GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES 189 



time and again by prospectors. The gold of the southern states was 

 found in parts of the country that were well settled by an agricultural 

 population, and yet for a long time it excited no attention. In this 

 case the fact that the people had had no experience in gold mining was 

 doubtless sufficient reason for this neglect; but when we see similar 

 cases in the west, where mining has been the chief occupation of the 

 people since the country was settled, the fact becomes more noteworthy. 



The gold of California was discovered purely by accident, in a 

 country which, though not exactly well known, had yet been passed over 

 by many people, and was at least well enough known to warrant the ex- 

 istence of a mill, in the construction of which the gold was found. The 

 Cripple Creek district was discovered in one of the best known parts of 

 Colorado, in a region that had for many years been settled by ranchers. 

 Year by year the cowboys and others, among them many miners, had 

 passed over it without noticing the ore, and yet the latter was lying in 

 lumps on the ground or protruding in outcrops in a way that made it a 

 prominent feature of the neighborhood. Goldfield in Nevada was also 

 discovered in a region that was well known to prospectors, and the ore 

 occurred in large prominent outcrops, yet it lay for years ignored. The 

 gold gravels of the Klondike had been trodden over by Hudson Bay 

 trappers and the early miners of the Yukon for years before they were 

 discovered. 



Many other similar cases might be mentioned of new discoveries in 

 well-known regions, where the gold was at last found by some inquisi- 

 tive prospector having an assay made of a piece of strange-looking rock, 

 which every one else had always seen but never thought of value, 

 or by sinking a well for water, digging a ditch, planting a tree, or in 

 walking over a place where the forest had recently been burned. The 

 long delay in many of these belated discoveries was due to the ignorance 

 of the prospector who could recognize certain ores but not others, while 

 the general neglect of gold mining and the craze for silver mining in 

 parts of the west for thirty years, from 1860 to 1890, was doubtless a 

 contributing cause. 



The fact remains, however, that the three greatest gold regions dis- 

 covered in recent years, that is, the Cripple Creek, Klondike and Gold- 

 , field districts, were all found in well-known localities; and the question 

 naturally arises, may not many other discoveries be made not only in 

 the less explored parts of the west, but even in the shadow of the towns 

 and ranches ? One can not refrain from the conclusion that this is not 

 only possible, but probable. Moreover, the better knowledge of the na- 

 ture and occurrence of ores, which the prospector of to-day is gradually 

 acquiring, will greatly assist in thf search. 



Aside from the possibility of new discoveries of gold, the improved 

 metallurgical methods, the cheaper fuel, transportation facilities and 



