Crusoe's island . veinwas entitled to 400 funning feet; he could put downthe names of as many friends as he chose at 200 feeteach. Notice had to be recorded at certain places ofrecord, designating the date and location of leads were taken up with their dips, spurs, and an-gles. But who was to judge of the dips, spurs, andangles ? That was the difficulty. Every man ran themto suit himself. The Comstock Ledge was in a mess ofconfusion. The shareholders had the most enlargedviews of its dips, spurs, and angles; but those whostruck croppings above and below were equally liberalin the
Crusoe's island . veinwas entitled to 400 funning feet; he could put downthe names of as many friends as he chose at 200 feeteach. Notice had to be recorded at certain places ofrecord, designating the date and location of leads were taken up with their dips, spurs, and an-gles. But who was to judge of the dips, spurs, andangles ? That was the difficulty. Every man ran themto suit himself. The Comstock Ledge was in a mess ofconfusion. The shareholders had the most enlargedviews of its dips, spurs, and angles; but those whostruck croppings above and below were equally liberalin their notions ; so that, in fine, every bodys spurs wererunning into every body elses angles. The Cedar HillCompany were spurring the Miller Company; the Vir-ginia Ledge was spurring the Continuation; the DowCompany were spurring the Billy Choller, and so on. It >was a free fight all round, in which the dips, spurs, and A PEEP AT WASHOE. 389 angles might be represented thus, after the pattern of abunch of snakes:. The contention was very lively. Great hopes wereentertained that when Judge Cradlebaugh arrived hewould hold court, and then there would be some hopeof settling these conflicting claims. I must confess Idid not share in the opinion that law would settle anydispute in which silver was concerned. The Almaden 890 A PEEP AT WASHOE. Mine case is not yet settled, and never will be as long asthere are judges and juries to sit upon it, and lawyers toargue it, and silver to pay expenses. Already VirginiaCity was infested with gentlemen of the bar, thirstingand hungering for chances at the Comstock. If it couldonly be brought into court, what a picking of bones therewould be! When the snow began to clear away there was no endto the discoveries alleged to be made every day. TheFlowery Diggings, six miles below Virginia, were repre-sented to be wonderfully rich—so rich, indeed, that thelanguage of every speculator who held a claim therepartook of the flowery character of the di
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