STEEP TRAILS 



ably only camps built by bands of prospec- 

 tors, and inhabited for a few months or years, 

 while some specially interesting canon was 

 being explored, and then carelessly abandoned 

 for more promising fields. But many were 

 real towns, regularly laid out and incorpo- 

 rated, containing well-built hotels, churches, 

 school-houses, post-offices, and jails, as well 

 as the mills on which they all depended; and 

 whose well-graded streets were filled with 

 lawyers, doctors, brokers, hangmen, real-estate 

 agents, etc., the whole population numbering 

 several thousand. 



A few years ago the population of Hamil- 

 ton is said to have been nearly eight thousand; 

 that of Treasure Hill, six thousand; of Sher- 

 mantown, seven thousand; of Swansea, three 

 thousand. All of these were incorporated towns 

 with mayors, councils, fire departments, and 

 daily newspapers. Hamilton has now about 

 one hundred inhabitants, most of whom are 

 merely waiting in dreary inaction for some- 

 thing to turn up. Treasure Hill has about half 

 as many, Shermantown one family, and Swan- 

 sea none, while on the other hand the grave- 

 yards are far too full. 



In one canon of the Toyabe range, near 

 Austin, I found no less than five dead towns 

 without a single inhabitant. The streets and 

 196 



