[Illustration: Working a claim.]
Pioneer mining life--what was it? The miner must have an outfit of a
pick, pan, shovel, rocker, dipper and bucket of wood, or of rawhide. A
tent was good to have, but he could make shift during the dry season
with a substitute of boughs, for there was no fear of rain from May
to October. A blanket of rubber spread on a stratum of leaves, on
which his woolen blankets were laid, sufficed for a bed. His culinary
utensils were confined to a frying-pan, a small iron pot, tin cups
and plates, knife, fork, and spoon. His wardrobe consisted generally
of a pair of serviceable shirts, a change of trousers, strong boots
and a slouch-hat. With these, and a supply of bacon, flour, salt,
saleratus, beans, a few candles and occasionally fresh beef, the
miner was ready for work. His luxuries were tea and raw sugar, with
occasionally the addition of dried peaches from Chili. His bread was
made by mixing flour, water, and saleratus in the tin or iron pan which
did double duty in the kitchen and in gathering gold, and baking it
about two inches thick, like a shortcake. But slapjacks, the legitimate
successors of the Mexican tortillas, were also a standard article of
diet. Tin teapots were sometimes affected, but the small iron pot with
a hollow handle did duty for both tea and beans or frijoles. The latter
were of a brown variety grown in Chili, and were prepared after the
Mexican style with a piece of bacon or fresh beef and plenty of chili
colorado, or red pepper. They were allowed to cook a long time, often
standing in the hot embers over night to be ready for breakfast in the
morning. The bill-of-fare did not vary much for breakfast, dinner and
supper.
[Illustration]
The most expensive instrument of the early miner was the rocker,
which, though simple in construction, cost in the mines from fifty to
a hundred dollars. In general appearance it was not unlike a baby's
cradle as used by our grandmothers and as still seen on the frontier.
It consisted of a flat bottom with two sides that flared outward, and
an end board at the head, while the foot was open save a riffle about
an inch and a half high at the bottom to catch the gold that might pass
another riffle across the bottom near the middle. At the head of the
cradle was a hopper about eighteen inches square, with a perforated
sheet-iron bottom or wire screen. Under this was an apron, or board,
sloping downward towards the head. Two substantial rockers under the
whole completed the simple machine which gave to the world millions of
dollars. The _modus operandi_ may be described as follows: Two sticks
of wood hewn on the upper side were imbedded at the river's brink, one
four inches lower than the other, on which the rockers were to rest,
thus securing a grade in the machine to facilitate the outward flow of
the water and sand. Two miners usually worked together as partners.
One shoveled the earth into the rocker, while the other, seated on a
boulder or block of wood, dipped the water from the river, and poured
it upon the earth in the hopper with one hand, all the time rocking
with the other. When the earth was thoroughly washed, he rose, lifted
the hopper from its place, threw out the stones and gravel, replaced
it, and thus the work went on. As the ground about the rocker became
exhausted to the bed-rock, recourse was had to the bucket, and the
earth was carried sometimes a few rods, making laborious work for the
miner. To keep the rocker going another hand would be employed to
carry earth, and each would carry two buckets at a time. I was in many
camps down to 1854, and in none did I ever know of a theft of gold,
and I heard of but one, and that was punished by a cat-o'-nine-tails,
which was afterward nailed to the center-post of a trader's tent, as a
warning to evil-doers.
[Illustration: Surface sluicing.]
The gold taken from the river bars was mostly in the form of scales
resembling cucumber seeds, and of varying size. It was most plentiful
on the bed-rock and in a few inches of soil above it, though sometimes
three or four feet of earth would pay to wash. Where the bed-rock was
hard the miner cleaned it, for a shovelful of dirt might contain a
few dollars in small particles. Where the bed-rock was soft shale or
slate on edge the miner picked away an inch or so and washed it, as
frequently the scales were found to be driven quite thickly into the
crevices. When the ground was very rich the rocker was cleaned of
gold every hour or two. When work was over, around the supper fire
the events of the day were discussed, earnings compared, reports made
of grizzly bears or deer being seen or killed, of better diggings
of "coarse gold" discovered. This was the hour for speculations as
to the origin of the gold in the rivers, and a strong opinion was
entertained by many who were not well-read that immense masses of the
precious metal would some day be brought to light in the snow-capped
peaks towering to the east. "Coarse gold" was a charm to the ear of
the ordinary miner. His claim might be paying him an ounce a day in
fine gold, but he was always interested in some reported diggings
far away where the product was in lumps, and not infrequently he
left a good mine to seek some richer El Dorado. The characteristic
and besetting fault of the early miner was unrest. He was forever
seeking better fortune. Yet it was this passion for prospecting that
resulted in the discovery of gold in an incredibly short time from
the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley to the northern limit of
the State. To "prospect" was to find a spot that looked favorable and
make an examination of it. The miner would take a pan of earth, shake
and gyrate it under water, raising and tipping it frequently to run
the dirt and water off, then plunge it again, and so continue until a
small residuum of black sand and gold remained. A speck of gold was
the "color," several specks were "several colors," and the number and
size determined the judgment of the miner whether he should go to work
or move on. I have seen ounces taken in this way in a single pan, but
in the earlier days we counted a "bit" to the pan, twelve and a half
cents, a fair prospect.
[Illustration]
The average gain of the miner in those days can never be known. Though
he was extraordinarily frank and confiding in the offhand conversations
about the camp-fire, yet there is reason to believe that his largest
receipts were sometimes not reported. My observation was that the
industrious worker rarely brought to his supper less than ten dollars,
often an ounce (reckoned at sixteen dollars), and sometimes six ounces,
or even more. I myself took from the earth nearly one hundred and fifty
ounces in seventeen successive working days. My largest clean-up was
$224. One day, in less than half an hour, I took with my knife from a
crevice in the rocks six and a half ounces of gold. When the river went
down after it had been swollen by the first rains and had swept over
the bed-rock of bars supposed to be worked out, hundreds of glittering
scales were left exposed, affording pleasant picking for a day or two.
Mining is one of the most fascinating and exciting of employments.
But in the earlier days, when we knew less about genuine indications,
mining was, more than now, a species of gambling. The effects are yet
to be seen in hundreds of men still living near their old haunts, who,
in common phrase, have "lost their grip"; others live in our memories
who, after repeated disappointment, sleep on the mountain sides in
nameless graves. Yet these same unfortunates did their part in giving
to the world thousands of millions of dollars, thus stimulating
progress probably more than was ever known in any other epoch of
similar length in the history of mankind.
The early miner has never been truly painted. I protest against the
flippant style and eccentric rhetoric of those writers who have made
him a terror, or who, seizing upon a sporadic case of extreme oddity,
some drunken, brawling wretch, have given a caricature to the world as
the typical miner. The so-called literature that treats of the golden
era is too extravagant in this direction. In all my personal experience
in mining-camps from 1849 to 1854 there was not a case of bloodshed,
robbery, theft or actual violence. I doubt if a more orderly society
was ever known. How could it be otherwise? The pioneers were young,
ardent, uncorrupted, most of them well educated and from the best
families in the East. The early miner was ambitious, energetic, and
enterprising. No undertaking was too great to daunt him. The pluck
and resources exhibited by him in attempting mighty projects with
nothing but his courage and his brawny arms to carry them out was
phenomenal. His generosity was profuse and his sympathy active, knowing
no distinction of race. His sentiment that justice is sacred was never
dulled. His services were at command to settle differences peaceably,
or with pistol in hand to right a grievous wrong to a stranger. His
capacity for self-government never has been surpassed. Of a glorious
epoch, he was of a glorious race.
[Illustration]