SOME INTERESTING CREATURES.
There are in operation, in all, in the vicinity of the Comstock, mills,
the aggregate of whose stamps is over one thousand.
The Consolidated Virginia Company give employment to the following
mills: Consolidated mill, sixty stamps and crushing capacity of 230 tons
per day; Sacramento mill, 50 tons; Mariposa, 12 stamps, 40 tons; Hoosier
State, 18 stamps, 50 tons; Devil’s Gate, 10 stamps, 35 tons; Kelsey, 15
stamps, 45 tons; Bacon, 20 stamps, 50 tons; Occidental, 20 stamps, 50
tons; total, 195 stamps, 600 tons per day. The pay-roll of the men
employed in these mills amounts to $35,000 per month.
At Silver City, about five miles below Virginia City, on Gold Cañon, are
a considerable number of fine mills (some of those mentioned above among
the number) in all of which steam is the motive power. A branch of the
Virginia and Truckee Railroad runs to Silver City and supplies these
mills with ore, wood, and all other articles required. Near the town are
several mines—the Silver Hill, Dayton, Kossuth, Daney, and Buckeye—on
which are in operation first-class hoisting-works, and the southern
continuation of the Comstock is supposed to pass through the ground on
which the village stands. It is already a lively camp, boasts a
tri-weekly newspaper—the Lyon County _Times_—and should the hopes of the
mining-companies now at work in that vicinity be realized, will soon be
one of the leading mining-towns of the State.
On the Carson River are a large number of first-class reduction-works
that are driven by water-power. The Eureka mill, of the Union Mill and
Mining Company, of which company Mr. Sharon is a principal stockholder,
is one of the finest mills on the river. It contains sixty stamps (the
same number as the Consolidated Virginia mill) and is provided with a
proportionate amount of amalgamating-machinery. It is run on ore from
the Belcher mine. It is connected with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad
by a tramway over two miles in length. The Brunswick mill, also on the
river, contains fifty-six stamps and works Crown Point ore. The
Merrimac, Santiago, Morgan, and Mexican mills are all on the Carson
River and receive their supplies of ore over the Virginia and Truckee
Railroad. Some of these mills are very picturesquely situated, being
surrounded by high, rocky hills and having near them, on the bars of the
river, handsome groves of willow and cottonwood trees.
Carson City contains no mills, but the interests of her business men are
identified with those of the mining towns above. The town, which
contains about 8,000 inhabitants, is situated in Eagle Valley, at the
base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and contains many fine buildings,
both public and private. Carson City is the capital of the State. The
capitol building and the United States’ Mint are imposing structures,
built of a handsome grey sandstone obtained at the State Prison quarry,
about one mile east of the town. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad
Company have large machine-shops and other large and substantial
buildings at Carson.
At Carson trees are grown, and about the town are to be seen some very
handsome private grounds. The plaza surrounding the State House, some
ten acres in extent, is inclosed by a handsome wrought-iron fence, the
successful bidder for the construction of which was an enterprising New
England schoolmarm.
Although Carson is an oasis where something in the shape of verdure
refreshes the eye, yet to the eastward, northward, and in all directions
but westward—where the Sierras rise—all the landscape is made up of
brown and sterile hills and mountains capped with piles of grey granite.
These hills are not only barren and dreary in aspect, but are, in fact,
as desolate as they appear. In travelling among the rocky hills and
desert valleys there is apparent an absence of animal life that causes
one to feel very lonely. Out in the great wilds all is silence. Not the
note of a bird is heard—not a bird is seen. Although the wind may be
blowing a gale, nothing is stirred by it, for there is nothing to stir.
It seems strange to feel the force of the wind, yet hear no sound from
it nor see anything moved by it. In these wild regions we find basking
upon the rocks or gambolling over the barren ground great numbers of
lizards. They are seen in great variety, and some of them are very
handsome, being striped in red, yellow, black, white, brown, and many
other colors. Some kinds are over a foot in length. All are very active,
and it is a difficult matter to catch them. Some of the larger kinds
have long and sharp teeth and know how to use them. I have never heard
of anyone being bitten by one of them, but the Mexicans say that the
bite of one variety, which has a black ring round its neck, is fatal.
On one occasion I assisted a gentlemen in catching a dozen or more of
all kinds, the object being to preserve them in alcohol. They were
placed in a sack as caught. On getting home with them, after carrying
them about two miles, it was found that they had torn each other to
ribbons.
A curious little reptile is found everywhere throughout the country,
which is called a horned toad. It grows to be four or five inches in
length and looks like a cross between a lizard and a terrapin. What are
called its horns are nothing more than several diamond-shaped scales
that grow on its head, and which it has the power to erect or depress.
It is of a buff color, sprinkled with spots of dull red. Like the
chameleon, it appears to live on air. Specimens have been kept for
months in glass jars and have never been seen to eat, though flies and
other insects in abundance were furnished them. Persons in Nevada
sometimes send these pets to friends in the Atlantic States through the
mails. They generally go through all right. Scorpions abound among the
loose rock on the sides of the hills. They have a sting in the end of
the tail with which they are very handy. Their sting is very painful,
but not fatal. The antidote is ammonia, taken internally, and rubbed
upon the wound. These unpleasant creatures are from three to five inches
in length, and present much the appearance of a shrimp or a craw-fish.
When the prospector is camped in the hills the scorpion is fond of
crawling down his neck as he lies sleeping on the ground. When objection
is made to this familiarity the scorpion uses his sting.
A few centipedes are found in the country, but they are not very large
or venomous, and are not much boasted of. In the spring of 1875, a lady
residing in Silver City awoke one night to find something crawling about
in her bed, and getting a light discovered it to be a centipede about
eight inches in length. She was stung in two or three places by the
insect, but eventually recovered. In countries further south the
centipede is more dreaded than the rattlesnake.
Tarantulas are abundant in Nevada, but persons are seldom bitten by
them. They are sometimes so large that they stand three inches high when
walking, and their legs and bodies covered with hair as long as that of
a mouse. Their fangs are about the length of those of a rattlesnake, and
the little, round mouth from which they project is blood-red. When the
end of an iron ramrod is presented to them their fangs may be heard to
grate upon it. They make a nest in the ground about four inches in
diameter, which is lined by a fabric, spun by the creature itself, which
is as fine and glossy as white satin. A lid, made of small bits of rock
and soil glued together, covers the entrance to the nest. The under side
of the lid is also lined with the satin-like substance, and is hung on a
hinge of the same. Although the tarantula travels slowly, yet when it
has reached its nest it darts within it and closes the lid so quickly
that the eye can hardly follow its motions. When the lid of the nest has
been closed it is a difficult matter to distinguish it, as its upper
side presents precisely the same appearance as the pebbles and earth
surrounding it. Once it is within its nest the tarantula is able to hold
the lid down and to resist any small force used for the purpose of
raising it. When the lid is raised the creature shrinks back in its nest
and there sits with its malignant little eyes shining like two beads of
jet.
By using great care the nest of the tarantula may be extracted from the
ground, when it is found to be a ball about four inches in diameter
composed of agglutinated pebbles, bits of clay, and other components of
the soil in which it is built. In this shape they are sometimes placed
in cabinets with the tarantula imprisoned within, a thread being tied
over the lid of the nest. A tarantula, however, is not a very desirable
pet. The tarantula has an enemy in a large wasp, of which he stands in
mortal fear. When the tarantula goes out for a quiet stroll this wasp
frequently finds him, and if he is more than a few feet away from his
nest he never reaches it.
As vultures appear to drop out of the sky when an animal has fallen dead
in the desert, so this wasp, the deadly enemy of the tarantula, comes
upon the scene. Straight as an arrow from the bow, and as swift as
light, he comes from the upper air and pierces the tarantula through the
body. The tarantula turns upon his back and in mortal terror claws the
air, but the wasp has disappeared—can nowhere be seen. After watching
for a time, with his legs in the air, the tarantula gets upon his feet
and travels at his best pace for his nest. Almost instantly there is a
whiz, and the wasp has given him another thrust—perhaps two stabs, as he
is quick as lightning.
Although I have called the enemy of the tarantula a wasp, it is not a
wasp, though looking much like one. The lance which it thrusts into the
tarantula is not a sting, but an ovapositor, and at each stab an egg is
deposited in the body of the tarantula. All this appears to be well
understood by the tarantula himself and from the time the first egg has
been planted in his back he seems to feel that his days are numbered; as
the egg will soon hatch a grub—a worm—that will devour his vitals. At
each encounter the tarantula throws himself upon his back and tries to
fend off or to grasp his antagonist with his claws, but the wasp
patiently waits somewhere high in the air, till he gets upon his feet,
then darts down and pierces him with his lance. The tarantula soon grows
weak, and then the wasp thrusts into his body half a dozen eggs at each
visit. Soon the tarantula is unable to move and after a few stabs is
quite dead. The wasp then digs a hole in the ground two or three inches
in depth, crams the dead tarantula down to the bottom of it, and then
closes it up. When the eggs of the wasp hatch, the young grubs find
their food at hand in the body of the dead tarantula.
Another agreeable insect found in the hills of Nevada is an ant that is
armed with a sting. It is black in color, and has a few scattering
orange-colored hairs on its back. It is seldom seen, and appears to lead
even a more solitary and secluded life than does the tarantula.
[Illustration: decoration]
[Illustration: JOHN McKEY.]