CHAPTER VI.

The mines, continued.— Exciting reports from a distant moun-
tain.—I outfit one of a party to go.—What he wrote me.—“ Ho!
for White Pine! ”—The richest silver mine ever discovered.—The
pure stuff.—I go, too.—Visit another camp on the way.— My horse
and saddle “borrowed.”— A big camp ablaze with excitement.—
Belief that the stuff could be found anywhere by digging.—The
many thousand “mines.”—“ Brilliant schemes.” Blubbering in-
vestors from the States.—Life: gambling, drinking, business and
damnation.—Making big sales, etc.; the outeome——Another year
and a half of lively practical experience in the mines.—The many
smaller camps in the surrounding region.—Virginia City and Gold
Hill—The great Comstock lode——The bonanza and other great
stock gambling mines that we read of.

The
hty-
and
des-
1ave
cials
ern-
yical
ines,

ete.
nies
le. —
sell.

oun-
Ho!
The

CONTENTS. f