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Show MINING IN SAN JUAN. 201 "Bringing up the rear was the son of a wealthy Cleveland merchant, who had received twenty thousand dollars from bis father, and invested it in that speculation- lost it, of course. He was a graceful, handsome fellow, and as he approached me, his face wreathed in smiles, I said: ' You seem happy over your misfortune.' ' Well,' said he, ' I can't help laughing when I think of what a d d good thing we would have had if we had only struck it.' "Speaking of the first rush to the San Juan country," said Mr. Cy. Hall, " I was at that time mining in California Gulch, but when I heard of the new discovery I grew dissatisfied with my 'pannings out,' and became restless for richer diggings. Distance lends a power of enchantment to a miner. He is always ready to follow any will o' wisp that happens to present an attractive story of rich mines found in some inaccessible country. It would be wasting breath to say,' stay where you are,' for they won't do it. I know how it is. I've been there. I was doing well enough in California Gulch, but I heard such a world of talk tiiat I clubbed in with some boys and followed the last excitement. " Arriving at a point within a mile of where Durango now stands, we laid out a town, built seventy-five houses, and in a few weeks there were five hundred people there. " Snow fell from three to four feet all over the country, and didn't melt an inch the whole winter. " Many of us went there with our pockets full of glittering dust, but we all had to face starvation. We ate the oxen that carried us over, and even the entrails that had lain in the sun for days; lived on bullrushes for |
