1859.] IN THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAINS. 181 Far below, on In an hour and a half we reached the summit. the top of Table Mountain gleamed a little lake. At the foot of the long hill were the pigmies again; and beyond, the valley of the Platte with its dark timber and shining water. Before us mountain lay piled upon mountain; some grassy, others gaunt and bare. From most rose the pine, spruce and hemlock in perfect cones, interspersed with quivering aspens; while brilliant flowers clothed the desolate rocks with beauty. Our road led us past the new-made grave of a young immigrant, one of many victims to the careless use of fire-arms. Up and down the steep mountain sides, across swift-running, ice-cold streams, over jagged rocks and through deep canyons overshadowed by sullen walls, we wound our toilsome way. An eager crowd kept pace with us; some walking, others with ox-wagons pack-horses or mules, and all pressing toward the mines. At night we turned our patient animals out to graze, and encamped under a sloping roof of fir and pine boughs. Our cook elect kindled a blazing fire, by which we sat listening to the conflicting reports of the sanguine or disheartened gold seekers; those going forward led by buoyant hope, and those coming back bringing dearly-bought experience. Wrapt in our blankets upon the hard ground, we gazed through fir boughs at the far-off stars, until the deep soothing music of the pine, the Eolian harp of the forest, mingled with our dreams. The next morning we started early, and descending a steep hill reached at last the Gregory Diggings. The valley presemed a confused and constantly-shifting picture, made up of men, tents, wagons, oxen and mules. The first miner we encountered was digging a hole like a grave beside a little rivulet, but reported to us that he had not yet struck the color.' Along the rocky gulch for five miles were scattered log cabins, tents and camps covered with boards sawn by hand or with pine boughs. At the grocery tents, meat was selling at fifty cents per pound; and beside the stream women were washing clothes at three dollars per dozen. After breakfasting in the open air, we went from camp to camp talking with miners, and studying their operations. They found no gold in the stream-beds; but were washing out the 'rotten. 182 FIRST RELIABLE REPORT OF THE MINES. [1859. quartz' which they gathered from narrow crevices in the granite on hill-sides. Gregory, Green Russell and the other old Georgia miners, very expert in detecting lodes, found abundant employ.. ment in 'prospecting' for new-comers at one hundred dollars per day. In our presence one miner washed two dollars and fifty cents from a pan-full of dirt, and told us that another pan had just yielded him seventeen dollars and eighty-seven cents. Some twenty sluices were in operation. In gulch or placermining the dirt is shoveled into a long wooden sluice or trough, through which a stream of water pours, washing away the earth and leaving the heavy gold dust at the bottom. These sluices were of lumber, which was cut with hand-saws and commanded three hundred dollars per thousand. There was much speculation in claims; some had sold as high as six thousand dollars, cash. Most of the miners were exultant and hopeful; but a few, utterly discouraged, were about to return to the States. There were five thousand people in the Gregory Diggings, and hundreds more were pouring in daily. Mr. Greeley, Henry Villard of the Cincinnati Commercial and myself, spent two days in examining the gulches and conversing with the workmen engaged in running sluices. Most of the companies reported to us that they were operating successfully. Then we joined in a detailed report, naming the members of each company and their former places of residence in the States,' (that any who desired might learn their reputation for truthfulness,) and adding their statements as to the number of men they were employing and the average yield of their sluices per day. We endeavored to give the shadows as well as the lights of the picture, recounting the hardships and perils of the long journey, and the bitter disappointment experienced by the unsuccessful many; and earnestly warning the public against another general and illadvised rush to the mines. Little time is required to learn the great truth, that digging gold is about the hardest way on earth to obtain it; that in this as in other pursuits great success is very rare. The report was widely copied throughout the country as the first specific, disinterested and trustworthy account of the newly-discovered placers. 1859.] FIRST MASS MEETING AT PIKE'S PEAK. 183 Mr. Greeley's presence afforded too good opportunity for speechhearing, to be overlooked by his errant countrymen. That evening fifteen hundred people assembled, forming the first mass meeting ever held in the Rocky Mountains. It was a motley gathering in the open air, of men with long unkempt locks, shaggy beards, faces reduced by the sun to the color of a new brick, and bowie knives and revolvers hanging from their belts. They gathered in all the freedom of the frontier. Some were reclining upon the ground, some sitting upon stumps and the half-finished walls of new log buildings, and others perched upon the friendly limbs of neighboring trees. The presiding officer occupied a log instead of a chair; and one of the speakers was clad in a full suit of buckskin with long fantastic fringes. The meeting, in a grove of stately pines, was called to order as the light of the dying sun was falling upon the gashed and rugged peaks like a benediction. Mr. G., received with enthusiastic cheers, spoke hopefully of the mines, though he thought they would not equal those of California; advocated the forming of a new State without the troublesome preliminary form of a Territory; and urged his hearers to avoid drinking and gaming, and live as the parents, wives and children left at home would desire. It was one purpose of his trip to do every thing in his power toward hastening the Pacific railroad, which ought to have been built long before, After three final cheers for the editor, the probate judge of the county, was called up and made glowing predictions of a new Commonwealth, the real Keystone State of the Union, to spring here like Minerva from the brain of Jove. (This volu ble speaker did not remain to witness the fulfillment of his prophecy, but emigrated to Montana; and after being warned from that Territory by the vigilance committee for suspicious relations with a gang of murderers, took up his residence in Nevada.) When he had concluded, the assembled citizens were kind enough to call for me and to applaud with due enthusiasm my brief invocation to the American eagle, and apotheosis of the great Pacific railway of the future. Then the meeting adjourned, with cheers which made the old mountains ring. It must have astonished the wild elk and grizzly bears which until a month before had held undisputed sway. 184 FREAKS OF OUR ECCENTRIC MULES. [1859 In a little tent ambitiously labeled the 'Mountain City Hotel, six of us spent the night on the ground, "Snug As a bug In a rug,' lying so close that none of us could turn over separately. The next day as we descended from the mountains Mr. G. was so lame that he could barely hobble. One of his companions was badly bruised, being thrown from his steed and dragged over sharp rocks by the stirrup. Another, pitched from his mule by a broken girth and alighting on the top of his head upon a rock, naturally complained of seeing stars and declared himself the MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. victim of misplaced confidence. A third half submerged by his stumbling animal while crossing Clear Creek, and quite cured of his belief in hydropathy, was wrung out and dried before an immigrant's fire. After supping and lodg ing with some friendly travelers, we reached Denver at seven in the morning, prepared to play 'the Serious Family' to the satisfaction of the most critical. The excitement of the journey over, Mr. G's. wounded limb which had enjoyed no rest since the capsizing of the coach, grew excessively painful and confining. The Denver House with its ceaseless noise and gambling, proved unfavorable to literary pursuits; so according to the custom of the country we 'jumped a cabin:'-selected the best empty one we could find, moved in our effects, and took possession. |