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Show 562 WESTERN WILDS. and left a dike a serrated ridge like the Devil's Slide on the Weber. This could seldom, if ever, happen with a mineral- bearing vein. As a rule, not only is the outcrop of such a vein hidden, but the top ore is swept out, and nothing of great valuers- found until we attain some depth. There is but one way, then, of finding out whether our loca-tion amounts to anything : we must dig. When we have scooped out a few cubic yards of rock and earth we then have a " prospect hole," and for a few days in some districts, according to local law we can hold title to it by merely leaving our tools in it when absent. If we find good signs, however, we would better post a NOTICE. We, the undersigned, of the town of Fair Hope, State of Colorado, this tenth day of April, 1882, claim, by right of discovery, one thousand five hundred ( 1500) feet along the course of this ledge or vein of mineral- bearing rock, with all its dips, spurs, angles, and variations, as allowed by law; also one hundred and fifty ( 150) feet of surface ground on each side of the central line of said lode. Made April 10th, 1882. JOSEPH HOPEFUL, LYNN C. D'OYLE. Ten years ago we should have claimed and located two hundred feet along the lode for each person, and " two hundred for discovery;" so we two could have held but six hundred feet. This was a sort of limit, but every district had many local regulations, and in most of the territories prospectors could " locate" as many friends in their claim as they pleased two hundred feet for each by doing work in proportion. Little by little a system grew up out of the original chaos ( see pp. 476- 478) ; the territories first passed general laws, and in 1872 Congress reduced the whole thing to a very clear and able code of mining laws. This granted six hundred feet in width and fifteen hundred in length, but allowed territories to limit the width; and in 1874 Colorado cut it down to three hundred feet. Local laws still determine the amount of work required to hold a claim, and in this matter each district is a law unto itself. For the present our " Notice" gives sufficient title, as we want to dig deeper and see what wr e have. The first excitement is soon passed, and day after day we pick and blast, inward and downward. If we find a crevice, though ever so small and irregular, we dig on, carefully watching the " indications." We may follow a " pinching vein" for rods through the solid rock: sometimes it shrinks to the thinness of a knife blade ; sometimes we see nothing more of it than a mere mineral stain on the wall of our shaft or incline; again it may widen to a few inches, and yet again it |