74 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sion in Washoe Valley before birds of prey obtained all his 

 money. His widow, the "Washoe Seeress," made a living for 

 years by curiously futile predictions regarding the stock market, 

 and still reads the future for those who care to listen. One after 

 another all the placer-mining Comstockers went down before the 

 rush of silver seekers. 



That rush was in many respects the most remarkable one that 

 California ever had known. Decidedly the best account was 

 written by J. Ross Browne, who made his Peep at Washoe a 

 classic of early Nevada. Stirred, he says, by the shout of " Sil- 

 ver ! silver ! Acres of it ! Miles of it ! " he left San Francisco in 

 March, 1860, and made his way to Placer ville. Beyond this point 

 there were no stages. The town was full of men anxious to cross 

 the mountains, and "practicing for Washoe" in the saloons. 

 Every sign bore Washoe in large letters. Pack trains were start- 

 ing daily for the mines. No animal could be had for love or 

 money. " Lodging accommodations " consisted of enough floor 

 space on which to lie in one's blanket. 



The next morning Browne started on foot. The muddy trail 

 was literally lined with broken-down vehicles and goods of every 

 description. He stopped at nightfall in " Dirty Mike's " shanty, 

 in which the bar and the public bedroom were the chief features. 

 The second day hundreds of persons were in sight along the trail 

 men with wheelbarrows, handcarts, donkeys, mules ; gamblers on 

 fancy mustangs, whisky peddlers, organ grinders, drovers, Mexi- 

 cans. Rain, snow, and slush prevailed for miles before he reached 

 the log cabins of Strawberry. There he slept on the floor with 

 about forty other pilgrims, and had his stockings stolen, which 

 " were above gold or silver in this foot- weary land." Three feet 

 of snow in the morning, four hundred men in the camp, and pro- 

 visions low ; eight hard miles to the summit, nine more to Wood- 

 ford's. Browne and several others tried the trail, but were forced 

 to return to Strawberry. The next day he tried it alone. The 

 trail was over old snow, honeycombed with holes hidden by the 

 new snowfall; pack trains were floundering through and occa- 

 sionally falling into the canons. Wind and sleet all day ; mud 

 knee deep in Hope Valley ; all in all a terrible day's experience. 

 The fifth day Browne's course was along the Carson. He was so 

 worn out that he could only cover about eighteen miles between 

 sunrise and nine o'clock at night. The sixth day he arrived at 

 Carson City, and took the stage for the mines. 



Virginia City, as Ross Browne saw it in the spring of 1860, 

 lay outspread on a slope of mountains, speckled with snow and 

 sagebrush and mounds of upturned earth. The dwellings were 

 rude board shanties ; tents of blankets, sacks, old shirts, and can- 

 vas ; huts of mud and rock, caves in the hillside, and hollow heaps 



