SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 433 



But in this, as I will soon illustrate, as in agriculture, 

 it often happens that a steady and untiring perseverance 

 in the "old diggings," continually turning up the earth 

 a little deeper, would lead to more certain fortune than 

 an abandonment of the old and familiar ground, for a 

 new beginning upon an untried soil, when like the des- 

 perate gambler, we place all upon the cast of a single 

 die. At this "Mammoth Digging," some poor fellow 

 about 15 years ago, was within a foot of his fortune; but 

 he was a surface skimmer, and knew not the value of 

 subsoiling ; and so he missed the crop that since has been 

 made. But to explain. Some 18 months since, a boy 

 in the neighborhood, who was out "prospecting" among 

 the rugged hills, begun digging out one of these old holes, 

 and in a little time discovered the "blow out" of the mine 

 beneath. This lead being followed up, and the earth and 

 rocks removed a few feet further, opened into a cave 

 lined all around the sides and arch with immense masses 

 of ore, to the amount of one hundred thousand pounds, 

 and so pure that it yielded 75 to 80 per cent of pure lead. 

 And here again is a lesson to encourage perseverance; 

 for after this cave was exhausted, the work was sus- 

 pended for some time, till at length a small lead was dis- 

 covered, that lead into a second cave of equal size and 

 richness, and from that to a third one still better, and 

 when I visited the diggins, a single blast of powder had 

 thrown open a passage into a fourth cave which by some, 

 was supposed to contain 200,000 pounds, but I think that 

 amount may be divided by two, which still leaves an im- 

 mense mass to be exposed to one view. The opening of 

 the cave is in the side of a hill, and the descent so gradual, 

 that the ore is brought to the surface in wheel barrows, 

 where it is cleared of the adhering rock, called by the 

 miners "tiff," a white metallic substance which I am un- 

 able to name correctly. It is probably a corruption of 

 tufa. It is then hauled to the furnace, where the opera- 

 tion of smelting has been so simplified within a few years, 

 that I believe I can "tote" fuel enough to melt a thousand 



