98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



and about eight months ago went off to Nevada City and got 

 a superintendent job there ; but I have stuck to this mine off. 

 and on, thinking we could not be mistaken, and if indications 

 were good for anything we should get something worth hav- 

 ing if we could contrive to live until we got the shaft deep 

 enough. 



" When we first came out here we thought we knew about 

 rocks and metals, but went into the employment of Sargent, 

 down at Georgetown, to get a practical knowledge of mining 

 as a business. After eight months there we took a month to 

 visit mines in all directions to see the character of the rocks 

 in which the metal was found, and the different methods of 

 approach and reduction. We then started out independently 

 on an extended prospecting tour. We found several places 

 that miners would call a good prospect, but in our opinion 

 the best show was here. Therefore we secured a patent, 

 got suitable tools, and began work sinking a shaft. Near 

 the surface we struck a quartz vein, and got some beautiful 

 specimens of free gold, and thought our fortune was made ; 

 but it was so thin it yielded but little, and soon pinched out. 

 The shaft is now seventy feet deep ; at intervals as we went 

 down we found a little color, but did not strike it rich, and 

 more than once we were dead broke. It is pretty difficult 

 in such a place to tell what the show may be a day or a week 

 ahead. 



*' Soon after C. went away, just for a change, a friend of 

 mine went with me over into Placer County, to a place that 

 C. and I had spotted, and secured a right and went to work 

 sinking a shaft in decomposing talcose slate rock, in which 

 veins of soft, gold-bearing quartz frequently occur. We 

 worked hard for several months, and, as the rock was not 

 hard, we got down about forty feet, but did not find a trace of 

 anything ; and I got discouraged, and thought I had rather 

 put work into our old mine. So one morning, just after I 

 reached the bottom of the shaft, I said to A., ' What will you 

 give me for all my right, title and interest in this hole?' 

 His reply was, ' I had rather sell than buy ; but I will run 

 for luck, and give you fifty dollars ; but yon shall wait for 

 your pay until I take it out of the mine.' ' It is yours,' 

 said I, and did not strike another blow, but got up top of 



