Roughing It by Mark Twain

formation. I told Col. Whitman, in times past, that the

neighborhood of Dayton (Nevada) betrayed no present or previous

manifestations of a ligneous foundation, and that hence I had no

confidence in his lauded coal mines. I repeated the same doctrine

to the exultant coal discoverers of Humboldt. I talked with my

friend Captain Burch on the subject. My pyrhanism vanished upon his

statement that in the very region referred to he had seen petrified

trees of the length of two hundred feet. Then is the fact

established that huge forests once cast their grim shadows over this

remote section. I am firm in the coal faith.

Have no fears of the mineral resources of Humboldt county. They are

immense–incalculable.

Let me state one or two things which will help the reader to better

comprehend certain items in the above. At this time, our near neighbor,

Gold Hill, was the most successful silver mining locality in Nevada. It

was from there that more than half the daily shipments of silver bricks

came. “Very rich” (and scarce) Gold Hill ore yielded from $100 to $400

to the ton; but the usual yield was only $20 to $40 per ton–that is to

say, each hundred pounds of ore yielded from one dollar to two dollars.

But the reader will perceive by the above extract, that in Humboldt from

one fourth to nearly half the mass was silver! That is to say, every one

hundred pounds of the ore had from two hundred dollars up to about three

hundred and fifty in it. Some days later this same correspondent wrote:

I have spoken of the vast and almost fabulous wealth of this

region–it is incredible. The intestines of our mountains are

gorged with precious ore to plethora. I have said that nature

has so shaped our mountains as to furnish most excellent

facilities for the working of our mines. I have also told you

that the country about here is pregnant with the finest mill

sites in the world. But what is the mining history of Humboldt?

The Sheba mine is in the hands of energetic San Francisco

capitalists. It would seem that the ore is combined with metals

that render it difficult of reduction with our imperfect mountain

machinery. The proprietors have combined the capital and labor

hinted at in my exordium. They are toiling and probing. Their

tunnel has reached the length of one hundred feet. From primal

assays alone, coupled with the development of the mine and public

confidence in the continuance of effort, the stock had reared

itself to eight hundred dollars market value. I do not know that

one ton of the ore has been converted into current metal. I do

know that there are many lodes in this section that surpass the

Sheba in primal assay value. Listen a moment to the calculations

of the Sheba operators. They purpose transporting the ore

concentrated to Europe. The conveyance from Star City (its

locality) to Virginia City will cost seventy dollars per ton;

from Virginia to San Francisco, forty dollars per ton; from

thence to Liverpool, its destination, ten dollars per ton. Their

idea is that its conglomerate metals will reimburse them their

cost of original extraction, the price of transportation, and the

expense of reduction, and that then a ton of the raw ore will net

them twelve hundred dollars. The estimate may be extravagant.

Cut it in twain, and the product is enormous, far transcending

any previous developments of our racy Territory.

A very common calculation is that many of our mines will yield

five hundred dollars to the ton. Such fecundity throws the Gould

& Curry, the Ophir and the Mexican, of your neighborhood, in the

darkest shadow. I have given you the estimate of the value of a

single developed mine. Its richness is indexed by its market

valuation. The people of Humboldt county are feet crazy. As I

write, our towns are near deserted. They look as languid as a

consumptive girl. What has become of our sinewy and athletic

fellow-citizens? They are coursing through ravines and over

mountain tops. Their tracks are visible in every direction.

Occasionally a horseman will dash among us. His steed betrays