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Show MINING FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES. 573 here; and if you don't like it, there is no law against your staying in Indiana. As soon as light was sufficient we departed from Bayles's Ranche, and soon were in the midst of scenery so grand that we lost all sense of danger, though the abrupt turns, sharp precipices, and yawning chasms along the way were enough to shake the firmest nerves. Many a time it seemed to me the coach horses were taking us at full run over a precipice, into a chasm of unknown depth; but just at the right moment the driver dropped his weight upon the ' brake, the vehicle " slowed," a turn opened to right or left, and we glided gracefully around a jutting corner of rock, into a broad gallery, and then down, down, down along the winding dug- way to the stream Avhich we had left, it might be hours before, to toil up the mountain. At last, at 9 p. M., we reached Leadville to find the whole city illuminated. It was not in honor of anybody, however, but to thaw the ground for digging to lay water- pipes. We then learned that the ground in this remark-able city freezes almost every night in the year. They had piled long winrows of wood in the street, set it on fire, and dug a ditch for the water- pipes under the bed of hot embers ! And this they would have had to do in any month in the year, except possibly July and August. With this startling information we tumbled into Blanket Bay and for ten hours slept the sleep of the just and weary. Enjoyed it none the less though the small room contained fourteen beds filled with other weary pilgrims. February 20th, awoke with strange sensations: giddiness, head too big entirely, and limbs rather slow in obeying the motions of the will. First attempt to run about town proved a total failure, for a painful fluttering in the temple and tremor about the heart warned me to go slow. Nor did those symptoms leave me entirely for a week. Leadville is ten thousand two hundred feet above the sea, and the pilgrim should be in no hurry about exercise. Fortunately the tendency to rest is generally too strong to be resisted; laziness be-comes a virtue, and one can sleep half the time and lounge the other half. But when I got my mountain legs on the days were too short to view the novelties. My first climb was to the Little Pittsburg Mine, of which one- fourth had just been sold for $ 262,500. The lucky seller was a poor man a year before, but on receipt of his cash he proceeded immediately to Silver Cliff and reinvested it so he may be a poor man again in due time. The Little Pittsburg was said to be producing $ 10,000 a day when in full work. Day after day I gained in lung power, and climbed to higher mines |