in the way of engineering appears to be impossible. After having seen the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, all will say that there is no region so rugged but that a track for the " iron horse " may be found over it and through it in all direc- tions. When engineers, conductors, and other railroad men from the Atlantic States, first begin running on the Virginia and Truckee road they promise themselves that they will make a very short stay, but in a few months they begin to take pride in 230 THE MEN ON THE LINE. their ability to run on such a road ; they like the excitement of it and consider that those who only run on roads that are straight and level know but little about the beauties of the business about railroading as a fine art. Although these men run trains down the mountains from Virginia City to Carson River swinging seventeen times round the circle and going at a fearful rate of speed, yet serious accidents very seldom occur. The trains are timed by telegraph and the stations are so nume- rous that the conductors are always well informed in regard to the trains on the road, and their position. Surveys have been made for a narrow-gauge railroad from Virginia City to Reno, and thence to the northward, along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This road will run northward from Virginia starting out in an opposite direc- tion from that taken by the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, and will pass over some very rough country, but will reach Reno by a shorter* route than the other road named. The object in building this narrow-gauge road is the tapping of the vast forests of pine lying along the eastern slope of the Sierras. CHAPTER XXXII. AN ENGINEERING TRIUMPH. ANOTHER work that has been of great benefit to the towns along the Comstock, and to all the mining and milling companies in and about the towns, and along the canons below, was the bringing of an ample supply of pure water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the early days, when the first mining was done at Virginia City and Gold Hill, natural springs furnished a supply of water for the use of the few persons then living in the two camps. For a time after the discovery of silver, these springs, and a few wells that were dug by the settlers, sufficed for all uses, but as the towns grew in population, an increased supply of water was demanded. A water company was formed and the water flow- ing from several tunnels that had been run into the mountains west of Virginia City for prospecting purposes, was collected in large wooden tanks, and distributed about the two towns by means of pipes. At length the tunnels from which this supply was obtained began to run dry, and a water famine was threat- ened. It then became necessary to set men to work at extending the tunnels further into the hills to cut across new strata of rock. This increased the supply for a time, but, at length, the whole top of the hill into which the tunnels extended appeared to be com- pletely drained. Early in the spring, when the snow was melting, they afforded a considerable supply; but in the summer, when water was most needed, the tunnels furnished but feeble streams and these were much impregnated with minerals, one of the least feared of which was arsenic. The ladies rather liked arsenic, as it im- 231 232 TAPPING THE HILLS. proved their complexion ; made them fair and rosy-cheeked almost young again, some of them. The miners did not object to arsenic; as, while it did not injure their complexion, it strengthened their lungs made them str.ong-winded, and able to scale mountains. (Every man of them hungered to hunt the wild chamois.) But there were other minerals held in solution in the water those that caused diarrhoea for instance that were not so well thought of. The nearer hills having thus been drained, tunnels were run into such of those further away as were of sufficient altitude to permit of streams from them being brought to the two towns These tunnels were run for no other purpose than to find water. A hill was examined with a view to its water-producing capac- ity. It was found that those which rose up in a single sharp or rounded peak were not rich in water. The best water-producers were hills on the tops of which there were large areas of flat ground. That portion of a range of mountains which contained on the summit a large shallow basin surrounded by clusters of hills or peaks was found to yield largely and for a long time, when tapped by a tunnel run under the basin or sink at the depth of three or four hundred feet. Dams were constructed across the outlets of these basins to hold back the water from the melting snow, in order that it might filter down through the earth to the tunnels. At the mouths of the tunnels heavy bulkheads of timbers and plank were con- structed, to keep back and dam up the water where it could be kept cool and pure. Where deep shafts stood near the line of these tunnels, ditches were dug to them along the sides of the hills, and the water formed by the melting of the snow in the spring was let into thejii. All manner of devices, in short, were resorted to for the purpose of keeping in and upon the hills all of the moisture from snow or rains that fell upon them. Yet one after another these hills failed. When once the tops had been thoroughly drained it appeared to require all of the water that fell on them in any shape during winter to reach down into and moisten them to the level of the tunnels. Finally, there were in all many miles of these horizontal wells. All the hills from which water could be brought, for miles away to the northward and southward of Virginia and Gold Hill, were tapped, thousands. WHA T MR. SCHUSSLER DID. 233 on thousands of dollars being expended in this work. When a reservoir of water was first tapped in a new hill there would be poured out a great flood for a few days; this would then fall to a moderate stream and so remain for a month or two, when it would begin to dwindle away. The water from the many tunnels was collected by means of small wooden flumes or troughs, winding about the curves of the hills for miles, and in summer, when most wanted, the sickly streams from the more distant tunnels were lost by leakage and evaporation before having finished half their course to the towns. Virginia City and Gold Hill were frequently placed upon a short allowance of water, and it was seen that a great water famine must soon prevail in both towns, in case the tunnels that had been run into the mountains were depended upon for a supply. The Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company then determined to bring a supply of pure water from the streams and lakes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from the regions of eternal snow. The distance from Virginia City to the first available streams in the Sierras was about twenty-five miles ; but between the Vir- ginia range of mountains and the Sierras, lay the deep depression known as Washoe Valley, in one part of which is situated Washoe Lake. The problem to be solved in bringing water from the Sierras to Virginia City was how to convey it across this deep valley. Mr. H. Schussler, the engineer under whose supervision the Spring Valley Water Works, of San Francisco, were constructed, was sent for, and crossing the Sierras he made an examination of the route over which it was proposed to bring the water. He acknowledged that the undertaking was one of great difficulty. To convey the water across the deep depression formed by Washoe Valley would demand the performing of a feat in hydraulic engineering never before attempted in any part of the world. This was to carry the water through an iron pipe under a perpendicular pressure of 1,720 feet. This feat, however, Mr. Schussler said could be performed, and he was ready to under- take it at once. Surveys were made, in the spring of 1872, and orders given for the manufacture of the pipe. To make the pipe was the work of nearly a year. The manufacturers were furnished with a diagram 234: THE BIG WA TER-PIPE. of the line on which it was to be laid and each section was made to fit a certain spot. When the route lay round a point of rocks the pipe was made of the required curve, and other curved sections were required when the line crossed deep and narrow ravines. The first section of pipe was laid, June nth, 1873, and the last on the 25th, of July the same year. The whole length of the pipe is seven miles and one hundred and thirty-four feet. Its interior diameter is twelve inches, and it is capable of deliver- ing 2,200,000 gallons of water per twenty-four hours. It lies across Washoe Valley, in the form of an inverted siphon. The end at which the water is received rests upon a spur from the main Sierras, at an elevation of 1885 feet above Washoe Valley. The outlet is on the crest of the Virginia range of mountains, on the eastern slope of which are situated the towns of Virginia and Gold Hill. The perpendicular elevation of the inlet above the outlet is 465 feet. Thus is brought to bear a great pressure which forces the water rapidly through the pipe. The water is brought to the inlet through a large wooden flume, and at the outlet is delivered into a similar flume, twelve miles in length, which conveys it to Virginia City. The pipe is of wrought iron, and is fastened by three rows of 5-8 inch rivets. At the lowest point in the ground crossed, the perpendicular pressure is 1,720 feet, equal to 800 pounds to the square inch. Here the iron is 5-16 of an inch in thickness, but as the ground rises to the east and west, and the pressure is reduced, the thick- ness of the iron decreases through 1-4, 3-16, down to 1-16. In its course, the pipe crosses thirteen deep gulches, making necessary that number of undulations, as it is throughout its length laid at the depth of 2 1-2 feet below the surface of the earth. Besides these, there are a great number of lateral curves round hills and points of rocks. There was just one place and none other for each section of pipe as received from the manu- factory. At each point where there is a depression in the pipe there is a blow-off cock, for the removal of any sediment that may collect, and on the top of each ridge is an air-cock, for blowing off the air when the water was first let in, and at other times when the pipe is being filled. The pipe contains no less than i, 1 5 0,000 pounds of rolled iron; is held together by 1,000,000 TESTING THE SIPHON. 235 rivets, and there were used in securing the joints 52,000 pounds of lead, which was melted and poured in from a portable furnace that moved along the line as the work of laying the pipe-pro- gressed. Before being put down, each section of pipe was boiled in a bath of asphaltum and coal-tar, at a temperature of 380 degrees. At the first filling of the pipe a stream of water, about the thickness of a common lead-pencil, escaped through the lead packing of a joint, at a point where the pressure was greatest. This struck against the face of a rock, and, rebounding, played upon the upper side of the pipe. The water brought with it from the rock a small quantity of sand or grit, perhaps, but at all events it soon bored a hole through the top of the pipe, and from this hole, which shortly became two or three inches in diameter, a jet of water ascended to the height of two hundred feet or more, spreading out in the shape of a fan toward the top. When this break occurred, a signal smoke was made in the valley, and the lookout at the inlet of the pipe on the mountain spur shut off the water. Over each joint in the pipe was placed a cast-iron sleeve or band, weighing 300 pounds, and within this sleeve was poured the molten lead which served as packing. In all there were used 1,475 or 44 2 >5 pounds of these sleeves, and but three out of the whole number proved faulty, and failed to sustain the strain brought upon them, and of 12,640 sheets of iron used in the pipe, but one bad one was found. As it would have been a great task to test each section of the pipe by hydraulic pressure at the manufactory, the engineer proposed to bring the whole under the required strain at once, after they were put down. He began the pressure with a perpendicular height of 1,250 feet in the column of water; increased it to 1,550, to 1,700, and finally to 1,850, being 130 feet more than the pipe would be required to sustain when in actual use. During these experiments, men were stationed at the inlet of the pipe, at its outlet on the summit of the Virginia range, and at various points through the valley, as lookout men. They made their signals by means of a smoke during the day, and a fire by night a trick learned from the Piute Indians. As the water came surging down through the great inverted siphon from the elevated mountain spur, and began to fill and press upon the parts lying in the deeper portions of the valley, 236 GREA T REJOICINGS. one after another the blow-off cocks on the crests of the ridges crossed, opened, and allowed the escape of the compressed air. Compared with what was heard when these cocks blew off, the blowing of a whale was a mere whisper. The water finally flowed through the pipe and reached Gold Hill and Virginia City on the night of August i, 1873. Early that evening a signal fire was lighted in the mountains at the inlet of the pipe, showing that the water had again been turned on. As the pipe filled, the progress of the water in it could be traced by the blowihg off of the air on the tops of the ridges through the valley, and at last, to the great joy of the engineer and all concerned in the success of the enterprise, the signal fire at the outlet, on the summit of the Virginia range, was for the first time lighted, showing that the water was flowing through the whole length of the pipe. When the water reached Virginia there was great rejoicing. Cannon were fired, bands of music paraded the streets, and rockets were sent up all over the city. Many persons went out and filled bottles with this first water from the Sierras, and a bottle of it is still preserved in the cabinet of the Pacific Coast Pioneers. Previous to the laying of this pipe for the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company, the greatest pressure under which water had ever been carried in any part of the world was 910 feet. This was at Cherokee Flat, California, and was also under the supervision of Mr. Schussler. In 1875, the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company laid a second pipe alongside of the first. This has an inside diameter of ten inches. Instead of being fastened with rivets it is lap- welded, and is the largest pipe ever made in that way. As there are no rivet-heads in it to produce friction, it delivers the same amount of water as the larger pipe, namely, 2,200,000 gallons per twenty-four hours. Previous to 1875, the supply of water was principally obtained from a stream known as Hobart Creek, but, in the year named, the works in the mountains were extended by pushing the supply flume through to Marlette Lake, within the basin of Lake Tahoe, a distance of eight and a half miles, and a total distance from Virginia City of thirty-one and a half miles. In order to reach THE WORK COMPLETED. 237 and tap Marietta Lake it was necessary in one place to run a tunnel 3,000 feet in 'length under a dividing ridge the ridge forming the rim of the Lake Tahoe basin. Marlette Lake covers over 300 acres of ground, and in the middle is 30 or 40 feet in depth. Connected with the works are several reservoirs that hold from three million to ten million gallons of water. Signal fires are no longer necessary along the line of the works, as there is now set up a line of printing telegraph, with numerous stations between Virginia City and Marlette Lake. Marlette Lake lies at an altitude of 1,500 feet above C street, Virginia City, and the water is brought in at such a height above the town that it can everywhere be carried far above the highest buildings, and streams from the hydrants are thrown with great force and effect in case of a fire occurring near them. There is now not only an ample supply of water in the city for all town and domestic uses, but also for the boilers of the many hoisting works, and for use in the several mills where the ores of the Comstock mines are reduced. The cost of the water- works was over two million dollars. CHAPTER XXXIII. HOW WOOD IS CUT IN THE SIERRAS. THE Comstock lode may truthfully be said to be the tomb of the forests of the Sierras. Millions on millions of feet of lumber are annually buried in the mines, never- more to be resurrected. When once it is planted in the lower levels it never again sees the light of day. The immense bodies of timber now being entombed along the Comstock, will probably be discovered some thousands of years hence, by the people to be born in a future age, in the shape of huge beds of coal, and the geologists of that day will say that this coal or lignite came from large deposits of driftwood at the bottom of a lake; that there came a grand upheaval, and Mount Da- vidson arose, carrying the coal with it on its eastern slope. Not less than eighty million feet of timber and lumber are annually consumed on the Comstock lode. In a single mine the Consolidated Virginia timber is being buried at the rate of six million feet per annum, and in all other mines in like proportion. At the same time about 250,000 cords of wood are consumed. The pine-forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are drawn upon for everything in the shape of wood or lumber, and have been thus drawn upon for many years. For a distance of fifty or sixty miles all the hills of the eastern slope of the Sierras have been to a great extent denuded of trees of every kind ; those suitable only for wood as well as those fit for the manufacture of lumber for use in the mines. Already the lumbermen are not only extending their operations to a greater distance north and south along the great mountain 238 THE FORESTS OF THE SIERRAS. 239 range, but are also beginning to reach over to the western slope over to the California side of the range. Long since, all the forests on the lower hills of the Nevada side of the mountains that could be reached by teams, were swept away, when the lumbermen began to scale the higher hills, felling the trees thereon, and rolling or sliding the logs down to flats whence they could be hauled. The next move- ment was to erect saw-mills far up in the mountains, and to construct from these, large flumes leading down into the valleys, through which to float wood, lumber, and timber. Some of these flumes are over twenty miles in length, and are very substantial structures, costing from $20,000 to $250,000 each. They are built on a regular grade, and, in order to maintain this grade, wind round hills, pass along the sides of steep mountains, and cross deep canons; reared, in many places, on trestle-work of great height. These flumes are made so large that timbers sixteen inches square and twenty or thirty feet in length may be floated down in them. In a properly constructed flume, timbers of a large size are floated by a very small head of water ; and not alone single logs, but long processions of them. Timbers, wood, lumber in fact, all that will float is carried away as fast as thrown in. When a stick of timber or a plank has been placed in the flume, then ends all the expense of trans- portation, as, without further attention, it is dumped in the valley twenty miles away, perhaps. By means of these flumes, tens of thousands of acres of timber-land are made available, that could never have been reached by teams. In some places, where the ground is very steep, there are to be seen what are called gravitation flumes, down which wood is sent without the aid of water. These, however, are merely straight chutes, running from the top to the bottom of a single hill or range of hills. In places, they are of great use, as through them wood may be sent down within reach of the main water-flume leading to the valley. Nearly all of the flumes have their dumps near the line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, or some of its branches or side-tracks, and in these dumps are at times to be seen thousands upon thou- sands of cords of wood and millions of feet of lumber. 14 24:0 A DARING LEAP. In some localities a kind of chute is in use, made by laying down a line of heavy timbers in such shape as to form a sort of trough. Down these tracks or troughs are slid huge logs. When the troughs are steep, the logs rush down at more than railroad speed, leaving behind them a trail of fire and smoke. Such log-ways are generally to be seen about the lakes, and are so contrived that the logs leap from them into water of great depth, as otherwise they would be shivered to pieces and spoiled for use in the manufacture of lumber. Occasion- ally, in summer, a daring lumberman mounts a large log at the top of one of these chutes, high up the mountain, and darting down at lightning speed, with hair streaming in the breeze, takes a wild leap of twenty or thirty feet into the lake. In one place, in order to obtain a supply of water sufficient to run two lumber-flumes, a tunnel was run a distance of 2,100 feet at a cost of $30,000. This tunnel passed through a ridge, and tapped a lake lying within the basin of Lake Tahoe. Yerington, Bliss, & Co., one of the heaviest lumbering firms in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, have built a narrow-gauge railroad from their saw-mills on the shore of Lake Tahoe to the head of Clear Creek, on the first or eastern summit of the Sierras. The road is eight miles in length, and is used in the transportation of lumber from the mills of the company to their large flume at the head of Clear Creek. This railroad passes through a tunnel 500 feet in length, which was the only tunnel and the heaviest piece of work on the road. Logs are rafted across Lake Tahoe to the mills, from all points. The lake being of great size, and all of its shores and the slopes of the surrounding mountains being heavily tim- bered, the company have command of a vast area of pine- forests. Through the waters of the lake and its numerous bays, they reach out and up into the mountains in all direc- tions, gathering the pines into their mills, carrying them, in the shape of lumber, up their railroad, and then shooting them through their big flume down over all the hills till they land in Carson Valley. This is all very well for the company and for the mining companies, who must have lumber and timber, but it is going LOG RIDING LUMBERING AT LAKE TAHOE. THE RAFTS ON LAKE TAHOE. 34.3 to make sad work, ere long, with the picturesque hills sur- rounding Lake Tahoe, the most beautiful of all the lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Where tall pines now "shade all the shores and wave on all the mountain slope, nought will shortly be seen, save decaying stumps and naked granite rocks. But timber and lumber are imperatively demanded, and the forests of not only these hills but of a thousand others, will doubtless be sacrificed. The rafts of logs are towed across the lake by small steam- boats. This rafting is of a novel character. The logs forming the raft are not pinned or in any way fastened together. The steamboat runs up to a bay or other place where logs are lying, and casts anchor. A boat is then sent out which carries a long cable strung full of large buoys. This cable is carried round a proper fleet of logs, as a seine is carried round a school of fish. The steamer then weighs anchor and starts across the lake, towing along all the logs about which the cable has been cast. No matter how rough the lake may be, the logs remain in a bunch, being attracted the one to the other, and clinging together as bits of stick and chips are often seen to do when floating on a lake or stream. On the side of the lake opposite the mills of Yerington, Bliss, Sa Co., a man who has a contract for delivering logs in the water ready for rafting, does his "logging" with a locomotive. He has laid a railroad track, some six miles in length, through the heaviest part of the forest, and instead of hauling the logs to the lake with oxen, in the old-fashioned way, rolls them upon low trucks, and hauls a whole train of them away at once, with his locomotive. At the edge of the lake the track is laid under water for a considerable distance, and the train being run upon this track, the logs are floated off the low cars, and are ready for rafting. Other large mills besides those of the company named, are engaged in devouring the forest surrounding Lake Tahoe. About five million feet of lumber per month are turned out by the several mills at the lake, and each summer about three million feet of timbers are hewn in that locality. Many of the sugar-pine trees about Lake Tahoe are five, six, and some even eight feet, in diameter ; all are very tall and straight. 244 DESCENDING THE FL UMES. At a point in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about eleven miles from the town of Reno, on the Central Pacific Railroad, Messrs. Mackay & Fair have a lumber-flume over twenty- miles in length. This flume was built through an exceed- ingly rugged region, and cost $250,000. It taps a tract of twelve thousand acres of heavy pine-forest owned by the parties named. The land is estimated to contain 500,000 cords of wood, 100,000,000 feet of saw-logs, and 30,000,000 feet of hewn timber; all of which will be brought down to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, through the flume. A print- ing telegraph extends along the whole line of the flume, by means of which orders are transmitted to all points. There are a great number of these flumes reaching up into the Sierras from the valleys of Nevada, and soon it will be necessary to build railroads to haul the lumber up to the heads of these from the California side of the mountains, as has been done by Yerington, Bliss, & Co. No means of trans- porting wood, lumber, and timber is or can be cheaper than these flumes. When once a plank or stick of wood has been dropped in at the head of the flume it is already as good as at the other end, twenty or thirty miles away. The flumes are far ahead of railroads of any gauge, broad or narrow, as a means of cheap transportation for wood and lumber. Each season, from 80,000 to 100,000 cords of wood are floated down the Carson River. This wood is cut high up in the Sierras, at the head-waters of the Carson and its tribu- taries, and is sent down from the mountain slopes for many miles, in flumes of the same kind as those in use for the trans- portation of lumber. The wood is collected on the banks of the river, ready to be launched at the proper and auspicious moment. Contrary to what most persons would suppose, the proper time for starting one of these drives of eighty or one hundred thousand cords of wood, is not when there is a big freshet, 'but at the falling of the stream after a freshet ; that is, on the heels of a grand overflow. If the wood be put into the river at a time when its waters are over the banks, it floats away into the flats and out over the valleys, whence it is almost impossible, but at too great cost, to get it back into the VANISHING FORESTS. 245 channel, and thus it is as good as lost. The lumbermen are for this reason careful not to put their wood into the river while there is danger of there occurring a sudden flood,~which would lift it above the banks and scatter it broadcast over the country. The time for starting the drive is just after the great flood of the season after the thaw which sweeps the greater part of the snow from the mountains. Then the wood comes down huddled in the channel, and covering the whole surface of the water, for fifty miles or more. At points where there are sloughs or bayous leading out of the river, booms are stretched to keep the wood in the straight and narrow way. French Canadian lumbermen and Piute Indians are generally em- ployed in making these drives. As the wood must be fol- lowed up and kept movjng, it is a wet and laborious business. The time is not far distant when the whole of that part of the Sierra Nevada range lying adjacent to the Nevada silver- mining region will be utterly denuded of trees of every kind. Already, one bad effect of this denudation is seen in the summer failure of the water in the Carson River. The first spell of hot weather in the spring now sweeps nearly all the snow from the mountains, and sends it down into the valleys in one grand flood ; whereas, while the mountains were thickly clad with pines, the melting of the snow was gradual, and there was a good volume of water in the river throughout the summer and fall months. The prevailing breezes in Nevada are from the west indeed the wind seldom blows from any other quarter than the west which is directly over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In passing over the fields of snow, on the summit of the Sierras, the breezes are cooled, and the summer weather in Nevada is thus rendered delightful. But when once the mountains shall have been denuded of their timber, all the snow on both slopes will be swept away by the first warm weather of spring as it is now swept away on the eastern slope when a marked in- crease in the heat of the summers in Nevada is likely to be experienced. Railroads are being pushed, both north and south, along the eastern base of the Sierras, with no other object than to strip 246 COAL DEPOSITS OF NEVADA. the mountains of the forests in which they are now clothed, in the course of time. We may therefore look to see the whole range lying bare in the sun. When this shall come to pass, the Great Basin region to the eastward will be a perfect fur- nace in summer. There must come a day when wood will be scarce and dear, and some other fuel must be found. Coal from the Rocky Mountains is now extensively used at Virginia City, but it costs about as much as wood. The problem may be solved in a wonderful deposit of lignite recently opened by the Virginia City Coal Company, and it is to be hoped that the mine will prove to be all that it now promises. This coal deposit is on El Dorado Canon, eleven miles from Dayton, ten from Carson City, and seventeen from Virginia City. Such an extensive deposit of lignite as this has sel- dom been found in any country. There are two strata of it, each fifteen feet in thickness. The first vein was cut at the depth of forty feet, and forty feet below this was found the second stratum, of the same thickness (fifteen feet) as that above. Both veins dip to the southwest, at an inclination of four inches per foot, under a mountain of great size. The company have erected steam-hoisting and pumping machi- nery, and have sunk their main shaft to the depth of 180 feet, at which point they drifted out until they cut their lower vein, at a point 460 feet distant from the bottom of the shaft. They then followed the stratum back to the shaft, for the purposes of ventilation, and were all the way in coal of an excellent quality. The coal burns well and freely, and must prove of great value as soon as it can be cheaply brought to the several towns where it is needed, as it appears to exist in almost inexhaustible quantities. A narrow-gauge railroad is to be built from the mine to the neighboring towns. One or two mills have been run with coal, but the cost of hauling it on wagons is too great to make it much more economical as a fuel than the wood and coal already in use. CHAPTER XXXIV. IN the spring of 1871, there sprang into existence in Virginia City, a secret organization known as " Six Hundred and One." It was a "Vigilance Committee " similar to that organized in San Francisco in the early days. The object of the organization in Virginia City, as far as is known, appears to have been the speedy execution of persons guilty of cold-blooded murder, and the banishment of dangerous men from the city. At the time "601 " made its appearance, there were frequent incendiary fires, many murders had been committed, robberies were common, and there prevailed an unusual amount of law- lessness. The idea of those belonging to the organization seems to have been to strike terror to the hearts of evil-doers by the summary punishment of desperate characters who, with little or no provocation, killed peaceable citizens. " Six Hundred and One " was so quietly and secretly organ- ized that it appeared to spring into existence in a single night. The first that was publicly known of the organization was on the night of March 24, 1871, when Arthur Perkins Heffernan, who, a short time before, had shot down a man in cold blood at the bar of the saloon in the principal hotel of the town, was taken from the County Jail and hanged. ^ In the morning, when the coroner went to cut down the body of Arthur Perkins, as he was commonly called, there was found pinned upon it a paper on which were the figures " 601." This was taken to be the name of the " vigilante " organization, and *' 601 " it has ever since been called. It is supposed to be still in existence, and it is said that meetings are frequently held, in 247 248 "WHAT'S UP? which the " situation " is discussed. The members are supposed to be leading citizens and business men of the town, but just who they are is not certainly known, as they always appear in masks when out on business. Perkins was taken from the jail and hanged, at about i o'clock in the morning. The majority of the residents of the city knew nothing of the occurrence until they arose, yet many persons were still on the streets and lingering about the saloons and other places of public resort, and not a few met " 60 1 " face to face, greatly to their astonishment. The meaning of the appearance of armed and masked men in the streets at such a time in the night was rightly guessed by most persons, as soon as tney had time for reflection. The members of the organization had quietly taken possession of the armory of one of the military companies of the town, where they armed themselves with muskets and bayonets, drew on their white masks, and suddenly sallied forth. Their first move was to place a strong guard at the four corners of the streets round the block in which stood the jail. The appearance of these guards at the street corners was the first intimation that the people of the town had that anything unusual was transpiring. Men started to go to their homes, when they suddenly found themselves confronted by a score of masked men, who brought to bear upon them a row of glittering bayonets, and said; " Go back ! " Most persons went " back " without a word, but a few wanted to know " what's up ! " and " what was the reason they could not pass ? " when they were again told to go back or they would " find out what was up ! " Some persons after being thus turned back, went round the block and tried at the next street corner, where they were again met by a glittering array of bayonets and the stern order : " Go back ! " A woman who happened to be scouting about the town at the unseemly hour when the net was drawn about the block, found herself caught in it. She tried every corner and, at each, found a row of bayonets held in front of her. Not a word was spoken anywhere, and this silence and the sight of the arms and masks so frightened her that she galloped about at a very lively rate for a time, then suddenly disappeared, no one knew whither. Some printers also going home from their AFRAID ! 249 work on a morning paper, were halted, and their foreman, a fussy, fidgetty old fellow, recently from San Francisco, was frightened nearly out of his wits. When he found half a dozen bayonets at his breast, and saw before him the masked faces, he was sure he had fallen into the hands of robbers. " Don't shoot ! for God's sake don't shoot ! " he cried. " I'm a poor miserable old printer and haven't got a cent ! " Said a voice : "We know you, you old fool. You only want to go two doors above here. I guess we'll just escort you ! " Then turning to the printers, who stood back, heartily enjoying the fright of their foreman, the same masked man said : " Come on boys, you lodge in the same house, I believe ! " Four or five men stepped out and marched the printers within the lines, seeing them to and through their own door. " Gentlemen, will we be quite safe here ? " asked the still anxious foreman, thrusting his head out at the door, after it was thought he was secured within. "You are safe inside," said one of the masked men, "but if you come out again we'll blow the whole top of your head off! " The head instantly disappeared. Every few minutes some belated citizen was halted and turned back, at one or another corner of the beleagured block, giving him an opportunity of returning to his favorite saloon, telling of the wonder and taking another drink. The armed and masked men at the corners were all that any one saw ; what was going on within the guarded square no one knew, but all were able to make a tolerably correct guess. Suddenly the heavy boom of a cannon shook the town and disturbed the stillness of the night. Instantly, and as though by magic, the armed and masked men disappeared from the streets, going no one knew whither. The boom of the cannon, which was fired in the eastern part of the city, at an old military post occupied during the rebellion by a provost guard, told that Arthur Perkins was no more. While the masked men stood on guard at the corners of the streets, Perkins was hanged in the western suburb of the city. It appears that twenty or thirty members of "601" who were within the lines, quietly went to the Court-house, and, with a crow- bar, wrenched open the front door. They then quickly advanced 250 LED FORTH TO DEATH. to the private office and sleeping-apartment occupied by the sheriff and a deputy. These officers were surprised in their beds, their weapons were secured, and the keys of the jail and cells taken from them. All the rest was now easily done. Arthur Perkins and a man who, in a fit of jealousy, had shot and wounded his wife, occupied the same cell. When the heavy tramp of the vigilantes was heard in the outer room, Perkins suspected its meaning " They have come for me," said he to his companion. " I may as well bid you good-bye ; this is my last night on earth ! " When the masked men entered the room in wfiich were ranged the cells, they advanced to that occupied by Perkins, and un- locking the door, said : " Come out, we want you." The man who was in the cell with Perkins was terribly fright- ened. He supposed that he, also, was wanted indeed thought a clean sweep of all in the jail was to be made. He started to march out with Perkins, but was pushed back, one of the men saying: "Go back! we don't want you." These, the man afterwards said, were the most comforting words he ever heard in his life. In his excitement Perkins was unable to get on one of his boots. *' " Never mind the boot," said one of the vigilantes, " where you are going you will not need boots ! ' Perkins was marched by" the back way through the Court- house, was hurried to a point near the old Ophir works, and there, when a convenient timber was found, was hanged. He stood on a plank placed across the mouth of a tunnel and, when the fatal moment came, did not wait for the plank to be pulled from under his feet, but sprang into the air as high as he could leap, in order to fall with as much force as possible and thus end his life quickly and with little pain. On the 26th of September, 1846, the ship Thomas H. Perkins sailed from New York, having on board a portion of Stevenson's regiment of California volunteers. The Perkins was commanded by Captain Arthur, and Arthur Perkins Heffernan was born on the vessel during her passage between New York and Rio de Janeiro. He was named after the vessel and her captain. His father was a corporal in Company F ; F. J. Lippite commanding ; his mother was a sister of the notorious robber, Jack Powers, who was also at that time a member of company F. A girl was EXECUTION OF PERKINS. "ANOTHER MAN GONE!" 251 born on the ship Thomas H. Perkins about the same time that young Heffernan first saw the light, and it was an understood thing by those on board the vessel that this girl, calledr Alta California, should, at the proper age, become the wife of Arthur Perkins Heffernan, an event that never came to pass. Both children were baptized at Rio, at the American Embassy, by the chaplain of the United States' ship Columbia^ then lying in Bra- zilian waters. On the i8th of July, 1871, " 601 " hanged George B. Kirk, a man who was considered a very bad character, who had killed a man in California, and who had lately been released from the Nevada State Prison. He had received a note (ticket of leave, as these notes came to be called) from " 601," ordering him to leave the city. He left, but after being gone some time ventured back. Acquaintances told him that to attempt to remain in the town would cost him his life, but he thought otherwise. The first night he was in the city he was found at the house of a female acquaintance, and, at about n o'clock, he was captured by " 601," placed in a buggy, and taken out to the north end of the town, to the Sierra Nevada mining works, and there hanged from the timbers of a flume. Again the cannon in the eastern part of the city boomed, and as the single, heavy shot echoed through the mountains those who heard it said : " Ha ! Six Hundred and One ! Another man gone ! " Had Kirk remained away from the city he would not have been harmed. When he came back in defiance of the order he had received, commanding him to absent himself from the city, the vigilantes found it necessary to make an example of him, as otherwise all who had received " tickets of leave " would have flocked back to the town. Since the hanging of Kirk," 60 1 " has not found it necessary to " deal with " any others of the desperadoes of the country. A wholesome fear of the organization is felt. All know that a man who behaves himself in even a half-way decent manner is in no danger from the vigilantes." As the reader may desire to know what the regularly consti- tuted authorities do in the case of an execution of the irregular character of those of " 601," I give the verdict of the coroner's jury in the case of Kirk : M We find the deceased was named Geo. B. Kirk ; was a native of Jacksoa 252 " YOU SEE HE STA YED." county, Missouri, aged about 36 years ; that he came to his death on the i8th day of July, 1871, by being hanged by parties unknown to us." The morning after the hanging, when Kirk's remains were lying at an undertaking establishment, a - man who appeared to be a stranger in the city, observing something of a crowd about the door, approached, and looked in at the body lying in the coffin. " Man dead ? " asked he of a person standing near. "Yes, sir; " shortly answered the person questioned. Fidgetting a little the stranger tried it again : " How did he die ? " " Hung." was the laconic reply. " Hung ! Ah, hung himself ? " " No sir, he was hanged by * 601 ' by the Vigilantes." "What did they hang him for? " " He had been notified to leave town, but after leaving he came back." " When a man has been notified to leave the town, can't he never come back here again and stay ? " "Yes, sir." " Yes ? Then how is this ? " " Well he came back and " pointing to the coffin '* you see ht stayed" CHAPTER XXXV. THE WASHOE " ZEPHYR." THE " zephyr " is one of the peculiar institutions of Washoe, and as such is worthy of special mention. At certain seasons generally in the fall and spring furious gales prevail along the Comstock range. In and about Virginia City these wind-storms are particularly severe. The city being built on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, at an elevation of over 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the mountain rising abruptly above the city on the west, to the height of about 2,000 feet above the town, fierce whirls and " sucks " are formed in the lee of the mountain. The prevailing winds of the country come from the west, and from this quarter also comes. the "zephyr." It is probably a straight-ahead gale before it strikes Mount Davidson, but upon that towering mass of granite it splits. Currents pass round the north and south sides of the mountain, meet in the city ? and waltz about in the shape of whirlwinds of from eighty to two hundred horse-power. To complicate things still more, a third portion of the gale comes howling directly over the peak of the mountain, and plunges down into the town among the whirlwinds, knocking them right and left whenever it encounters them. It is no doubt this particular and peculiar current of the gale whipping down over the summit of the mountain, that produces the remarkable vertical atmospheric action observable during the prevalence of a first-class zephyr. A breeze of this kind will snatch a man's hat off his head and take it vertically a hundred feet into the air ; then, as he stands gazing after it, the 253 254 "ZEPHYR BE B LOWED." hat suddenly comes down at his feet, as though shot out of a cannon, and lies before him as completely flattened out as though it had been struck with a sledge-hammer. The action of the zephyr is sometimes much the same as that seen in the leathern sucker with which boys are able to lift stones of considerable weight. A furious gust falls upon the flat tin roof of a building, then suddenly bounding upward rips a great hole in the tin. The whirlwinds and winds of all other " kinds for in the same minute, and almost at the same instant, it blows fiercely from every point of the compass then enter the hole, seize upon the roof, and very soon complete its wreck, A section of tin twenty feet square, may be seen to flap in the air, like the loose sail of a vessel at sea, but with a clashing sound that may be heard a mile away ; then, on a sudden, the whole sheet is ripped off, and goes sailing through the air like a piece of paper, landing, perhaps, two or three hundred yards away, and passing over half a dozen houses during its flight. Of late these " zephyrs " have not been so furious and destruc- tive as in years past. Then the tin on half a dozen roofs was often to be seen flapping in the breeze at the same moment, each section of roofing giving out a roar more startling than would be the combined sheet-iron thunder of a dozen country theatres of average enterprise. " Sleep ! Sleep no more ! the zephyr doth murder sleep." After a night of such wild work, the stranger within the gates of Virginia City is likely to make his appearance very early in the morning, red-eyed and wrathy. I remember to have heard a gentleman who sported a bunch of hair on each cheek, about the size of a coyote's tail, thus express himself one morning after such an elemental carnival : " Wind ! talk about wind ! Why, the wind 'owled at such a rate last night that I thought it would bring the bloody 'ouse down about my ears. Blast it ! when it 'owls like that a fellow can't sleep, you know ! The clark o' the 'otel calls it a Washoe zephyr zephyr be blowed, it was a bloody gale, you know ! " Not to exaggerate, I may say that one of the good old-fashioned Washoe zephyrs, even in the present condition of the town, not only howls itself, but also makes Virginia City howl, and would make Rome or any other place howl. At times such clouds of A JACKASS ON THE WING. 255 dust are raised, that, viewed from a distance, all there is to be seen is a steeple sticking up here and there, a few scattering chimneys, an occasional poodle-dog, and, perhaps, a stray-^nfant drifting wrong end up, high above all the house-tops. Down below in the darkness, gravel-stones are flying along the street like grape-shot, and all the people have taken refuge in the doorways. Such ripping of signs,, threshing of awnings, rattling and banging of iron and wooden shutters such tumbling about of chimney-pots and sections of stovepipe, is seldom seen or heard in any less favored town. Out on the Divide, a high part of the city where the wind has a fair sweep (this is generally of nights, when strangers are not likely to see it), the air is filled with dust, rags, tin cans, empty packing-cases, old cooking-stoves, all manner of second-hand furniture, crowbars, log-chains, lamp-posts, and similar rubbish. Hats ! More hats are lost during the prevalence of a single zephyr than in any city in the Union on any election held in the last twenty years. These hats all go down the side of the moun- tain and land in a deep gulch known as Six-mile Canon the place where the Johntown Jasons found the first tag-locks of the big bonanza. After a very severe zephyr, it is said, drifts of hats fully fifteen feet in depth, are to be seen in the bed of the canon just named. All these hats are found and appropriated by the Piute Indians, who always go down to the canon the next morning after a rousing and fruitful gale, to gather in the hat crop. When the innocent and guileless children of the desert come back to town, they are all loaded down to the guards with hats. Each head is decorated with at least half a dozen hats of all kinds and colors braves, squaws, and pappooses are walking pyramids of hats. There is a tradition in Virginia City, that in the spring of 1863, a donkey was caught up from the side of Mount David- son far up on the northern side, near the summit of the moun- tain and carried eastward over the city, at a height of five or six hundred feet above the houses, finally landing near the Sugar- Loaf Mountain nearly five miles away. Those who witnessed this remarkable instance of the force of the zephyr, say that as 256 WEIRD SCENES. the poor beast was hurried away over the town, his neck was stretched out to its greatest length, and he was shrieking in the most despairing and heart-rending tones ever heard from any living creature. The oldest inhabitant sometimes tries to spoil this story by saying that what was seen was an old gander, the leader of a flock of wild geese, lost in the storm, and baffled in his attempt to make headway southward against the hurricane. It may be so, but most folks along the Comstock cling to the donkey and sneer at the gander. Although there is hardly a green spot to be seen in any direc- tion, yet there are, in many places in Washoe, landscapes that will always at once attract attention. From Virginia City, perched as it is, high on the side of Mount Davidson, is obtained a grand view of a vast wilderness of hills, mountains, and desert plains. The eye sweeps eastward over untold scores of hills and valleys to the tall peaks of the Humboldt mountains, distant not less than one hundred and eighty miles. Hill rises beyond hill far away in all directions, each hill exhibiting in all its out- lines a stern individuality, and each rearing aloft a rock-crowned and treeless head. In the interstices of these peaks, each of which stands a dark- browed and sullen Ajax, we catch glimpses of deserts that lie white and glittering, long journeys away, yet we almost feel our eyes scorched as we gaze, by their far-darted shimmer. These spots that so glitter and twinkle, far away through the brown of the hills, are great plains of salt and alkali deserts more hungry and sterile than the wilds of Sahara. In the view before us we have the "hoar austerity of rugged desolation," yet there dwells in it a grandeur that is almost awful, and a something very fascinating. Every artist who looks upon this weird and unsmiling land- scape feels his soul stirred with a desire to paint it. No man has yet painted it no man will ever paint it. There is that in it which no cunning in colors can reach no skill in drawing can express. The only way in which an artist can approach the subject is by painting what he feels, not what he sees. This vast landscape is at all times grand and worthy of study, but when its many moods are evoked by elemental disturbances, it becomes wildly beautiful. LIGHT AND SHADE. 257 Often in summer several thunder-showers are to be seen in progress at the same moment, far out in the wide wilderness, each separated from the other by a broad belt of blue sky and bright sunshine. While one dark storm-cloud hovers over the city, showering its moisture upon the thirsty earth, another is seen a whole day's journey to the eastward, creeping along some parched desert, with the rain, in slanting columns, pouring upon the white and shining fields of alkali, and still others hang about the mountain peaks in various directions, sending down red bolts of lightning upon their dark granite summits. Away to the northeast the tall, turreted peaks of Castle District rise against an inky sky, each line of their rugged spires distinctly traceable, while to the southeast, looming high above the hori- zon, are seen, through a shower, the ashen-hued mountains of Como. To the right of these, and miles on miles further away far south of the Carson River stand many tall, purple peaks, here and there one among the highest tipped with sunlight. East- ward, below the level of the city and almost in the centre of the picture, the Sugar-Loaf rears its rounded top, over which, and far beyond, stretched partly in sunlight and partly in shadow, lies the valley of the Carson. A green fringe of cottonwoods, visible along all the river's eccentric meanderings, is the only tinge of green in all the broad land before us. Here and there are seen short reaches in the river that glitter like burnished silver in the rays of the evening sun. A long table-mountain cuts short our view of the valley and river, but over this mountain we see, spread out like a vast sheet of parchment, the Forty-mile Desert, over which shadows of clouds move as slowly as in early times crawled across the same sands the long trains of weary pilgrims, wearing out the way to the land of gold, over the Sierras. Far beyond, where the cloud-shadows move in black squadrons across the desert sands quite two days' journey beyond are reared against the eastern sky the Humboldt mountains, whose white peaks might pass for the tombs and cenotaphs of the giants of the olden times. Some of these are half hidden in patches of dark mist, or veiled by slanting columns of rain, while others stand in the full glory of the sun. But in this scene we have a constant 15 258 THE GIANTS OF THE SIERRAS. change of light and shade. Peaks that were a moment since sooty-black, suddenly flash up and become golden and brilliant, soon again to resume their dusky robes, while neighboring peaks stand forth clad in the garments of their departed glory. As the sun sinks lower, night is seen to settle into the deeper canons, and take shelter behind the lower hills, and the shadow of Mount Davidson goes forth as a giant, and stretches darkness from hill-top to hill-top everywhere. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE RED PROPRIETORS. AS we have now been a long time among the mines, the reader will probably not object to a little more infor- mation concerning the Indians of the country, before making another plunge into the "lower levels" of the Corn- stock lode. The Piute Indians were formerly the owners of all that region in which the Comstock mines are situated ; also, of nearly all of the western part of the State of Nevada, though the Washoe Indians held Carson, Eagle, Steamboat, and Washoe Valley, the Truckee Meadows and the country in the neighborhood of Lake Tahoe. The Shoshones owned what is now Eastern Nevada, and they still live in that region.^___j The Piutes range nearly up to Oregon, and far soufhT~ toward Arizona. They have always been great travelers, and as early as in the days of the *' Mission Fathers," were in the habit of crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains and visiting the Pacific seaboard every summer; a journey still taken by many of them each year, as not a few Piute women are mar- ried to Spaniards who own large ranches in the vicinity of Santa Cruz and other towns in the southern part of California. Originally, it is said, the Piutes, the Utes, the Pitt River In- dians, the Queen's River Indians, and some other small bands, were all Shoshones, but the tribe multiplied rapidly, and at last was spread over such a vast extent of country that one chief could not govern all. They then broke up into large bands that took the names which now distinguish them as tribes. 259 260 A STRANGE PAIR. The Piutes belonged to the Ute band at the time that the original Shoshone tribe broke up through its own weight and unwieldy size. They settled about the lakes Humboldt,. Pyramid, Carson, and Walker and were therefore called Pah-Utes; that is, water Utes, "pah" being the word that sig- nifies water among all the Indians of the Great Basin region, Finally, the Utes and Pah-Utes, or " Piutes " as the name is now generally, though improperly, written became separate tribes. The language of all the tribes in the Great Basin region and far to the northward still retains a sufficient number of the words of the original Shoshone tongue to enable members of any one of the present tribes to make themselves understood by their neighbors. When pressed to go far back into the dim and distant past, beyond the time when they were all Shoshones, the Piutes have a legend according to which they owe their origin to the marriage of a white wolf and a woman. The white wolf came from the far north, and the woman, who was the daughter of a great chief, came from the south. The Piutes, according to the legend, are the descendants of this strange pair. Away north, on the summit of a high bluff on Pitt River, is to be seen a huge white rock which, when viewed from cer- tain points, bears a striking resemblance to a wolf in a recumbent position. To this day, many of the Piutes point to this rock and say that it is their great father the father of all the Piutes that he never died, but was changed into this rock, in which he still lives. I once told this story to an old and very intelligent Piute, and asked him what he thought about it. He said : " Who told you this story, Tom or Natchez ? " referring to two of the sons of old Winnemucca, the head chief. "I have heard it from Tom, and also from many other Piutes," said I. " O," said he, " it is only a story of times long ago. It was while we were still Shoshones, that this happened. You have heard the story the way the old women tell it." He then proceeded to say that, a very long time ago, there THE WOMAN WHO MADE THE INDIANS. 263 was a great war between a tribe of Indians living in the north, the name of whose chief was White Wolf, and a tribe living in the south. For years they fought every summer, and many on both sides were killed. Still, the old men would stir up the young men to continue the strife. At last both tribes grew weak and weary of the long war, and at a big council it was arranged that the White Wolf should marry the daughter of the chief of the tribe against which he had so long drawn a hostile bow, and thus all difficulties were settled. The two tribes settled down and lived together, all as Shoshones. The old Indian then proceeded to give me the true and most ancient tradition that has been handed down in the tribe, in regard to the origin of the Indians living in the Great Basin. He said that the Indians were made by a man and his wife, who came from he knew not where. They made the Indians of clay and something else, taken out of the water, the English name of which he did not know. After the Indian men and women were made, the man made all kinds of animals ; as bears, deer, antelopes, buffaloes, rabbits, wolves, and the like. The woman made the birds and the flowers, and all the fishes in the rivers, and the grass and the nut-pine trees, and all the bushes that bear berries. The man taught the men to make bows and arrows, spears with which to catch fish, and nets for use in fishing and taking rabbits. He also taught them to build and navigate tule (a giant bulrush) boats, for all the country was then covered with great lakes, and the tops of the present hills and mountains were islands. The woman taught the Indian wo- men to make baskets and how to prepare food and do all things proper to be done by women. After they had done all these things the mysterious pair took their departure, going away to the southward. " Do you expect them to return some day ? " I asked. " How can I say ?" answered the Indian. "They came of their own accord at first." " Do you hear the old men of the tribe speak of them ? " Often" " Do they think the man and his wife will come back?" " How do they know ? They only know that they are gone." "That is all the old men know?" 264: THE INDIANS' ANCESTRESS. " Well, they sometimes say they have gone south to the big water maybe they live in the big water. Who knows? " When an Indian begins to say " who knows," he has then told you about all he knows in regard to the point upon which you are questioning him. All the Indian could say was that the pair came and did their work of creation, and then went away to the southward. This tradition bears a striking resemblance, in many re- spects, to that of the Peruvians in regard to the appearance among them of Manco Capac and his sister and wife, Mama Ocllo Huaco ; also, to the Mexican tradition in regard to the Huastecas, the strange family that came, whence, no one knew, to the mouth of the Panuco River, headed by Quetzalcoatl, priest and lawgiver, and who afterwards disappeared in the direction of Guatemala. .The disappearance of Quetzalcoatl is strikingly like that of the pair mentioned in the Piute tra- dition. Strange as it may appear, a prehistoric skull was found at the depth of several hundred feet in the Comstock vein which, on being sent to the Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, was found to exhibit peculiarities to be found only in the skulls of the ancient Peruvians, the people to whom appeared Manco Capac and his wife. What is said in the Indian traditions, about nearly the whole face of the country having been covered with water in ancient times, is undoubtedly true. In all the valleys throughout the Great Basin are to be seen traces of water, and on the sides of the hills water-marks have been left that are visible at the distance of a mile, and can be traced for many miles. In places, there are four or five of these water-marks, showing the gradual subsidence of the lakes. For hundreds on hun- dreds of miles, on all sides, there was a labyrinth of lakes. The water-marks showing the former levels of the lakes (in places two or three hundred feet above the present level of the valleys) not having yet disappeared by erosion, the date of the subsidence of their waters cannot be many centuries back. The Piutes and Shoshones have lost nothing by the coming among them of the whites ; indeed, they appear to fare better now than in the days when they were in undisturbed possession pf the whole land. They pitch their camps in the suburbs of the towns and fare sumptuously every day on the THE PIUTE BRA VE. 265 broken victuals collected by the bushel at hotels, restaurants, and private houses, by the squaws. The men, unlike the men of many other tribes, are not above work. They .work at sawing and splitting wood, at grading off building-lots, or anything that they can manage all they want is to be shown money. It is not unusual to see a Piute brave marching through a street in Virginia City with a wood-saw and buck under his left arm, and upon his right shoulder an ax the living exem- plification of the dawn of civilization upon barbarism. Thus far, however, he is one of the civilized, and represents "labor" seeking "capital," but with all the implements of peaceful industry borne about him, his pride still clings to the ancient insignia of the "brave" in his tribe. His face is painted in zigzag lines of black, white, and red; a necklace of bear's claws rests on his breast, and an eagle feather decorates his scalp-lock ; but instead of bearing a bow and arrows, a toma- hawk and scalping-knife, he carries only his saw, buck, and ax, and is only on the war-path to do battle with a wood-pile; therefore is either a peaceful warrior or a warlike wood- sawyer, just as you may choose to consider him. He has, as we may say, beaten his sword into a plowshare, but has not the heart to throw away the scabbard. Old Winnemucca, the head chief of all the Piutes, is about 70 years of age, and has but little to say about the "affairs of the nation " ; indeed, there is little demand for legislation as the tribe is at present situated. Many years ago the old fellow appears to have turned over business of almost every kind to his nephew, young Winnemucca, then war-chief. Young Winnemucca was in command at the time of the trouble between the Piutes and the whites, in the spring of 1860. Young Winnemucca never gambled, but old Winne- mucca was an inveterate gambler that is, among his own people. The Piutes do not gamble with white men. Old Winnemucca has been known to lose all his ponies, all his blankets and arms, and, in fact, everything he possessed, down to a breech-clout, at a single sitting. He is a good- natured, kind-hearted old man, but not a man remarkable for either wisdom or cunning. CHAPTER XXXVII. WINNEMUCCA AND HIS BRAVES. AT the time the war broke out between the whites and Piutes, two young Germans were engaged in prospecting at a point in the mountains east of the sink of the Humboldt. They knew nothing of the trouble and started to come into Chinatown. On reaching a station on the Humboldt River they found the buildings burned, and various articles, such as books and cards, strewn about. The thought then struck them that there was trouble between the Indians and whites. Feeling that they could make no fight, and not desiring to give the Indians an opportunity of blowing their brains out with their own weapons, the young men threw their guns into the river, and poured their powder upon the ground and set fire to it. After leaving the burned station they traveled on till night, without seeing any Indians ; but after they camped, an Indian who spoke very good English came riding up to the fire. He told the young fellows to pack their things and come with him, for should they remain in their present camp they were sure to be killed, as the Piutes were now at war with the whites. "Piute man," said he, "kill um great many white man at Pyramid Lake, get heap gun, heap pony. S'pose white man kill Piute, Piute kill um white man ! " The young men thought it best to do as requested, and catch- ing up their mustangs, packed their blankets and equipments, when they announced their readiness to follow their red guide. After an hour's travel they reached a large encampment, and found themselves in the midst of three or four hundred warriors. Their guide conducted them to a tent near the middle of the camp, which he informed them was " Winnemucca's house." 266 WINNElfUCCA CHIEF OF THE P1UTES. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CHIEF. 267 Soon the old chief made his appearance and catechised them as follows : " Where are you from ? " "From beyond the Sink of the Humboldt." " What were you doing there ? " "Prospecting." " Did you see many Indians there ? '* "A good many." " Did they beg of you much ? " "A great deal." " Did you give them anything ? " "All we could spare." " Did they try to take your grub ? " " No." " Did they steal ? " "Yes, a little." "Bad Injuns ! bad Injuns! Many white men bad too; many bad men some white some red ! What have you in your packs ! " " Blankets and grub." " Have you sugar left ? " "A little." " Will you sell me two pounds ? " " Yes ; certainly or give it to you." " No, no ! I must pay." Having measured out the sugar in a tin cup a cupful for a pound Winnemucca, on being told the price was a dollar, said it was not enough, and handed them two dollars. He next asked for gunpowder. Being told they had none, he caused their packs to be opened and searched. No powder being found the old fellow looked disappointed. When first brought into camp, the young fellows were a good deal frightened, but after their interview with Winnemucca, began to feel quite easy in mind. Winnemucca told them that he was only at war with the Californians, and said he had no quarrel with white men who came from the East. The horses of the young men were picketed out with those of the Indians, and they were shown where to spread their blankets. Although surrounded by Indians, they were soon asleep, being very tired. Late in the night one of the men felt a hand on his head, and 268 A WHITE INDIAN. awoke. He was greatly terrified at finding that an old squaw with a long knife in her hand had him by the hair, and was about to cut his throat. Before he could make a move, or utter a cry, an Indian lying near, sprang up, pushed the squaw away and then lay down at their heads. " Hush ! " said this man as he lay down. " I shall speak to old Winnemucca about this in the morning," whispered the man whose throat had been in danger. ''Do nothing of the kind," said their self-appointed guard,, " that woman with the knife was one of the old fellow's wives. Say nothing about it." "Who are you ? You speak now like a white man." " I am not only a white man, but am also a countryman of yours. I heard you and your partner speaking together in German last night. Say nothing, I am an Indian now, and have been for years." The young men were not again disturbed, and in the morning went to Winnemucca and signified their desire to depart. The old chief gave orders for their horses to be brought, and then told them to be sure to travel fast, and not to stop to prospect. When they had packed up and were about ready to start, Winnemucca gave them a string made of twisted sinews in which were tied a number of knots, telling them that wherever they were stopped by Indians they must show them the string. They were stopped two or three times in the course of the forenoon, but the string operated like magic, as the sight of it instantly changed the countenances of the Indians from the scowl of an enemy to the smile of a friend. Wherever they were stopped the string was taken from them and one of the knots untied, when it was handed back to them. The Indians would then say, as they left them : " Go straight to Chinatown travel fast ! " In one place, while they were pass- ing through a canon, they were fired on by a small party of Indians and two or three bullets whistled past them. They halted and called out: "We are from Winnemucca's camp! We are friends ! " Two or three Indians then approached, and being shown the pass they exchanged glances, but took the string and undid a knot. They then shook hands, saying; " Now we all heap good friend." As they were leaving, one of CAPTAIN TRUCKEE. 26$ them faced about, and said , " Don't tell Winnemucca that we shot at you." In another place they passed a hut that stood near the road, but seeing no one there, except an old woman, they did not take the trouble to show her the pass. In half an hour they were overtaken by three Indians on horseback, who levelled guns at them and told them to stop. On showing their pass they were asked why they did not show it to the old woman ; how- ever, one of the braves took out a knot, when all three turned about and went off laughing. After they had passed the site of Williams' Station, the burning of which, and the killing of the men stopping there, brought on all the trouble, they were again stopped by an Indian who undid their last knot and then kept the string. As the Indian turned to ride away, he began singing in a low tone : " Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland ? " and the young fellows said: " There is our countryman again ! " They were about to turn back and call to. him, but looking in the direction whence he came and in which he was again going, they saw the heads of several Indians and ponies among the willows, on the banks of the Carson River, along which they were now traveling. Old Captain Truckee, in whose honor the Truckee River was named, was a very intelligent man, and was always a great friend to the whites. He had been a good deal with Fremont and other American explorers, in the capacity of guide, and well understood and appreciated the superior conveniences and substantial comforts resulting from the industrious habits of civilized people. He deplored the ignorance and wilfulness of his people in preferring to lead a wandering life deriving a precarious subsistance from the proceeds of the chase and the spontaneous products of the soil to settling permanently in their rich valleys and turning their attention to the raising of stock and the cultivation of the soil. Captain Truckee died in the Palmyra Mountains, in 1860, from the bite of some insect probably a tarantula. Before his death he gave the most minute directions in regard to his burial. He had in his possession a letter of recommendation from Col. John C. Fremont, speaking of him as being a faithful and efficient guide and a good honest man. He also had other documents of a similar character from other white men, all of which he desired 270 JOHN'S FUNERAL ORA TION. to have placed in his left hand when he was carried to his grave. He had been much about the Catholic Missions in California, and desired to have a cross erected at the head of his grave with his name cut upon it; he also told how deep the grave must be dug, how his head was to be laid, and mentioned particularly that they were to fold his hands on his breast and heap the earth in a mound above his last resting-place. As the Indians did not know how to do all these things, they asked some whites who were prospecting near at hand to come and bury Truckee as he had desired to be buried. All of his instructions were carried out to the last particular. The Indians all loved the old man, and there was great weeping and wailing at his funeral, which was taken charge of by a white man who had long known the old fellow and who was called by the Indians " the white Winnemucca." At the grave, Captain John, a son-in-law of Truckee, pro- nounced the eulogy. He spoke first in Piute and then in English, and said : " A good man is gone. The white man knows he was good, for he guided him round deserts and led him in paths where there was grass and good water. His people know he was good, for he loved them and cared for them and came home to them to die. All know that Truckee was a good man Pmtes and Americans. He is dead ; the good man is gone. All of our people cry, for they loved Truckee. I must go to Walker River and see the big Captain there and say to him, the good man is dead. I must go to Pyramid Lake, to Winnemucca, and say to him, the good man is dead. Winnemucca sits in the door of his house and says : l No sabe, no sabe ? ' Winnemucca himself is growing old. When he knows the good man is dead, he and the big Captain at Walker River will have a talk and will choose a man to put in his place ; but not many are fit to lead in the path where Truckee walked. [Captain John was himself chosen.] Truckee was much with the white men, he liked their way and learned much of them that we don't understand. He wished to be buried as the white men bury their dead, and the white Winnemucca aw " (at San Francisco) have made use of these lies to get up a " scare." Never mind ! the scare will be over in a day or two. But stocks still go down, Then it is said that some big dealer is " unloading " and there is talk of a " crash." Still our men who started in but to make a " fair profit " do not feel like taking thousands, when they might a short time before have taken tens of thousands of dollars. They still hold on, saying that even though one or two big dealers are unloading, the big men among the bulls will "stand in " and take all the stocks that are offered. Also, they will have some points from a friend " on the inside " and developments are about to be made in one or two of the mines that will make all who have sold " very sick " particularly those bloodless demons who have " sold short." The " shorts " will have a merry time of it when they come to " fill." Thus matters stand, when suddenly there comes what looks, very much like the beginning of a " crash." The " bears " are all diligently crying, " stand from under." Many persons become frightened, and throw their stocks upon the market. Down go prices and soon "soft" is no name for it. The masses the tinker and tailor, the preacher and the teacher, the hostler and the waiter rush in to try to " save themselves " and there is seen a grand and unmistakeable crash. Brokers are calling on all sides for " margins " to be " made good," and men are rush- ing about trying to raise money to " put up " in order to prevent their stocks being sold at less than cost. They perhaps raise the money required, and for a few days breathe again, when there is a further decline in stocks, and the brokers are again sending notes to their customers telling them that if they do not put up more money they will be sold out. Sooner or later there comes a time when the customer can raise no more money, and his stocks are thrown into the market by the broker in whose hands they remain and are sold. Thus ends the grand speculation. Our men, who at the start were resolved to be content with a fair profit are generally found among the number of those who are sold out, when they are heard to say that if they ever have another such chance to make money they will not hold on for 400 ON A MARGIN. the last cent. They have said the same thing year after year ever since the opening of the Comstock mines. But whenever there is a grand upward movement in stocks they never fail to become excited and try to buy about ten times as much stock as they can pay for. In this way they lose all except what they may have happened to purchase at a fair price in a mine of real merit. Persons who purchase mining-stocks on a " margin " pay their broker, as a rule, one-half the market value of the stock so" bought. The other half is advanced by 'the broker, the customer paying him interest on the amount at the rate of two per cent, per month. The broker also receives one per cent commission on all sales and purchases made for the customer. Stocks are nearly always bought and sold in the San Francisco Stock Board, the broker in Virginia City telegraphing to his agent " at the Bay " to buy or sell such a number of shares of a certain stock, and the bill for this telegraphing is paid by the customer. In case of a decline in the price of the stock purchased, the customer must pay in to the broker enough money to make him secure for the amount he has advanced, taking into account the current price of the stock. Should there be a furthur and con- tinued decline, the customer must continue to put up money, in order to make his broker safe. If he is unable to do this his broker sells him out /. e. takes care of "number one." From this it will be seen that the broker who does a strictly commission business who is not himself a dabbler in stocks makes a very soft thing out of it. Sometimes, however, stocks drop so rapidly that the broker cannot sell in time to save him- self. This is generally when the customer has been allowed to buy stock on the presumed value of the stocks he already has in the hands of his broker, putting up stocks that have advanced at their current value as a margin on which to purchase still other stocks, and so running his purchases up on the compound- interest principle. When a broker calls for money to make margins good, " mud " is the slang word used among dealers in stocks, by which to designate the money so demanded. One frequently hears a man who is a dabbler in stocks cursing his luck, the condition of the "PUSSY-CAT WILDE" AND "BOB TAILS." 401 market, and all else, concluding with : " And here is my broker calling for more mud ! " When the reports of the sales of stocks are received from San Francisco and prices are a " little off," one hears some person who has read the news sing out : " More mud, boys ! " The demand for " mud " often causes very long faces to be seen on the streets to many it means ruin. Yet men will continue to buy on margins, taking all the chances, and stretching what ready-money they have as far as the broker will allow them to go. Provided men buy on a margin at a time when stocks are very low and then shortly after comes a grand excitement, they are liable to make a little fortune with a very small amount of capital, but to buy in this way at a time when everything is high is dangerous business and the demands for " mud " are likely to be very numerous. The following letter received in Virginia City, from a French- man, in San Francisco, shows how he first became acquainted with this dreadful word, " mud " and how he relished the thing itself: SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. April u 1875. Monsieur By zee advice of one goot friend who informed me zat he be on zee inside, and who make for me zee negoziazione, I have procure some time past on what you call " on zee time," many share of zee Bobtaile. Zee prix zat time be fortee dollaire on monnie d'or des Etats-Unis ; bote I buy on zee time and not pay zee prix. My friend on zee insides tell me Bobtaile one ver fine bargain for fortee dollaire. Ah ha ! Bobtaile one ver fine com- pagnie ! plenty mashine pour work ; grand nombre d'employes ; Superinten- dent un salaire plus grand, je suppose ! all ting ver fine. Me buy ? Vraiment, out I He mine friend who repose on zee insides express himself of zee mine wis moche enthousiasme. Zee mine be one merveille de la nature ; zee works, un chef-d'oeuvre de 1'art ! " Je suppose to purchase be une chance rare. I purchase, but now, pretty soon le diable ! Zee brokaire man use zee expression to me, as follows : " More mud." At zee first I not ver well comprehend. Sans doubte it be une expression, ver mysterieuse zis exclam- ation : "More mud." So many five, seex time have he, zee brokaire, desire of me some leetle more mud, zat now I mus make one grand sacrifice pecuniaire. It be now become scandaleuse ! Parbleu, c'est horrible, cette " mud ! '' For me to communicate wis my brokaire bah ! it was one grand plaiser, Of de mine, des minerals I be plenty sick. Under de circonstances I read no more wis enthousiasme of " Les compagnie's certificat d'incorpor- ation ; " " la Pussy Cat Wilde, objet : Operations dans 1'Etat de Nevada, etc." " Les directeurs sont : Bill Tubb, Sam Hobb, Jack Dobb, etc." " Capital 402 GOING ur I social, $45,800,000,002 ; divise en 56,000,000,000,000,000 actions. Vraiment oui ! " More mud ! " Pretty soon you hear one crash financial, I gone bust me ! No more do I eat me my dennaire a de la restaurant du Poodle Dog, rue Duponte, but wis circomspection admirable I betake me to la cote de Barbaric, to zee Hell Kitchen zee cuisine de 1'enfer. Parole d'honneur monsieur, I be ver moche perplex wis zee stoke prices, He viggle up, he viggle down all zee time. Vill you have zee complaisance to inform me how soon he vill viggle high up and remain to pass some time up dare? * Mud ! " le diable ! zee word have for me un signification sardonique ! Your tres-humble and tres-obeissant servant, PIERRE EDOUARD OUDIN. In the winter of 1874-75, owing to the wonderful develop- ments made in the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, there was a grand stock excitement throughout the towns of the Pacific Coast. San Francisco and Virginia City, however, were the two great centres of this excitement. As the vast and astonishingly rich deposits of ore in the California mine began to be drifted into and opened to view, the stock of the company rapidly and steadily advanced from about fifty dollars per share to nearly one thousand dollars. Consolidated Virginia stock advanced in about the same ratio, as in the mine of that com- pany the width and richness of the ore was far beyond anything that had ever before been seen on the Comstock lode. In the Ophir mine, the next north of the California, large and rich bodies of ore were being opened, and the stock of that company advanced with almost bewildering rapidity. Persons who happened to have twenty, fifty, or one hundred shares in either of these mines suddenly found themselves rich. The invest- ment of a few hundreds of dollars had brought them thousands, and the investments of thousands brought them tens of thousands of dollars. The great strike in the "bonanza " mines started up the stocks of all the adjoining mines, and, indeed, of all the mines along the Comstock range. The stock of mines that were rich in " great expectations " only were as eagerly sought for and as briskly dealt in, as were those in which ore was already being extracted, for many said : " It is just as well for us to double our money in a stock that costs but one or two dollars per share as in stocks that cost from one to five hundred dollars." And many did double and more than double their money in such stocks ; DEALERS AND DABBLERS. 403 indeed, in some instances they sold for five or ten times what their stocks cost them. Every day there is a morning and an afternoon session of the San Francisco Stock Board, and the reports of the sales are telegraphed to Virginia City, Gold Hill and other Nevada towns as fast as the stocks are called. Thus, as soon as the Stock Board is in session and business begins, reports of sales begin to arrive in Virginia City and are placed in the windows or on the bulletin-boards of the various stock-brokers of the town, where all interested may see them. Therefore during a big stock excitement the bulletin-boards are the centres about which are seen large crowds of anxious dealers and nearly everybody in the city dabbles more or less in stocks, women as well as men. On very critical occasions, either when stocks are rapidly rushing or when they are rapidly " tumbling," then is a grand charge made upon all the bulletin-boards as soon as it is known that the reports have arrived. Dry-goods clerks yardstick in hand and scissors peeping from vest-pocket come running out bare-headed and bald-headed to catch a glimpse of the bulletin ; bar-keepers in their white aprons come ; bare-headed, bare- armed, and white-aproned butchers smelling of blood, come; blacksmiths, in leather aprons and hammer in hand, flour-dusted bakers, cooks in paper caps cobblers, tinkers, and tailors all come to learn the best and the worst. The miner on his way to or from work, carrying his dinner-pail and candlestick, halts for a moment to see how fares his favorite stodk, the teamster stops his long string of mules opposite one of the centres of attraction and, thrusting his " black snake " under the housing of his saddle-mule, marches to the board to read his fate. Ladies linger as they pass the groups at the bulletin-boards and try to catch some word of hope, or ensconce themselves in the nearest shops, and hence send messenger-lads to bring tidings of their favorite gamble. Even the Chinese dabble in stocks. Some of these are able to read the reports for themselves, while others ask white men to tell them the price of the stocks in which they are dealing. There was an old fellow who, for a long time was dealing in the stocks of the Belcher and the Segregated Belcher mines. The Belcher he called the "big Belch," and the Segregated Belcher 404 SPECULA TION. the " little Belch." Crowding his way up to a bulletin-board he would say to some by-stander : " How much-ee to-day catch-ee big Belch ? " Being told, and finding the stock up, he would say : " Bully for big Belch ! " Next he would ask : " How much-ee to day catch-ee little Belch ? " Finding that stock a "little off" he would say: " Belly bad ! belly bad ! Little Belch too much-ee all time, bust me up ! " In passing the bulletin-boards one catches scraps of conver- sation like the following : " Didn't I tell you so ? I have said so all the time." " I saw a man this morning who is thoroughly reliable, and he says " " Yes, it may be a buy, but, confound it, I get sold so often ! " " I knew they would all be up to-day " " Now you raise the money ; I tell you it is just as I say. I have points that " " Dealing in stocks with these rings is just like playing poker with a man who knows both hands " " They have it awful in the " " They haven't got an ounce afore in the " I shan't sell yet. Stocks have only begun to go up." "I wish I had sold yesterday." "Well I have laid up my treasures above, where the bulls and bears can never come." The last speaker is generally a newspaper reporter or some other such holy person, who is seen standing aloof from the ungodly worshippers at the shrine of Mammon. The amount of " stock talk " heard in every saloon, public- house and shop, and on every street, is at times enough to render an easy-going Granger from one of the eastern or middle States, to whom it is all Greek a raving maniac or a drivelling idiot. The sidewalks on C street, the principal business street street of Virginia City, are generally so thronged that it is a diffi- cult matter to pass along them, except at the same slow pace at which the mass of the pedestrians is moving; therefore at times when there is an excitement in regard to stocks there are fre- quent blockades in front of the offices of the brokers, and persons wishing to pass are obliged to take to the streets. At times the police are obliged to clear passages through the throngs, as men become so interested in their stocks as to have neither eyes nor ears for anything else, and ladies and children find them- selves unable to pass. CHAPTER LIV. CURIOUS SPECULATIONS IN STOCK. WHEN there is a grand upward movement in stocks, and all is excitement among the dealers, from the big operator worth millions, down to the little curb- stone broker whose fortune is yet to be made, early and reliable information in regard to what is going on in the lower-levels is valuable and is always in demand. On the Comstock there is a class of men, for whom there is no distinctive name, whose business it is to find out all that can in any way be learned in regard to the condition of the mines, and report the same to the dealers in stocks by whom they are employed. These mining reporters, they might be called as a class, are shrewd and eternally vigilant. They must always keep their employers, who are generally in San Francisco, well informed in regard to the condition of the Comstock mines at all times when a "strike "is anticipated or reported in any particular mine ; it is expected of them, by hook or by crook, to ascertain exactly in what part of the mine it was made or is about to be made. If made at all, they are to find out the value of the strike, probable extent of the body of ore found, its richness, direction, and many other things not easily ascertained. When a strike is reported made in a mine and all its gates and doors are closed, the strictest secresy enjoined on all the workmen, and admittance refused to all " outsiders," then is the time for the mining reporter to display his genius or give up his trade. By bribing workmen or by getting a man of his own into the mine to work, or in some other way he must find out what he wants to know. 23 405 406 * BRIGHT IDEA. On one occasion a rich strike was reported in a leading mine. Every avenue to the lower-levels was closed against the outside world. The superintendent was exceedingly close- mouthed and mysterious ; the miners were reticent and un- bribable nothing could be learned in regard to the strike, though strike there was, as all felt convinced. The gatherers of mining news scouted about the surface works, watching everything and making mental notes of all that occurred which appeared to be indicative of a rich body of ore below. Nothing, however, of the slightest value could be bored, pumped, or gouged out of anybody or anything, and finally all the newsgatherers but one drew off and gave it up as a bad job. One man still lingered, day after day, all eyes and ears. The superintendent came and went, and he was none the wiser for having seen him. At last a bright idea struck him. The superintendent came to the mine, and, as usual, went down into the lower-levels. Our man remained loitering about the works until he came out lingered until he had seen him take off and throw aside his muddy boots, his clay-besmeared overalls and shirt, and till he had finally taken himself off. Watching his chance, the hungry reporter of mining news darted into the dressing- room, and with his jack-knife scraped from the boots, overalls, felt hat, shirt, and everything, all the mud, clay, and earth sticking to them. Of this and the loose particles of ore found in the pockets of the shirt, he made a large ball, which was composed of a general average of the bottom, top and sides of the drift run into the new deposit; he had a little of everything the superintendent had touched, and this ball he had carefully assayed. By the result obtained he became satisfied that a strike of extraordinary richness had been made. He immediately telegraphed to his employers in San Francisco to buy all of the stock they could get. They bought largely, and made an immense profit, as the stock soon went up from a few dollars to high in the hundreds. At the time of the big excitement in 1875, a fine, motherly- looking old lady came up to Virginia City from Reno to see about the "big bonanza." She had in her pocket twenty shares of California stock which she had bought when it was UNCLE BILLY'S "CRANK TURNING." 4Q7 selling at $30. At the time she made her trip to Virginia the stock was selling for over $600 per share. Her son accompa- nied her on her trip of inspection. Leaving the cars at the depot, mother and son walked down the railroad-track to a point where could be obtained a good view of the Consoli- dated Virginia hoisting-works, the big mill of that company and of the Ophir works. Some men of whom they inquired told them that the ground they saw between the Ophir and the Consolidated Virginia, was that of the California Com- pany, and was principally bonanza. On hearing this, the good old lady wiped her spectacles, placed them astride of her venerable nose, threw back her head, and long and carefully surveyed the lay of the land between the two sets of hoisting-works. This done, she took off and folded up her glasses, put them into their case, and carefully deposited them in her capacious pocket. She then brought forth her reticule, opened it, took out her stock, found it all right, replaced it, and drew the string as tight as her trembling fingers would allow of her doing. She then said to her son : " George, give me your arm. Let us go home it will go to $1,000." Nat Codrington was one of the unlucky speculators. He was always complaining about William Sharon, the great mining millionaire. Whenever things went wrong with Nat, "Uncle Billy" as Nat affectionately called Mr. Sharon was at the bottom of the business. When Nat bought stock it was sure to go down at once, then he would say: "That's Uncle Billy, he's turning the crank again!" As soon as Nat sold short on a stock, up it would go, and he would say : " Well, Uncle Billy's at it again grindin' of 'em the other way this time!" As long as he could, Nat responded to the calls for "mud," but his pile of filthy lucre was not like the widow's cruse of oil, and at last it became a thing of the past, and Nat ceased to take even his former feeble interest in " Uncle Billy's " crank-turning. The last seen of Nat he was off for California. The iron had entered his soul and he had reached the seventh level of despair. No more mining no more mud-eating stocks for 408 OLD JOE 'S DISASTER. him. " Yes," said Nat, " I'm off for the pastoral regions, where the woodbine twineth and the dissolute grasshopper sitteth on the mullin stalk and assiduously raspeth his stridulous fiddle." Old Joe Staker is one of a class to be found both along the line of the Comstock and in San Francisco, on those streets where speculators in stocks most do congregate. Old Joe probably never owned the shadow of a share in any mine on the Comstock lode, yet he is always in the thick of every excitement, and claims to have shares in all the big mines. In 1875, Old Joe was in his element. His is a very sympa- thetic nature, and when California was booming up toward $1,000 per share, Old Joe was rushing about, ever in the midst of the mttee was ever with those who were drinking and rejoicing. Later in the season, when there had been a crash along the whole line when all stocks, good, bad, and indifferent, " tum- bled" Old Joe was to be found in the midst of the mourners, drowning his sorrows at every opportunity. He did not, however, at all times find those who were losing their thou- sands each hour by the fall so liberal as had been those who had been winning at the same rate by the rise, nor were they so goodnatured, and Old Joe frequently found himself el- bowed out altogether. One day half a dozen groups had given him the shake. He was exceedingly thirsty his throat as dry as a lime-burner's shoe. While he was disconsolately roving from saloon to saloon in search of a sympathetic being with whom to shed tears, he encountered a dilapidated-looking individual just arrived from the great West a Kansas sufferer, in short. Old Joe heard something of this man's story of the ruin wrought in the West by the grasshopper, and at once froze to him with his story of losses in stocks. After three drinks together the grass- hopper man appeared to have a thin stratum of greenbacks left in his wallet, toward which Old Joe cocked an occasional eye after about three drinks it was settled by the pair that grasshoppers and bonanzas were two of the worst plagues by which the world had ever been devastated. As more drinks were taken, grasshoppers and porphyry and bonanzas and A NEW EXCITEMENT. 409 beanstalks became fearfully mixed. At a late hour they were still mingling their tears and toasting each other. " Here's hoping," said the grasshopper man, " that yer cornstalks may always bear three full (hie!) ears and a nubbin!" "And here," said Old Joe, "is death and confusion to all (hie!) brasshoppers and gonanzas ! " Old Joe then encircled the neck of his new-found friend with his left arm, and said in his most kindly tone : " Now, ef you was perfec'ly des (hie!) destitute and I was perfectly des (hie !) tute, you'd soak everything you had for (hie !) me, and I'd spout everything I persessed for you ; (hie !) wouldn't we?" The opening of the big bonanza at the nortn end of the Comstock occasioned a grand rush of prospectors to the northward of Virginia City, a region which had, strangely enough, never been prospected. There had been some surface-scratching done in that direc- tion in early times, and some shafts had been sunk to the depth of fifty to one hundred feet, but no regular scientific prospecting had been done. Claims were taken up in all directions, first-class shafts begun, machinery set up, and buildings of all kinds erected. In a few months quite a vil- lage was built up, to which was given the name of North Virginia. This place is about two miles north of Virginia City, and in case of the continuation of the Comstock lode being found in that neighborhood will be likely to be a place of considerable importance. Some excellent "prospects" are being found in the shafts that are being sunk in that direction, and the owners of several mines are confident that at no distant day they will find a big bonanza on their part of the lode. At the time these claims were being located there was almost a revival of the scenes of early days. Men were out in the night staking off ground and posting notices, and there was a good deal of claim-jumping, with some fights, going on. Men were seen bringing pieces of rock into town as specimens from their mines, and these were passed from hand to hand and commented on, much as when the miners first began to roam the hills. Even the colored population, who 410 SHARP DOINGS. seldom trouble themselves about mines, caught the infection and went out prospecting and locating mines became experts on ore. One of these coming into town with a big chunk of rock in his hand met a friend whose eyes began to dilate at what he thought might be a lump of solid silver. Said the First Expert "Wha -what yer got thar?" Second Expert " Look at dat, sah ! Dat's out'en de Day of Jubilee mine? Boy, I tell yer dat's gwine to be a mine. Wha what you say, now, dat's gwine to pay at de present prices of deduction, hey ? " First Expert " Fore de Lord, I doesn't know ! Gwine to pay, think ? " Second Expert " Gwine to pay? gwine to pay ? Now you makes me laugh. . Jes look at dat rock, Edward Arthur look at dat side of it ! See de pure chloroform dat's percolated all ober it ! Now ax me ef dat rock's gwine to pay. Look at de formation and de stratification ! Ax me ef dat rock's gwine to pay! Why, you see you doesn't know de fust principles 'bout dem oldah prefatory periods when dis here yearf was a multitudinous mass, floatin' roun' in a chaotic hemisphere; time o' de propylites an jewrasic periods. Your ignorance perfectly affixes me." During the stock -excitement on the Comstock, in 1872, a shrewd operator in stocks found himself in possession of an immense number of shares of Alpha mining-stock many more shares than he cared to hold. He was a man who was and still is considered one of the sharpest operators on the lode. A word or even a hint from him was worth a whole mint of money. One day this "stock-sharp" said to his wife: "My dear, how much money have you got ? " " I have $6,000," said the wife. "Why? " " Put it all into the Alpha," said her husband. " Ask no questions, but buy all the Alpha you can get. Be careful, however, not to mention to a living soul that I told you to do this." The wife faithfully promised that she would " not even breathe the name of the mine." As soon as her husband was out of sight, she put on her hat and shawl and hurried away to the house of her married sister and gently murmured into TUsuxr OF iTsJ