Crusoe's island . men in the assay businesscould have detected the precious metals in an Irish pota-to or a round of cheese for a reasonable consideration. It was also a remarkable peculiarity of the countrythat the great Comstock Lead was discovered to existin almost every locality, however remote or divergentfrom the original direction of the vein. I know a gentle-man who certainly discovered a continuation of the Com-stock forty miles from the Ophir mines, and at an angleof more than sixty degrees. But how could the enter-prising adventurer fail to hit upon something rich, whenevery clod of
Crusoe's island . men in the assay businesscould have detected the precious metals in an Irish pota-to or a round of cheese for a reasonable consideration. It was also a remarkable peculiarity of the countrythat the great Comstock Lead was discovered to existin almost every locality, however remote or divergentfrom the original direction of the vein. I know a gentle-man who certainly discovered a continuation of the Com-stock forty miles from the Ophir mines, and at an angleof more than sixty degrees. But how could the enter-prising adventurer fail to hit upon something rich, whenevery clod of earth and fragment of rock contained, ac-cording to the assays, both silver and gold ? There wasnot a coyote hole in the ground that did not develop•indications. I heard of one lucky fellow who struckupon a, rich vein, and organized an extensive companyon the strength of having stumped his toe. Claims wereeven staked out and companies organized on indica-tions rooted up by the squirrels and gophers. If they ill. INDICATIONS, 8UBE1 R2 394 A PEEP AT WASHOE. were not always indications of gold or silver, they weresure to contain copper, lead, or some other valuable min-eral—plumbago or iridium, for instance. One man act-ually professed to have discovered ambergris; but Ithink he must have been an old whaler. The complications of ills which had befallen me soonbecame so serious that I resolved to get away by hook or crook, if it was possible to cheat the corporate authorities of their dues. I had not come there to enlistin the service of Mammon at such wages. Bundling up my pack one dark morning, I paid Zipthe customary dollar, and while the evil powers wereroistering about the grog-shops, taking their early bit-ters, made good my escape from the accursed as I was, the hope of never seeing it again gaveme nerve; and when I ascended the first elevation onthe way to Gold Hill, and cast a look back over the con-fused mass of tents and hovels, and thought of all I hadsu
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