eled in Norway, Jansen was enthusiastic in his devotion to my enjoyment-declared he would go down with me himself and show me every thing worth seeing-even to the lower level just opened. While I was attempting to frame an excuse the honest Norwegian had lighted a couple of candles, given directions to one of the "boys" to look out for the old blind horse at tached to the whim, and now stood ready at the mouth of the shaft to guide me into the subterranean regions.

"Mr. Jansen," said I, looking with horror at the rickety wooden bucket and the flimsy little rope that was to hold us suspended between the surface of the earth and eternity, "is that rope strong?"

"Well, I think it's strong enough to hold us," replied Jansen; "it carries a ton of ore. We don't weigh a ton, I guess."

"But the bucket looks fearfully battered. And who can vouch that the old horse won't run away and let us down by the run?"

"Oh, Sir, he's used to it. That horse never runs. You see he's fast asleep now. He sleeps all along on the down turn. It's the up turn that gets him."

"Mr. Jansen," said I, "all that may be very true; but suppose the bucket should catch and drop us out ?"

"Well, sometimes it catches; but nobody's been hurt bad yet: one man fell fifteen feet perpendicular. He lit on the top of his head." "Wasn't he killed?"

"No: he was only stunned a little. There was a buzzin' about among his brains for a few days after; he's at work down below now as well as ever."

"Mr. Jansen, upon the whole I think I'd rather go down by the ladder, if it's all the same to you."

"Certainly, Sir, suit yourself; only the ladder's sort o' broke in spots, and you'll find it a tolerably hard climb down; hows'ever I'll go ahead and sing out when I come to the bad places."

I

breaks in the ladder; perhaps his voice was split up by the rocks and sounded like many voices; or it might be that there were gnomes whisking about in the dark depths below. Down and still down I crept; slower and slower, for I was getting tired, and I fancied there might be poisonous gases in the air. When I had reached to the depth of a thousand feet, as it seemed, but about a hundred and forty as it was in reality, the thought occurred to me that I was beginning to get alarmed. In truth I was shaking like a man with an ague. Suppose I should become nervous and lose my grip on the ladder? The very idea was enough to make me shaky. There was an indefinite extent of shaft underneath; black, narrow, and scraggy, with a solid base of rock at the bottom. I did not wonder that it caused a buzzing of the brain to fall fifteen feet and light on the top of the head. My brain was buzzing already, and I had not fallen yet. But the prospect to that effect was getting better and better every moment, for I was now quite out of breath, and had to stop and cling around the ladder to avoid falling. The longer I stood this way the more certain it became that sooner or later I would lose my presence of mind and topple over. With a desperate effort I proceeded, step after step, clinging to the frail wood-work as the drowning man clings to a straw, gasping for breath; the cold sweat streaming down my face, and my jaws chattering audibly. The breaks in the ladders were getting fearfully common. Sometimes I found two rungs gone, sometimes six or seven; and then I had to slide down by the sides till my feet found a resting-place on another rung or some casual ledge of rock. To Jansen, or the miners who worked down in the shaft every day, all this of course was mere pastime. They knew every break and restingplace; and besides, familiarity with any particular kind of danger blunts the sense of it. I am confident I could make the same trip again without experiencing any unpleasant sensation. By good fortune I at length reached the bottom of the shaft, where I found my Norwegian friend and some three or four workmen quietly awaiting my arrival. A bucket of ore, containing some five or six hundred pounds, was ready to be hoisted up. It was very nice-looking ore, and very rich ore, as Jansen assured me; but what did I care about ore till I got the breath back again into my body?

me.

might fall out, or the bucket might give way."

Stand from under? Where in the name of sense was a man to stand in such a hole as this, not more than six or eight feet at the base, with a few dark chasms in the neighborhood through which it was quite possible to be precipitated into the infernal regions. However, I stood as close to the wall as it was possible without backing clean into it. The bucket of ore having gone up out of sight, I was now introduced to the ledge upon which the men were at work. It

A beautiful sight down in this region was worth looking at, so I succumbed. Jansen lifted up the planks: told the men to cover us well up as soon as we had disappeared, in order to keep the ore from the upper shaft from tumbling on our heads; and then, diving down, politely requested me to follow. I had barely descended a few steps when the massive planks and rafters were thrown across overhead, and thus all exit to the outer world was cut off. There was an oppressive sensation in being so completely isolated-barred out, as it were, from the surface of the earth. Yet how many there are who spend half their lives in such places for a pittance of wages which they squander in dissipation! Surely it is worth four dollars a day to I work in these dismal holes.

Bracing my nerves with such thoughts as these, I scrambled down the rickety ladders till the last rung seemed to have disappeared. I probed about with a spare leg for a landingplace, but could touch neither top, bottom, nor sides. The ladder was apparently suspended in space like Mohammed's coffin.

"Come on, Sir," cried the voice of Jansen far down below. 66 They're agoing to blast!"

STAND FROM UNDER!

In

was about four feet thick, clearly defined, and apparently rich in the precious metals. some specimens which I took out myself gold was visible to the naked eye. The indications of silver were also well marked. This was at a depth of a hundred and seventy-five feet. At the bottom of this shaft there was a loose flooring of rafters and planks.

"If you like, Sir," said Jansen, "we'll go down here and take a look at the lower drift. They've just struck the ledge about forty feet below."

"Are the ladders as good as those above, Mr. Jansen?" I inquired.

"Oh yes, Sir; they're all good, some of the lower ones may be busted a little with the blastin'; but there's two men down there. Guess they got down somehow."

"To tell you the truth, Mr. Jansen, I'm not curious about the lower drift. You can show me some specimens of the ore-that will be perfectly satisfactory."

"Yes, Sir, but I'd like you to see the vein where the drift strikes it. It's really beantiful."

COME ON, SIR."

ing to the estimates of Baron Humboldt and| Mr. Ward, yielded for a series of years, during a period of high prosperity, an average of fiftytwo dollars to the ton. It is the certainty and abundance of the precious metals, and the facility with which the ore is obtained, that constitute the true criterion of excellence and give permanent value to the mine.

The history of some of the Washoe mines, which have yielded extraordinary results under a heavy pressure of expense and labor, and which are now suffering a depression resulting from exhaustion of the upper strata, presents the most striking examples of this fact. Had the inferior ores been properly economized, and the mines worked with a view to the future, stockholders in these mines would now have no cause to regret their investments. I do not wish to be understood as advancing the idea that the Comstock ledge is exhausted or likely to be; for I have always regarded it, and do still, as the richest silver lode yet discovered in our mineral territories. But I think the world can present no such example as we find in the history of that ledge, of mismanagement, extravagance, and fraud. It would almost seem, indeed, as if the American people, owing to some inherent characteristic-an impatient, speculative, prodigal spirit, perhaps were incapable of conducting the business of mining upon any principle of reason, honesty, or common sense. Why is it, otherwise, that, with the richest mines in the world-with untiring enterprise, inventive genius of the highest order, a larger average of intelligence than any other people possess, we have never yet made mining a permanently profitable business to all concerned? The truth is, we are too impatient and too exacting, and expect to make fortunes as we live-by telegraphic speed. We must tear out the entrails of the earth by novel and expeditious applications of steam, and turn our capital by galvanic speculations, or give it up in disgust.

MINING AT BODIE.

Now it is a well demonstrated fact that the best paying mines are not those which yield the richest specimens of ores. The silver lodes on Reese River have yielded higher results, in exceptional cases, than those of Washoe, yet there is nothing there that can bear comparison with the Comstock.

The Allison Ranch, in California, I have been informed, has made its largest annual profits on ores varying from eight to twelve dollars to the ton; and it has been estimated that if the principal mines in Mariposa could be depended upon for a sufficiency of ores worth ten dollars a ton to keep the mills in active operation the results would be satisfactory.

Specimen ores that assay from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars per ton can be obtained from almost any quartz ledge in Nevada. No reliable calculation can be based upon these exceptional proofs of value. Every thing depends upon the extent and definite character of the veins and the equable diffusion of the precious metals. The difficulty in most cases where these rich pockets exist is, that they are isolated, or only to be found at remote intervals. It usually costs more to get at them than they are worth.

In justice to the Bodie mines, it must be admitted that they are at least free from this objection. None of the ores are especially rich, but the precious metals are diffused throughout the veins with great regularity. I made a calculation of the results that ought to be obtained from one thousand tons of ore taken from one of these lodes, assuming the usual cubic measurement, and found that it tallied exactly with the yield as subsequently obtained.

There are several companies engaged in working the principal veins that extend through Bodie Bluff. Among these the largest interests are held by the "Empire Gold and Silver Mining Company of New York," whose possessions commence at the face of the Bluff and run a thou

INTERIOR OF THE BODIE BUNKER.

sand feet along each ledge. The limits are strictly defined, and no litigation has yet taken place, or is likely to occur, inasmuch as the claims of each Company are duly surveyed and recorded, the boundaries accurately laid down, and every precaution taken to prevent those contentions which have proved the ruin of so many rich mineral districts in Nevada.

The "Bodie Bunker and High Peak Tunnel and Mining Company" hold the principal mines adjoining those of the Empire. The character of the veins and quality of the ores owned by this Company are essentially the same as those already described, showing a direct continuation of the ledges from the first point at which they crop out. I made a subterranean tour through the Bodie Bunker and Consolidated Mines belonging to this Company, and was very favorably impressed by the general indications of permanency and mineral wealth. Three thousand tons of the ores from the Bunker, taken out on contract by a Mr. Luffkin, yielded an average of $42 to the ton, and paid him a handsome profit upon his contract.

In all the mines which I visited within the limits of Bodie Bluff I found the veins of nearly uniform thickness-that is to say, varying from two to five feet in gold and silver bearing quartz, with clear and well-defined walls and casings. The work done upon them is of a very rude and imperfect character, the main object having been apparently to get as much out of them with as little expense as possible, and without regard to the permanent development of the mines. I was especially impressed with the fact that there appeared to be none of those subterranean "horses," which miners find so stubborn to move and so difficult to get over or under. Each vein retains its distinctive character all the way as far as the excavations extend. The best ores have been taken out at a depth of a hundred and seventy-five feet and upward. If the undiminished width and value of the ledges at that depth can be regarded as an indication of permanency I think there can

be no question on that point. Still I should be very sorry to make any statement which might mislead the public or fail to be borne out in the future. The experience of Nevada and California, so far, has shown that no human foresight can penetrate the earth and tell with certainty what lies within its hidden recesses. Geological science has been so often at fault that mere reasoning from such data as an unlearned tourist like myself can pick up in the course of his travels can scarcely be entitled to greater weight. The fact, however, that most of the leading mines in Virginia City, after a period of doubt and depression, are now striking good ores at a depth of four hundred feet and upward would seem to augur favorably in regard to all other mineral lodes in the Territory.

Up to the period of my visit (in September) the ores taken from this district were subject to an expense of eight dollars per ton for hauling, and twenty dollars a ton for working at the Aurora Mills. Yet with these heavy deductions, and the additional cost of labor in the mines, private parties made handsome profits by working the mines under contract and having the ores reduced on their own account.

In addition to the quartz ledges there are placer diggings in the Bodie range, which have yielded during ordinary seasons of rain as high as sixteen to twenty dollars a day to the hand. In fact, the "color of gold," as the miners say, can be obtained from the surface dirt taken at random from any part of the hill. These diggings, so far as known, extend over an area of several miles, and can not fail to assume a permanent value as soon as sufficient capital is introduced to supply water from the adjacent valley of Cottonwood Creek.

In respect to the article of provisions, the proximity of the Big Meadows, Mono Lake, and Walker's Valley, where vegetable products of all kinds are now abundantly raised, is a great advantage to this district. Until within a year or two miners suffered much from the want of vegetables; scurvy was a common disease; but during the past summer the supply has been quite equal to the demand. Farms are being located and cultivated in all the adjacent valleys, where the altitude is not too great for agricultural purposes; and it is found that the land, though apparently barren, is extraordinarily rich, owing to deposits of fertilizing matter from the surrounding mountains. Of course every thing which has a tendency to reduce the cost of living must reduce the cost of mining in this country-a very important consideration. No mines, however rich, can be profitably worked for any great length of time where the wages for ordinary labor are four dollars a day. Ores worth fifteen to twenty dollars a ton are necessarily cast aside, and only such as yield over thirty or forty dollars can be made to pay. There is always more poor ore in every mining district than rich; hence the preponderance of wealth is lost where the inferior ores can not be made available.