NEVADA S DEAD TOWNS 



But those lying to the eastward of the Sierra 

 throughout the ranges of the Great Basin 

 waste in the dry wilderness like the bones of 

 cattle that have died of thirst. Many of them 

 do not represent any good accomplishment, 

 and have no right to be. They are monuments 

 of fraud and ignorance sins against science. 

 The drifts and tunnels in the rocks may per 

 haps be regarded as the prayers of the pros 

 pector, offered for the wealth he so earnestly 

 craves; but, like prayers of any kind not in 

 harmony with nature, they are unanswered. 

 But, after all, effort, however misapplied, is 

 better than stagnation. Better toil blindly, 

 beating every stone in turn for grains of gold, 

 whether they contain any or not, than lie 

 down in apathetic decay. 



The fever period is fortunately passing away. 

 The prospector is no longer the raving, wan 

 dering ghoul of ten years ago, rushing in ran 

 dom lawlessness among the hills, hungry and 

 footsore; but cool and skillful, well supplied 

 with every necessary, and clad in his right 

 mind. Capitalists, too, and the public in gen 

 eral, have become wiser, and do not take fire 

 so readily from mining sparks; while at the 

 same time a vast amount of real work is being 

 done, and the ratio between growth and de 

 cay is constantly becoming better. 



