A Sportsman 151 



and deer skins, which required an extra pack-mule we 

 had to purchase. 



It required one hundred and fifty miles of travelling 

 to get back to Denver by way of the South Park over 

 a very rough country, until we reached the plains. At 

 Denver, where we rested for two weeks, I met two 

 young men from Boston whom I knew, Abbott and 

 West, and after exciting them with tales of our adven- 

 tures, we planned together another excursion to visit 

 the Middle Park over the Divide by way of the gold 

 mines in Gilpin County. 



We found Denver being diminished in its popula- 

 tion from the hard times existing. The known surface 

 diggings were becoming exhausted, and no methods 

 were known how to work the stubborn sulphurets be- 

 neath. In the two years following Denver probably 

 lost one third of its inhabitants, who by driving 

 teams or on horseback, or by one way or another man- 

 aged to get away from a region where they saw no 

 means of livelihood. Real estate sunk to a low ebb, 

 and many owners, from either want of funds or faith in 

 future values, let their property taxes go unpaid. 



It was not until 1868 that the smelting process as 

 pursued at Swansea in Wales was introduced, and 

 from that period a growing prosperity occurred, and 

 now the State surpasses any in the Union in its yield 

 of precious metals, with agricultural products of still 

 greater value. 



It was now midsummer when our party, increased 

 to five, returned to the mining sections, resting for a 

 few days. Supplying ourselves with pack-mules and 

 two hunter guides, we essayed a route recommended to 

 us over the Divide from Spanish Bar by Trail Creek, 



