MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 387 



me to Poughkeepsie, reaching that town in time 

 to take the owl train for New York. 



To the restless body and active mind the pleas- 

 ures of Paradise would pall without an occa- 

 sional foray outside the gates and when the op- 

 portunity came to me to explore and exploit or 

 examine and condemn a group of alleged mines 

 in Colorado I availed of the offer. These mines 

 were high up in the Needles, the most pictur- 

 esque part of the State, and on paper there were 

 more than a score of them. Much money had 

 been spent on prospects but the real mining had 

 been in New York. Shafts had been sunk and 

 tunnels driven and names given to these holes in 

 the ground which were scattered over more than 

 a square mile. The mining had been unscientific 

 beyond belief. It was doubtful which was the 

 richer, or the poorer, the stacked up ore or the 

 dump pile. Not even a blowpipe assay, so far 

 as I could learn, had been made of any of the ore 

 which had been taken out. The same happy-go- 

 lucky system obtained among the few other 

 mines in the district. 



