CHAPTER VI.

A MINING CAMP IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

CONSIDERING its great height, being three thousand feet above the Alpine snow-line, Leadville has a wonderful climate. In the first week in October it was quite hot in the sun, though occasionally in passing corners one was reminded that there are snow-drifts on the encircling belt of hills. In summer it is sometimes even sultry, though the nights are always cool. The town, though it looks dingy and worn-out, is not more than five years old. It is partly built on California Gulch, a famous mining camp of twenty years ago. In 1859 California Gulch was first prospected, and one year the yield of gold was over £600,000 sterling. But it gradually fell away, till in 1866 the diggings did not pay the cost of working, and were abandoned. It was pretty bleak in California Gulch in winter time, and the gold-diggers, finding at hand

a thick consistent kind of mud, used to caulk their cabins with it. After the gold-diggers had gone, a pair of sharp eyes, looking upon this mud, recognized it as carbonate, worth £80 a ton. The tide of miners, which had ebbed with the failure of the gold, set in again with a great rush when this fresh find was made. The discovery of silver was followed by the certain prospect of rich yields of lead.

The miners in their spare time decided to found a town. A meeting was called, at which twenty men put in an appearance, and out of their number they selected a mayor. A lawyer who happened to be around was named recorder, and Leadville was formally added to the list of cities within the United States. To-day the city has a population varying from eighteen thousand to twenty-two thousand - more in winter and fewer in summer, when the miners go forth to prospect. In addition to mayor and recorder, there is now a city council, three daily papers (which give surprisingly little for twopence halfpenny), three banks, two theatres, seven schools, and, as far as I was able to observe, one church. In respect of this last institution I was left very much to personal observation. Some of the citizens from whom I made inquiry doubted the existence of a church.

Others "guessed there was one round about." The schools are amongst the handsomest and most substantial buildings in the place. They are all free, though Leadville has not yet reached the length of compulsory attendance.

Leadville is in no sense a picturesque city, though its situation is unique, embowered as it is amid the loftiest heights of the Rocky Mountains. Being so near the mountains have little of grandeur. The Rockies want distance to make them beautiful. Seen near at hand, they are bare brown rocks, seared and fissured, with a few stunted fir trees growing here and there in sheltered places. Just now the summits are sprinkled with snow, and close at hand are hills whose tops are covered with perpetual snow; but nowhere in the Rocky Mountains is there visible the deep white snow that may be seen in Switzerland at altitudes two or three thousand feet less. Leadville has that striking feature of untidiness common to most American towns-some not having the excuse of recent birth. The streets are never swept, nor the side walks cleaned, whilst the main thoroughfares are only a trifle better than the streets of Chicago.

Outside of Harrison Avenue the houses are mostly wood, some the true log-house.

They stand apart like toy houses. It is marvellous

how some of the giants who work in the mines and lounge about the streets can insert themselves. Being once in, it would appear an easy matter to thrust their feet through the flooring, get a good grip of the back kitchendoor and the front parlour fireplace, and walk off with the structure, as Samson carried off the gates of Gaża.

One of the houses, twelve feet long by ten square, had pasted over the front door a placard which obscured a fifth of the surface, announcing that it was a "Private Boarding House." The daily habit of working in confined spaces in the mine would probably enable a couple of men to adapt themselves to the conveniences of the establishment, but it would be hard work. On the bleak hill-side leading up to Chrysolite Mine several of these wooden boxes are scattered about among the burned stumps of trees and the débris of preserved-meat cans.

It is not an easy matter to see the mines. There is a good deal of jealousy and suspicion abroad, and as there are varying reports of the prosperity of mines it is deemed advisable to keep strangers out, lest peradventure a spy might be entertained unawares. A private introduction secured for us a hearty welcome at the Chrysolite Mine, and Mine, and the fullest

VOL. I.

6

But a silver usages of de

opportunity of inspecting it. mine does not lend itself to scription. It is chiefly dark and frequently wet. The roadways are narrow and heavily timbered, with the object of supporting the roof. Descending by the cage in pitch darkness, we are on reaching the bottom'presented with a candle each, wherewith to explore the recesses of the mine. But the darkness is so thick that a candle or even five candles are of little account in picking your way along an alley where there is sometimes a plank to walk on, and sometimes a stream of water to wade through. The roadways through this mine form an aggregate of seven or eight miles in length. There is no trolly as in English coal mines, but the men know short cuts, which lead them to their work without undue loss of time.

Holding the candles against the rock, the metal can be seen to sparkle; but where the miners have dug out the ore and it is being conveyed in carts to the smelters it is difficult to believe that the yellow or brown earth contains silver or lead. The men work singly or in couples, grubbing away at the dark hard walls by the light of a single candle. The carpenters tread closely on the heels of the miners, shoring up the openings as fast as