STEEP TRAILS 



Mining discoveries and progress, retrogres- 

 sion and decay, seem to have been crowded 

 more closely against each other here th'&n on 

 any other portion of the globe. Some one of 

 the band of adventurous prospectors who 

 came from the exhausted placers of California 

 would discover some rich ore — how much or 

 little mattered not at first. These specimens 

 fell among excited seekers after wealth like 

 sparks in gunpowder, and in a few days the 

 wilderness was disturbed with the noisy clang 

 of miners and builders. A little town would 

 then spring up, and before anything like a 

 careful survey of any particular lode would be 

 made, a company would be formed, and expen- 

 sive mills built. Then, after all the machinery 

 was ready for the ore, perhaps Uttle, or none at 

 all, was to be found. Meanwhile another dis- 

 covery was reported, and the young town was 

 abandoned as completely as a camp made for a 

 single night ; and so on, until some really valuable 

 lode was found, such as those of Eureka, Austin, 

 Virginia, etc., which formed the substantial 

 groundwork for a thousand other excitements. 



Passing through the dead town of Schell- 

 boume last month, I asked one of the few lin- 

 gering inhabitants why the town was built. 

 "For the mines," he replied. "And where are 

 the mines?" "On the mountains back here." 



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