166 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



at Johntown, and spend the afternoon and evening over a social game 

 of cards." 



The camp was on the eastern slope of the Sierra jSTevadas, in what 

 was then Utah, and is now Nevada. 



It was the best type of the life that is depicted in its manifold 

 phases and manifestations in the pages of Bret Harte, Mark Twain 

 and Joaquin Miller. It was a wonderful experience and a valuable 

 education for the youth of nineteen. But, adventures strange and 

 perilous were still before him. 



9. 



Among the original forty-niners were two brothers, Allen and 

 Hosea Grosh, of Pennsylvania, From California they had made their 

 way over the Sierra, to Gold Caiïon in tlie early fifties. As early as 

 1854 they had discovered native silver in the canon, which they revis- 

 ited again and again, but they kept their knowledge to themselves. 

 They were the first discoverers of silver west of the JRockies.^ 

 In the spring of 1857, after spending the winter in California, they 

 were back again in the Caiïon, and here young Bucke made their 

 acquaintance, an acquaintance that ultimately involved him in the most 

 terrible vicissitudes, and left him a legacy of life-long indescribable 

 puffering. On the other hand, had the enterprise succeeded, he would 

 in all probability have been reckoned among the McKays and Carnegies 

 and Eockefellers ; for the Groshes held the key to treasures beyond 

 the dreams of Sindbad or Aladdin. 



The ostensible object of the Groshes in 1857 was gold mining. 

 Their real purpose was to explore for silver and ascertain the value 

 of their previous discoveries. "With a third partner, one George Brown, 

 they made their own assays and " satisfied themselves that they had 

 found and owned enormonsly rich silver lodes." 



They located the best sites, took up as much land as the mining 

 laws permitted, and were about ready to form a company to develop 

 their extraordinary discoveries. 



'' The strange part of the story is that within three months from 

 that time all three of these young and strong men met with violent 

 'deaths, and by an extraordinary combination of circumstances the 

 papers relative to their discoveries, and which were naturally left in 

 the hands of the last survivor, were absolutely lost." 



Brown was murdered by a party of immigrants at his own door. 

 Hoseo Grosh cut his foot with an axe, and died of blood-poisoning. 



^ There is a monument in their honour at Virginia City, to commemorate 

 their achievement. 



