overhanging rock; doubling up and twisting around corners; the piles of ore, more or less valuable, that I stumbled over in striving to catch up with my learned friend; the color of the veins that dazzled my vision under the inspiration of his disquisitions on the feldspathic and hornblendic; the prodigious quantity of something in that line that darkened the highways and byways must remain at the present writing a profound secret. A memorable tour that was. Never in this world can I forget the Ophir! Once when I was at the bottom creeping through the bowels of the earth, some cars laden with ore came rumbling along. "Stand aside, gents!" cried somebody, and I tried to stand aside. But who in the world can stand aside when there is scarcely foot-room for a goat? Here was a passage about five feet wide, at least three of which was taken up by the railway and cars, and the rest by heavy timbers. I hugged a dark, wet wall; it was not near so comfortable as other substances I have hugged in my day. The cars scraped by; my bones were not crushed, and that was just all. Pleasant place that for a promenade! To be rolled out, squashed, or cut in segments may be a very trifling contingency to scientific gentlemen and experts; but I prefer the contemplation of the heavenly bodies from the surface of the earth. I really can not remember how many dismal passages we went through. We explored the sixth story, the fifth, and several others, which had the same general aspect of mud and mineral. In one shaft the workmen above were pitching down loose earth and rocks to be run out through a tunnel. This we climbed by means of a very long ladder. It was good exercise for body and mind. The ore came tumbling down more or less all the time, and I had faint hopes some large mass would not fall on my head before I reached the top and carry me to the bottom. The accidents that occur in this way are numerous. Recently two miners, ascending a shaft in one of the VOL. XXXI.-No. 182.-L mines, were struck by a dog and crushed to atoms. They were 175 feet from the bottom, and were going up in a tub. The dog tripped in attempting to run across the mouth of the shaft, and struck them at a distance of over 100 feet from the surface, carrying all before him. In another place we enjoyed a view of the wreck caused by the caving in of the Mexican. Here, to be sure, was a crush of matter! Timbers shivered and wrenched to splinters; rocks and masses of carth tumbled into chaos! Even where we stood the massive beams that supported the tunnel were imbedded in each other by the tremendous weight of the mass above, which never ceases to bear down upon them. It appeared to me that it settled as I gazed upon it. Beams of timber eighteen inches square seemed to offer but a feeble resistance to such a crushing weight. That this whole tunnel must cave in sooner or later is my deliberate conviction. Miners, like sailors, grow to be indifferent to danger. When the Mexican caved in there was a concussion of air in the Ophir that knocked down several of the workmen. One man, in the confusion of the moment, rushed frantically through "STAND ASIDE, GENTS." the falling mass of earth and timber, and, strange to say, escaped with a few scratches and bruises. He must have passed through 100 feet of this chaotic mass. The spot was pointed out to me, and I must say had my informant not been a scientific gentleman, given to mathematical demonstrations, I must have doubted the story. Timbers, rocks, and earth are crushed together in one vast conglomerate of rubbish. It is scarcely conceivable that even a rat could creep through it; yet this man escaped, and is now boring into more earth for a living. Having seen all the wonders of the Ophir, I was kindly permitted to select three modes of reaching the upper crust of the world: to climb up the ladders again, or be dragged up the "incline" by a steam- engine; or be hoisted up a shaft in a wooden bucket by means of a hand-windlass. The ladders I had already enjoyed; the incline I did not incline to, from a vague notion that the machinery might keep on turning after I got to the top and drag me into it, or snap the rope and send me whizzing to the bottom again; so I elected to be hoisted out by the handwindlass. Dispensing with the bucket, I put my foot in a noose of the rope; was hoisted away; bobbed against the sides of the shaft; scraped through a trap-door, and deposited on the landing-place. It was an interesting tour, and I was thankful to my friends, but more thankful still to Providence when I breathed once more the fresh air and enjoyed the pleasant sunshine of the outer world. Every city has its chronic nightmare, whether in the shape of flood, fire, earthquake, or pestilence. Every community is, or deems itself liable to some special calamity. The citizens of Virginia are troubled with a one-ledge the CAVE-IN OF THE MEXICAN. ory. It is the nightmare of property-ownersthe special calamity that threatens ruin to the speculators in Wild Cat. Naturally enough it is unpopular among the masses. No man who aspires to public honors can by any possibility succeed on the one-ledge theory. He must believe in a multiplicity of ledges; he must be sound on the Comstock as a basis, and sound on the great family of ledges supposed to exist in its neighborhood. The owner of feet in the Comstock can afford to be a one-ledge man, provided he has been successful in quieting the rival claims of squatters who have dipped into his and diabolical. Nevertheless, although there are few so daring as to violate the general sentiment on this subject, the question, with the vi springing up as much alive as ever, and can't be burned or flooded out either by fires of invective or oceans of vituperation. spurs; but he is interested in the prosperity of the city, and therefore will best consult his interests by being a many-ledged man. The editor of a newspaper may have doubts on the sub-tality of a seven-headed dragon, is continually ject-if editors ever have doubts on any subject-but he can have no doubt about the policy of retaining his subscribers and his advertising patronage. The more ledges the more companies, and the more companies the more notices of assessments. Hence it is the interest of the majority to put down and demolish the one-ledge theory; and hence it is popularly considered absurd, anti-democratic, monstrous, As an interesting feature in human nature, I may be permitted to say that, in general, you may determine a man's status by his views on this subject. Original owners in Comstock are oneledgers by nature and instinct whatever they may be by policy. Owners of outside claims, terest. WHAT'S THE MATTER? proprietors of building sites, merchants, shopkeepers, traders, and speculators are manyledgers under the all-powerful stimulus of inFor myself, I have my private views, but my public sentiments assimilate with those of the many-ledgers. It is the best policy for a man who doesn't own a foot in a single ledge. If the mines in Mexico and South America are confined to one well-defined vein, as geologists contend, what does that prove? Simply that nature adopts certain specific laws in Mexico and South America. If trees grow there with their branches and fruits in the air, is it any reason why trees should not grow in Washoe with their branches and fruits in the ground? Silver mines in Mexico and South America may have one way of doing things, and silver mines in Washoe another. I am disposed to go it strong, therefore, on the many-ledge theory. I believe there are many ledges in Washoe. At all events there are many companies based upon ledges. This complication of adverse interests gives rise to endless litigation. The records of the courts are crowded with suits, and every suit breeds another brood of suits. The halls of jus Two tice are crammed with litigants. Companies are pitted against companies, and individuals against individuals. Uncle Sam, who owns all the mines, magnanimously stands aloof and enjoys the fight over his own property. The whole district is racked with litigation. It is sapping the vitals of the community. There is money enough spent in law to build the Pacific Railroad. The whole trouble arises from the superabundance of legal counsel. Whenever a lawyer in California, from misfortune, incompetency, whisky, or any other cause, falls into a depression of finances, he straight-away gathers up his books and starts for the silver regions. Acute by profession, he scents the remedy from afar. These gentlemen must have silver: they can't help it-must have it; and to have it must have litigation. evils therefore beset the Washoeites - many ledges and many lawyers. Either they must be everlastingly in court and submit to final exhaustion of all their precious ores, or pay these needy members of the bar what the world owes them, and let them travel. I don't doubt they will go somewhere else in the vicinity of silver. Pay them fifty thousand dollars apiece, and then raise a fund for the subsistence of absentees, and pay them for staying away. I venture to say such a course would obviate the first grand trouble. After that a court might be organized consisting of three Digger Indians. Keep them from fire-water, and my word for it, their decisions would be as satisfactory as any rendered by the most learned judges. It is true they might be corrupted by whisky; red blankets and cotton shirts might cause them to waver from the paths of rectitude; a string of beads to some favorite squaw might affect the eye or the understanding of the most stolid Digger; a bucketful of "hogadie" might confound the perceptive faculties of the great Winnemucca himself; but human nature must be taken as it is. The highest dignitaries in the land are subject to temptation. The Washoeites complain that their Bench is corrupt; they abuse their judges; hint in pretty strong terms that when a judge receives a heavy bonus of feet for services in the great cause of justice, other parties give more and get it all; in short, they raised such a hubbub last year that the judges resigned in disgust. I don't blame them. It would be impossible for them to satisfy every body. If they are honest menand I have no reason to doubt it-they could render no decision which would not make them unpopular with the disappointed party. What the Washoeites need most is, judges who will be faithfully dishonest and honestly faithless. So bitter are the feuds resulting from conflicting claims, under the one-ledge and manyledge theories, that a summary method of settling disputes not unfrequently usurps the functions of the Judiciary. An enterprising class of the community, known as the "roughs," may be relied upon in any emergency. For a reasonable consideration these accommodating gentlemen will espouse any cause, however hopeless in the eye of the law. Their habits of life squatter company was digging into the bowels of the earth and extracting precious ores that belonged to the other party. On the very day, and at the very hour, when it was confidently expected that two hundred men would come in collision, far down in the gloomy cavities of the earth, it was my fortune to be a visitor at the principal mine. The Superintendent invited me to explore it-adding, as an inducement, that his "roughs" were all ready, and there was momentary prospect of a bloody subterranean battle. His life had been threatened the day before by one of the squatter "roughs," but it was probably insured: at all events, the prospect of losing it did not seem to give him much concern. I must confess the proposition to go down a hundred and fifty feet under the earth and witness a bloody fight within the limited space of a drift or a tunnel was novel if not attractive. There was no getting over it-I had to go. are such that no conscientious scruples, touching | cocting briefs and making learned speeches the questions of right and wrong, have the slightest influence over their acts. Most of them have killed from ten to a dozen men each in barroom affrays, gambling difficulties, or murders of a general character; and to be "quick on the trigger" is their greatest boast. Without any particular line of business, save to frequent public places and look up casual jobs, they are recognized as Professional Blood-letters, and treated accordingly with great consideration by the peaceful members of the community. It is regarded as something of an honor to be intimately acquainted with the most noted of these sanguinary Professors. I am on terms of friendship with several of them myself, and regard the leader, who lost his nose in a recent bloody fight, as a gentleman of great personal suavity. I take special care, however, not to irritate him by any difference of opinion touching the various subjects that come under discussion during our social intercourse. It usually costs me four bits to remove a shadow from his brow, and a dollar or more to get him enthusiastic in his reminiscences of human butchery. During my third visit (last year) there was considerable excitement about town in consequence of the resignation of the judges, and an expected collision between the "roughs" in the service of two rival companies. One company squatted upon the premises belonging to another. The case did not admit of question, so far as I could see. It was an unjustifiable trespass without the shadow of right. But lawyers saw difficulties, and while they were busy con The expected battle-ground, on our side, was occupied by as imposing a body of "roughs" as I had ever seen assembled together. They sat loosely and pleasantly on the dripping rocks, smoking their cigars, gossiping about the last free fight, and evidently enjoying the prospect of the business in hand. A gang of miners was picking and hammering into the disputed portion of the ledge. Another gang, backed by another body of "roughs," belonging to the squatter company, was picking and hammering on the other side. About three feet of rock separated the rival factions. I could distinctly hear |