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Show BRECKENRIDGE. 181 idly. This was the first dead town we had seen, and we thought it a rather attractive corpse. The mountain sides were all aglow with rainbow tinted flowers, and it seemed that we were being literally " carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease." At Boreas, the summit, the train stopped long enough for us to gather bouquets, and look down the valley of the Blue river, over which nature has thrown a beautiful blue mist, like a veil-the effect was enchanting. In our scramble for flowers I thought of Linnaeus, of whom it is said, that whenever he discovered a new flower he thanked heaven for the sight. While arranging our flowers George T. Clark, a " barnacle," found our party. He was on his way to Breckenridge to look after some mining property, which brought up the subject of gold and prospecting. " Gold was first discovered in Breckenridge in a very singular way," said he. "An adventurous prospector started out alone. After crossing the range he found the snow on the Pacific slope was from thirty to forty feet deep, and covered with a thin crust of ice. He proceeded very cautiously, but lost his footing and began to slide at a hair-lifting speed. Not being provided with snow shoes the toe of his boot plunged into the ice and he shot right through the snow. After a slide of two miles his heel struck the earth, and kicked up a great lump of gold." I have known Mr. Clark a long time; he is a gifted story-teller of the Baron Munchausen order. I thanked him for the story, however, for it prompted me to inquire into the matter, and I found that gold was first discovered on the Blue, near where Breckenridge now stands, in the summer of 1859, by Mr. William Iliff. Since that |