Chapter 42

CHAPTER V.

✦

Leave Los Angeles for a new mining camp in Nevada.—The stock of ¢

train captured by Indians.—‘‘ Death Valley.”—LHighty-seven families,
stock, ete., perish.—The surrounding region and its products. —How
teamsters are revenged.——_Comprehensive description of the mining
camp.—‘* Hurrah! hurrah! we have struck it, hurrah !!”—A big
Indian.—How Mining Co. officials steal.—Indian and white men
hung.—The mode of government and trial.—Wages, living, business.
ete.—The geological formation of mineral lodes, veins, fissures, etc.,
and placer mines.—Prospecting for and locating claims.—The right
time to sell, ete.—Why mines are guarded with rifles.—How stock
companies operate.—Why mewspaper accounts of mines are not re-
liable.—The real prices paid for mines.—How stock, ete., is made to
sell.—One and a half year’s experience.

AT Los Angeles I formed the acquaintance of an agent of a
mining company; he was forwarding by freight wagons a
quartz-mill and supplies to their “rich and extensive mines ”
at Pah Ranagat in south-eastern Nevada. This was a new and
glowing mining district then—at a distance, and he easily in-
duced me to go to the mines with the train having the
machinery. I was to run the engine of the mill at eight dollars
a day.

Mr. Agent remained behind a few days to start and ac-
company an outfit of four wagons, four men, and thirty-five or
forty mules and horses, with mining supplies. When on their
journey, having camped for the night at an alkali spring on the
desert, about 250 miles out from Los Angeles, two of the men
being out with the stock, some Indians swooped in on them
and run them off, to eat them; except two that struck for
camp (as is quite usual), and one that was tied to a wagon.

Then three of the party stayed with the wagons, while the
other two returned and procured other animals.

“Yet happier those we name (nor name we wrong),
Who the rough seas of stormy life along
Have sailed contented; by experience taught
Those ills to suffer, which their errors (or their fate)
had brought.

With placid hopes each torturing pang beguile,
And welcome every sorrow with a smile,”

(76)

a foot

nar¢
m ile
mea

twer
thirt
said
‘
prop!
road
and s
It is
bird |
Kans:
paper
which
Wher
Morm
their
turnec
fli eks,
valley
thi ce
met th
by one

sel ves

Water,
and b

was al
After
the ho
perishe
trail ¢
hundr

years,

are brif

like a ¢

tock of a
families,
s.—How
y mining
"A big
hite men
business.
res, etc.,
The right
ow atock
e not re-
; made to

ant of a
agons a
mines ~
new and
asily in-
ving the
+ dollars

and ac-
y-five or
on their
ng on the
the men
on them
ruck for
gon.

vhile the

te)

Mrinina Camps. 77

a _ eee ee eee tre tees = en

We travelled a different road part of the way to San Ber-
nardino, then took the same I have described, for about 250
miles, when we turned north for about 200 miles (wagon wheel
measurement), to the mining camp of “ great possibilities.”

After leaving the Mormon road, we found water at from
twenty-five to forty-five miles travel—one of the stretches being
thirty-five miles. Passed along the border of Death Valley,
said to be below the sea level.

“THE VALLEY OF DEATH.—A spot almost as terrible as the
prophet’s ‘valley of dry bones,’ lies just north of the old Mormon
road to California—a region thirty miles long by thirty broad,
and surrounded, except at two points, by inaccessible mountains.
It is totally devoid of water and vegetation, and the shadow of a
bird or wild beast never darkens its white, glaring sands. The
Kansas Pacifie railroad engineers discovered |?] it, and some
papers, which show the fate of the “lost Montgomery train,”
which came south from Salt Lake in 1850, guided by a Mormon.
When near Death Valley, some came to the conclusion that the
Mormon knew nothing of the country, so they appointed one of
their number a leader, and broke off from their party. The leader
turned due west, and so, with the people and wagons and the
flocks, he travelled three days and then descended into the broad
valley, whose treacherous mirage promised water. They reached
the center, but only the white sands, bounded by scorching peaks,
met their gaze. And around the valley they wandered, and one
by one the men died. And the panting flocks stretched them-
selves in death under the hot sun. The children, erying for
water, died at their mothers’ breasts, and, with swollen tongues
and burnimg vitals, the mothers followed. Wagon after wagon
was abandoned, and strong men tottered and raved and died.
After a week’s wandering, a dozen survivors found some water in
the hollow of a mountain. It lasted but a short time, when all
perished but two, who escaped out of the valley and followed the
trail of their former companions. Eighty-seven families, with
hundreds of animals, perished here; and now, after twenty-two
years, the wagons stand still, complete, the iron-works and tires
are bright, and the shrivelled skeletons lie side by side.”

This region produces many varieties of cactus ; some being
a foot in diameter and about twenty feet high, and in spots
like a thick forest. The dead trunks made good camp fires.

ance chal ip acacia

78 CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

There is alkali and soda in extensive banks and quite pure,
so that, when it rains, the water running from it looks like
milk. There is also petrified wood, chalk hills, vulcano craters
and lava flows, and dry lakes, five to ten miles in extent, smooth
and hard as a floor.

Lizards, centipedes and Indians bask in the sunshine, each
apparently contented with his lot, and sometimes there are vast
swarms of grasshoppers, but they fly away.

It was said, that the freighter who brought the mili, had
the faculty of tricking his men out of their wages, so that on
reaching Salt Lake they stole the burrs from his wagons in
revenge.

I found a mining district, and a county (Lincoln) had been
organized, embracing the mountain spur, containng the mineral
bearing quartz rock,—the highest peak (which was composed
of barren quartz) being some 9000 feet above the sea—a small
watered valley, fit for farming and stock raising, ten or twelve
miles away, having large flowing hot sulphur springs, and
enough of the adjacent country for an extensive grasshopper
and lizard range, and to show big on a map.

There were five little camps; three being in the mountain,
and two in the valley,—one of which was the county seat
and the other had wanted to be. They each having water—
both hot and cold. One of the three camps in the mountain
was supplied with water from a spring, three or four miles
away, at ten cents a gallon; each of the other two had small
springs.

There was some timber (pine) on the mountain, and lum-
ber was whip-sawed for $150 a thousand feet, also a good deal
of scrub-nut-pine for fuel and producing food for the Indians.

The district contained a migratory, ever changing popu-
lation of about 250 men, from every quarter and station; less
than a dozen women and children, and the usual complement
of Indians.

These Indians are simple as children, and degraded in
their habits, but as proud, patriotic and jealous of their posses-
sions and fame, as a subject of the white Mormon secret state.
Their chief had recently met the Governor of the State
(Nevada), and to impress him with their equal importance,

y pure,
cs like
craters
mooth

e, each
re vast

li, had
shat on
xonS in

id been
mineral
mposed
a small
- twelve
os, and
shopper

ountain,
nty seat
water—
ountain
hy miles
d small

nd lum-
bod deal
Tndians.

popu-
on; less
plement

aded in
posses-
pt state.
e State
ortance,

> TT iN,
Pi-Ure Iypran Camp, Nevapa.

80 CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

addressed him thus:—“You big chief: Me big chief too;
You own Virginia City, Austin, Carson, etc. etc.: Me own all
of this, that, and the other mountain, and all of these valleys,
waters, etc., etc. ; You heap big son of ab—-h: Me all the same.”

There were now three quartz mills in the district, with
more to follow, and most everybody had “feet” in mining
claims. One had sold for $50,000, and they were singing,
“hurrah! hurrah!! we have struck it, hurrah!!! the Gentiles
have struck it in southern Utah.” It was at first thought to
be in Utah.

Miners’ wages were six dollars a day, mechanics’ eight
dollars, and boss mill builders’ twenty dollars. But there was
not much employment to be had; there being always an ove»
supply of men, and the pay was mighty uncertain.

Merchants charged, on an average, about 300 per cent.
profit on their goods, expecting this to be somewhat reduced
by bad dehts, as credit is seldom refused.

There was no smaller change than twenty-five cents, which
was the price of drinks, etc. Board, fourteen dollars a week,
though “‘baching” was the rule at an expense of about one dollar
a day. Flour, thirteen dollars a hundred pounds. Sugar,
butter, coffee, at seventy-five cents a pound. Boots, thirteen
dollars a pair. Grain and potatoes, ten cents a pound. Hay,
fifty dollars a ton. Wagon spokes and ax handles, one dollar
to one dollar and a haif each. Hard lumber, one dollar and a

me
4

‘
3

cal

f
f

half per square foot. There were similar mining camps, 150

miles and more away ; and Mormon settlements as near as 175
miles, which sent in their produce. The Mormons like to have
mining camps spring up around them, for the market they

afford them. ‘They thus got six dollars a bushel for all their | :

surplus wheat for several years, other produce in _pro-
portion, The mines, and the California and Oregon bound
emigration trains, and United States troops constituted their
markets,

The Mormons never mine themselves, except for wages.
The counsel of the order being against investing any money in

mines ; knowing, that as a business it does not begin to pay, |

except with other people’s money.
There being no home influences or comforts in mining

can
pan
com
trib
who
gam
and
as tl
thus
coun
such
boar

]
and vy
amou
ring |
abilit,
must
Expet
one o
that h
it wou
be ma
side S
T
here, |
of the
belt.
was, W
and hi

A
murde
open ti

A
money;
his he:

A
runs ag
at the «

ef too;
own all
valleys,

ict, with
_ mining
singing,
Gentiles
ought to

es’ eight
here was
an oven

per cent.
; reduced

1ts, which
3 a week,
one dollar
3, Sugar,
5, thirteen
nd. Hay,
one dollar
lar anda
amps, 150)
far as 175
ke to have
rket they

all their

in pro-
fon bound

ted their

or wages.
money il

n to pay, |

in mining

Minina Cans. 81
camps, the saloons are the universal place of resort, for com-
pany, business and pleasure. Stores and saloons are frequently
connected. And all men are expected, as good citizens, to con-
tribute towards making things lively and times good for those
who do not work, by spending their money for whiskey, in
gambling, and at the stores. Those who would do so freely,
and in advance, stood the first show for employment,—as good
as those who were secret ring brethren. An employer could
thus throw money into the pockets of brethren behind the
counters and tables. Men seeking employment, on going to
such places, should be broke and forthwith run saloon and
board bills, and let them hustle up jobs for them.

Mining superintendents get a salary of about $5000 a year,
and what they can safely steal; which is in proportion to the
amount of business done and money handled. They are usually
ring brethren of the chief men of the company, with no business
ability or character necessary for legitimate success; but they
must be cunning in their stealing and trustworthy in dividing.
Expenses incurred are largely increased in the books, this is
one of their ways. I knew the bookkeeper of a management
that had him add one hundred per cent. to all expenses, or so
it would average that. $100,000 expended in a quartz mill, can
be made to blossom into $376,911.09 in the books to the out-
side stock holders ; other expenses likewise.

There were state and county ring machines of government
here, but they were discarded by the people for the government
of the plains—carried in every man’s pocket, or swung to his
belt. For example:—an Indian having killed a white man,
was, with others, captured, tried without lawbooks or lawyers,
and hung; the others being acquitted.

A white man, of considerable eminence in the states,
murdered another for his money; he was likewise given a fair,
open trial and hung.

An employer undertakes to trick his men out of their
money; knowing that he has it, one of them presents a pistol at
his head, with the proposition to pay or die—he pays.

A boisterows desperado undertakes to “run the town,”
runs against some quiet little man, who kills him in his disgust
at the cowardice of the famed bullies and toughs of the camp.
6

82 CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

The people were not afraid of, or prejudiced against the
professional gambler and sharp, but they had no use for
the mysterious midnight trickster and confidence man.

I have noticed that the more frank, generous and honorable
of men, who have had experience with the different govern-
ments, prefer this government “by the people, for the people,”
to that of gangs of lawyers ; because secret gangs do not protect
what honest industry procures.

While the selfish, grasping, criminal natures, who would
get on by secret intrigue and the misery they make, are wed-
ded to the lawyer gang system.

“They are never happy, except when they destroy
The comfort and blessing which others enjoy.”

As to the geological formation of mineral lodes, veins or
deposits, let the curious, as to this, imagine a mountain ina
molten state; then towards and at the surface it has become
cool and hardened, with a seething, blubbering mass of molten
quartz, mingled with mineral, shaken, settled or run together,
still in a state of voleanic action underneath in the bowels of
the mountain ; the volcanic action, being now more confined,
becomes more violent, and the mountain above cracks open, in
one or more fissures or cracks ; the seething, blubbering mass
of quartz-rock and mineral boils and spurts up into the fissures
or cracks, till their sides (“wall rock’) are smooth as glass ; it
finally cools and hardens there into solid mineral-bearing
quartz-rock. If it is pressed, spurted, or flows out at the sur-

face of the cracks, then out-croppings are formed, and bowlders
and bodies of this mineral-mixed lava are mingled with the
surrounding surface of the mountain ; perhaps, in time, this is
partly or completely covered with other rock, soil and vegeta-
tion. Usually it appears that nearly, or all of the mineral-bear-
ing rock had thus flowed out and scattered about, and the
fissures or cracks had then settled back or closed from beneath,
or else filled up with ordinary rock or lava, which may crop
out and be scattered about also. Or the fissures, cracks, may
be filled with quartz, barren of mineral; nearly so, or except in
spots (called “ bonanzas ” or “ pockets”), or except in perpen-
dicular streaks (called “chimneys’’). There are plenty of ledges,
fissures, etc., in quartz and mining districts that are not loded

wit
wit!

dow
Wh
dire
sout
“net
alwa
woul
or lo
with
again
or ses
larger
pocke
and x
nh
ed for
Way.
these ¢
wards,
the lay
In
either
Silver, ¢
bodies,
mineral
and ree
much as
Tha
of the le
The ric]
stock, w
surface
Whe
money,
widen ou

Hoy

+ the
e for

yrable

overn-
”

ople,

protect

would
e wed-

veins or
uin in a
become
molten
ogether,
owels of
sonfined,
open, in
ng mass
, fissures
glass ; it
-bearing
the sur-
owlders
vith the
, this is
vegeta-
yal-bear-
and the
beneath,
may crop
cks, may
except in
perpen-
bf ledges,
hot loded

‘
f

Minina Camps. 83

with metal. But gold and silver is usually formed or mixed
with the character of rock, called quartz.

These cracks, fissures or lodes may be very deep, farther
down than has ever been reached by man, (about 4000 feet).
When deep, they are called true fissure veins, and trend in
direction with the range of mountain - usually northerly and
southerly. But they usually contract with depth, “ pinch” or
“peter out” at a short distance below the surface ; this is most
always the case, if rich in the precious metals, otherwise they
would not be precious. If there is no out-cropping to a ledge
or lode, and it is covered with the country or common rock, or
with ground, it is called a “blind ledge” or lode. Imagine
again, that the mountain, on cooling, had many surface cracks
or seams (which, when leading to or springing from a main or
larger one, are called “spurs”’) and also cavities, caves and
pockets, and that a portion of these are filled with the flowing
and rolling quartz, more or less mixed with mineral.

In lead districts, molten lead and rock seems to have flow-
ed for many miles, filling up the holes and low places in the
way. Afterwards, other flows of lava have more or less covered
these deposits and formed stratas of rock over them. After-
wards, earth-quakes and the wear of water may have changed
the lay of the land.

In a mineral district, the ledges or veins of quartz-rock—
either barren or containing valuable mineral, such as gold,
silver, copper, lead, etc.,—also all of the bowlders, scattered
bodies, filled cracks, holes, deposits, etc, showing signs of
mineral, are, when discovered, each located as a mining claim
and recorded. A mining claim may (in late years) embrace as
much as twenty acres of ground.

The richest rock is, as a rule, found at or near the surface
of the ledge ; though richer pockets may be found deeper down.
The rich rock of the “bonanzas” struck deep in the great com-
stock, was very low grade, compared with that found at the
surface of the ledge.

When one has a quartz claim and can find a man with
money, who thinks the rock will improve, or that the ledge will
widen out as depth is attained, sell it to him, quick.

However, if the rock will pay to work, he and his partner

roy
ee

EATES = RT, arity,

aE ie

ene

> SS ee ee

13
\

84 CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

can blast it out and sell it on the dump; have it worked by
some one of the mills that are already, or will be, built, if there
is a prospect of much pay rock anywhere around. Or, if it is
rock that is not difficult to work, they can put up an erasta,
hitch their horses to it, and work a ton or two of rock a day
themselves. But a claim that has really good prospects in
sight, can be sold, for more than it is worth to work, to some
gang of mining sharps who will work it off for a yet larger
sum, with a “half interest” or stock game, to “raise money to
develop or work it,” ete. A good mine, or a good prospect
oven, does not need to be advertised or puffed in newspapers to
find a customer. Jt would be foolish to put up ten dollars on any-
thing that might be written in a newspaper about a mine. Tf it is a
big bargain, do not think that the owner will hunt up strangers
to favor with it, or permit them to enjoy it at all.

Tf a mine is really rich and is to be honestly worked, it is
to the interest of the owners, in various ways, to keep its value
hid as much as possible, and they never fail to do so.

Persons that have never owned enticing property, have no
idea of the midnight conspiracies, that set to work to rob
the owner of such properties. The gang conspires to have the
courts in the hands of secret brethren, with whom they can
secretly and safely deal, and then, by hook or crook, some
little technical error (?), done for the purpose to get the pro-
perty in the hands of the courts. Or the gang may “jump” it,
when, if they are not killed, the court comes to their assistance,
by taking and keeping the case in court until the mine is work-
ed out—twenty or thirty years, if necessary. For example, a
clerical error (?) of, I believe, but a single word, done in the
patent to McGarahan, was excuse enough for the courts to take

his mine, give it to some brethren, and keep it in court as long
as the owner lived—about thirty-five years. Besides, taking all
the means he could raise meanwhile. So that it is necessary
to defend such property with rifles and shotguns, which is
often expensive. And there are other reasons, as can be
imagined, why rich strikes are concealed and not advertised.
In prospecting a new locality for quartz mines, one rides
through the gulches and ravines, looks for pieces of quartz or
“float” rock, which may have been washed by the elements

fro:
pies
it w
the
judg

quar
was]
grave

’

and r
mens
color
a min
pieces
B
beside
being
work,
a low £
ton of
high, y

district
bowlde
ledge j
high in
than ha
fissure
commo
is hard]
favorab]
Still this
ore, and
which t]
freight a
ment wo
The
of it, anc

—

l by
here
it is
‘asta,
y day
ts in
some
larger
1ey to
spect
pers to
m any-
it is a

angers

d, it is
§ value

lave no
to rob
rave the
hey can
ik, some
he pro-
nmp” it,
istance,
is work-
mple, a
b in the
to take
as long
iking all
ecessary
vhich is
can be
tised.
ne rides
huartz oF
elements

Mrinina Camps.

85
from ledges or other bodies of it above. If any promising
pieces of rock are found, the hills and mountains above where
it was found are carefully looked over, to find where or what
the “ float” was detached from. The distance it has travelled is
judged by the amount it is worn.

Frequently the out-croppings, bowlders and other surface
quartz, as heretofore described, have decomposed and been
washed, with their gold, down into the gulches and streams, with
gravel, and other dirt washed over it—thus forming the Placer mines.

There were, perhaps, one thousand mining claims located
and recorded in the Pah-Ranagat district. I had first seen speci-
mens from some of them at Salt Lake; they were highly
colored, and enticing to look at. This is one way of advertising
a mining camp and particular mines: I mean, to exhibit rich
pieces of ore.

But the ore in this district was base; that is, it contained
besides silver, sulphur, antimony, copper, iron, lead, ete.; it
being therefore refractory and costly to mill, separate and
work. It was also very hard to drill and blast. Then it was
alow grade ore, say ten dollars to thirty dollars in silver to the
ton of rock, Pieces could be selected that would assay very
high, while much of it was quite barren.

There is generally one principal or main ledge in a mining
district, and one only; the rest being smaller cracks, spurs,
bowlders and other little bunches of quartz. The principal
ledge in this district cropped out boldly, ten or fifteen feet
high in places, was two to ten feet thick, and was traced more

than half a mile in length, certainly a fine prospect for a true
fissure vein; but it did not prove to be so. The country or
common rock was limestone, in which formation I believe there
is hardly, if ever, any true fissure veins. Granite is the most
favorable formation, it being composed, in part, of quartz.
Still this ledge had depth enough to produce a great deal of
ore, and so had various others. But the distance to water, to
which the ore and wood had to be hauled, the high price of
freight and labor, and the incompetent and swindling manage-
ment would not allow such rock to be worked at a profit.

The discoverer of the main ledge secured the greater part
of it, and sold it to a stock company for $50,000, which did

I, 4
ys Vy
YS.”
VIS
Vg
ZW
yy
O°
<=
>
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s
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Oe

125

Ie &

ie Oey,

86 CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

the usual thing in expending perhaps $1,000 a day, for two
years, in salaries, etc., building mills and furnaces, blasting
tunnels and shafts, producing a few hundred dollars in bullion
and selling stock. Suppose the management sold three and a
half tons of stock to outsiders for $1,500,000, and their actual
expenditure to have been $500,000, then they made $1,000,000
in two years. Moreover, had they developed a valuable mine,
or struck it rich, they would have shut down just the same so
as to buy the three and a half tons of stock back for about the cost
of the paper and printing, and would not allow the mine to pay
until this was accomplished. This done, the “bonanza” would
be uncovered, bullion produced, and so magnified and adver-
tised as to re-sell the stock for ten times the real value of the
bonanza. Think not, that they would sell the stock or mine or
any portion of it at a good bargain to strangers! Much less
that they would spend money like water in advertising and
hunting up strangers to favor thus.

A smaller claim (400 feet long), supposed to be of the same
vein, was discovered to a man by an Indian for about fifty dol-
lars, who sold it for one hundred and fifty dollars, which then
went into astock or share company. Don’t know, how many “ten
thousand” dollars were written in the deed, nor does a seller
care, Another claim, located as an extension to this, was sold
by an intelligent and practical miner for a saddle horse ; which
claim also went into an eastern stock or share company, with
its big-salaried officers—ignorant as Indians as to legitimate
business and management. They each bought mills, ete., the
first thing, as though their rock would pay to work and their
saddle horse claims had been developed into true fissure veins.
One of them produced three or four hundred dollars in bullion.

How much these masons made by selling stock, shares,
“half, quarter or tenth interest,” depended on how many idiots
of outsiders they found willing to trust their money to secret
gentry of a charitable (?) order, thus leaping into the dark,—
and how well they were fixed with money.

It was the agent of one of these latter companies that I
met at Los Angeles, and one or the other of them I worked

for the greater part of my stay of about a year and a half in
the district.

par
mil
saw
wo

thre
tog

two
seve

as t
in de
agen

dolla

hand;

comp
and a
got az
T
operat
what |
quartz
A

some 1
with a
contrac
workin
key, etc
as I dic
Th

in all di
terested
thinking
good” fc
shine an
riding a
can be |
producti

on
la
ual
000
ine,
» SO
20st
pay
yuld
ver-
the
le or
less
and

same
- dol-
then
, “ten
eller
q sold
hich
with
mate
., the
their
veins.
llion.

hares,

brked
' lf in

Minina Camps.

I and another man had a contract to furnish the greater
part of the timber and joice for the buil¢ing of their quartz-
mills and furnaces. It had to be sawed or squared with whip-
saws. The price was one hundred dollars per 1000 feet in the
woods. We could saw about 300 feet a day. Gave a man with
three yoke of oxen thirty dollars a day to snake the logs
together.

Then I worked in the mines at six dollars a day, and for
two or three months was night watchman at the mill, ete. at
seven dollars a night.

The mills, etc., being completed, spoiled the sale of stock,
as the rock would not pay to work, and the companies, being
in debt for labor and supplies, let the property go, and the
agents skipped out. They owed me about one thousand
dollars, for which I had their notes, which I placed in the
hands of an ex-Chief Justice of Utah for collection from the
company in New York. I also corresponded with its president
and agent; got some encouragement for several years, but never
got any money.

There were other companies besides those noted, that
operated, more or less, on other ledges in this district ; but
what I have given is a fair illustration of the others and of
quartz mining generally in the many other quartz districts.

A few other persons besides those alluded to, made
some money by selling their claims, and some others got away
with a few hundred dollars, made by working for wages or on
contracts. But the most of the money, made by selling claims,
working for wages, or otherwise, that was not spend for whis-
key, etc., was squandered in prospecting, in one way or another,
as I did.

There were prospecting parties out for hundreds of miles
in all directions all the time, in some of which I was always in-
terested. One of these went into Death Valley and beyond,
thinking that it ought to contain lots of mineral, if it was “very
good” for anything, as it lacked in everything else but sun-
shine and sand. They found but slight prospects and returned,
riding and packing the shadows of death. If artesian water
can be got, and it is not salt, this valley can be made very
productive, there being plenty of sand and climate.

CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA.

The Pah-Ranagat mining camps were entirely deserted
(the population going to White Pine), and the county organiza-
tion was abandoned, when the taxable properties would no
longer sell for the salaries. It was never of any use to the
people. The little watered valley now supports a small
Mormon settlement.

Yet there is much silver-bearing quartz in the mountain,
which, with improved facilities in working the ore and in trans-
portation, with honest and intelligent management, will pay to
work, as a legitimate business, and pay well.

This is a fair sample and example of many other districts
with which I became acquainted; so to describe them would
be but to substantially repeat, what I have written as to this
one. But as White Pine was “heap big” c-h-i-e-f, as to
fame, excitement, population, richness of its ore, big swindles,
fond hopes and regret, and as I was there from its rise till it
tumbled down, I will give my information and experience briefly,
concerning the same,

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