[Dan De Quille, Old-Time Gold Delvers, Daily Alta California, 22 March 1885:1]

 

OLD-TIME GOLD DELVERS.

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Mark Twain's Experiences As A Pocket Miner.

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BIRTH OF HIS JUMPING FROG

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The Bohemians Of The Mines—The Mysteries Of Pocket Mining—The Gillis Boys—Early Times In Old Calaveras.

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[WRITTEN FOR THE ALTA BY DAN DE QUILLE.]

            In Calaveras, Amador, Mariposa, Tuolumne, and many other counties of California are found a class of men known as " pocket miners." They are the " Bohemians" of the mining world. Once a man achieves success in pocket mining he thereafter cares little for working placers, sinking deep prospecting shafts on quartz veins, or doing anything else in the way of regular mining.

            The pocket miner is generally a bachelor. He lives in a cabin pitched in some picturesque spot in the mountains somewhere about the snow line. His rude log hut is not unfrequently seen perched upon a jutting point of rocks at the edge of some great canyon along which straggle dark groves of pine, spruce and fir trees. In the bed of the canyon dashes along a stream of sparkling water that has its source in regions of almost perpetual snow, high among the tall granite peaks of the main Sierra Nevada range. The site of his cabin is often chosen at a point where there is a cascade or a fall, the music of which nightly lulls him to sleep. In some such place the pocket miner makes his borne, caring little for the bustle, struggles and turmoil of the great world outside, only faint echoes of which ever reach him in his mountain home.

POCKET MINERS

Generally live in pairs, each man having a " partner, " as among placer and most other classes of miners. They work together and together they " loaf." Men who are thus together for years become strongly attached to each other. They are toward each other more as brothers should be seen than most brothers in the ordinary walks of life. Their love is like the love of David and Jonathan.

            The pocket miners are those who search for the rich spots or " pockets '' in veins of gold-bearing quartz. These pockets yield from two or three hundred up to ten or twenty thousand dollars ; often much more than the sum last named. Sometimes the pockets are found in quartz ledges that crop out above the general surface of the ground, but more frequently they are what are called " blind '' ledges ; that is, veins that are hidden under rocks, soil and other debris that has rolled or washed down over them from higher points on the slopes of the mountains.

            In prospecting for pockets samples of soil are taken from the sides of a mountain or hill of promising appearance — one that is traversed by many veins of quartz — and when gold is found on washing out a pan of dirt a second sample is taken from a point higher up the hill, a third from a point still higher, and in this way the particles of gold are carefully traced back to the point whence they started — to the " pocket." All pockets that come to the surface, or that have once been on the surface, throw off more or less gold. Often a pocket that contains but $200 to $300 is found to send down

A TRAIL OF GOLD

Several hundred yards in length. As would naturally be supposed, the gold is coarsest and most abundant near the pocket in which it was produced. A pocket miner may wash a pan of dirt taken from the foot of a mountain and get but a single speck or " color" of gold, yet it will be for him a good " prospect." An ordinary placer or quartz miner would not give such a mere point of gold a second thought, but for the pocket miner the little glittering particle of metal possesses much significance. He at once examines it with a magnifying glass. At the first glance he can tell whether it is a grain of placer gold or is gold from a quartz vein. Placer gold is smooth and shows signs of washing and attrition, whereas quartz gold is rough, jagged and frequently bears the impression of the matrix in which it was formed. This last peculiarity, however, is not often to be distinguished in very small pieces. The prospector can also tell from the character of the ground whether his " prospect " is from a quartz vein or from a gravel wash. If no washed gravel is seen on the hill or in the dirt from which the metal was panned it is almost certain that it came from a quartz vein. The particles of gold generally move down the face of a mountain in a direct line from the pocket that produced them, spreading out like a fan as they descend. Thus it will be seen that it is toward the foot of a mountain that the prospector most readily gets

ON THE TRACK OF A POCKET,

Though there the particles of gold are likely to be few and small. Though but one speck of gold should be obtained from the first pan of dirt, the next, taken some rods higher up on the side of the mountain, may yield half a dozen " colors," and the next, still higher up, a cent or two.

            While thus following up the trail should the dirt fail to yield gold, the prospector may know that he has passed above the pocket and must turn back and start anew by taking a pan of material from a point a short distance above that from which he obtained his last gold. Working in this way he at last hits upon the spot from which the flow of gold started. The vein may be but an inch or two in width and the pocket no more than three or four feet in length, yet the well-trained pocket miner will certainly find it. A rich spot in a quartz vein, that has thrown out any gold at all, cannot escape him once he has struck its trail.

            The pockets that throw down the most gold are such as are in quartz that is much decomposed. This, in most cases, is quartz filled with iron pyrites which have rusted until eaten away and left in the form of a red powder, or a friable mass easily crumbled to dust. In the midst of this ferruginous material are seen the particles of native gold, bright and glittering as any polished article of jewelry. Lumps of this decomposed iron and quartz become detached from the vein and roll and wash down the face of the hill ; crumbling and dissolving as they go, they leave in their wake a train of golden sparks that presently sink into the soil.

FLOAT ROCK.

            It sometimes happens that the rich pocket is in white, undecomposed quartz. In this case the miner's attention is probably first attracted by finding a fragment of each quartz containing gold. After carefully noting the grain, color and other characteristics of the bit of quarts, the prospector moves up the hill, keeping a sharp lookout on all sides for more of the same kind of rock. These detached pieces of quartz are what miners term " float rock." In case the lead from which this float quartz comes is one that crops out, it is an easy matter to find the coveted pocket, but should it be "blind" the prospector must start in and open a trench at the point where he found the last piece of the peculiar character of '"float" he is following and must run it directly up the hill. In this trench other pieces of the float will occasionally be found in the dirt and finally on the bedrock, just before the vein is reached. This is the proper plan to pursue to find a blind lead, whether the float be from a vein of gold-bearing quartz, silver-bearing quartz, copper, lead, or any other kind of metal- bearing rock.

            Although pocket mining is not now the glorious business it once was in California, yet it is still pursued in various sections and affords many men a good living, while occasionally a man takes a large fortune out of a single small pocket. Pockets are not so plentiful as in times past, but the pocket miners have been constantly gaining knowledge and can now readily follow a trail which some years ago they would not even have discovered.  Neither landslides nor gullies, ancient or modern, can put them out. They have studied all the ways and all the accidents of nature. They are able to trace up and find a pocket that probably does not contain more than two or three flour sacks of paying material, yet this may yield from $100 to $500. The pocket miner can tell, too, by the characteristics of the country rock whether quartz veins passing through it are likely to contain rich surface pockets. For instance, when slate rock is seen to contain black rusty iron pyrites, that are stuck into or through it, like so many shoe pegs, a vein of quartz passing through it is pretty sure to be productive. In this kind of rock have been found some of the richest pockets ever discovered. The slate adjoining the quartz is also often rich for a considerable distance in all directions. The iron pyrites, even those in the form of regular crystals, are often filled with particles of bright native gold. These points of gold are not easily seen if the pyrites are "alive" and bright, but if they have turned black or grown rusty and commenced to decay the gold is easily seen. When the pyrites have quite crumbled down the particles of gold they contain may often be seen with the naked eye by rubbing the rusty material in the palm of the hand or between the thumb and finger.

HOW GOLD IS "BORN."

            Many miners believe there is some mysterious connection or affinity existing between gold and iron. They say that gold is " born " in the iron pyrites — that it formed in the material from which they crystallized. Yet all agree that the presence of quartz is also necessary. Pyrites found in slate or other rock at a distance from quartz are barren, but let them be near a ribbon of quartz no thicker than a man's finger, and the little seam is liable to be filled with spangles of gold. If you point out to one of these miners the fact that large pieces of native gold are frequently found in pure white quartz, he will remind you that when sunk upon to a certain depth iron is found in great quantities in all veins of gold-bearing quartz, and will insist that the gold was carried up from the regions of iron when both iron and quartz were in a molten state.  He will remind you of the great quantities of iron in the deep mines of Grass Valley, Nevada City and other places in California, and of the masses of iron in the gold-bearing veins of Colorado and other regions in that direction.

            Rich pockets are often found in veins of quartz that occur along the line of contact between two different kinds of country rock, as slate and granite. Along the course of such a vein, at productive points, the iron pyrites will be found in both slate and granite for a distance of several feet from the quartz, and for a short distance from the vein both slate and granite will yield more or less gold, the pyrites they contain having been impregnated and made fertile by the fumes or gases that came up from the depths at the time of the formation of the vein.

            The position of the pocket miner among the other inhabitants of a mining region very much resembles that of the bee-hunter among the people of frontier settlements in agricultural regions. The business he follows also has several points of resemblance to that of the bee-hunter. The trail followed by one leads him to the tree stored with golden sweets, and that of the other ends in a pocket of sweetest gold. The man who becomes an expert bee-hunter is likely to remain a bee-hunter all his days, and the same may be said of the pocket miner.

MARK TWAIN'S NARROW ESCAPE

From becoming a pocket miner has never been told. It is worth recording, as it gave him the story of the " Jumping Frog," and sent him off along the line of the literary lode and set him to searching therein for pockets of fun.

            In 1865, Mark wearied of Bohemian life in San Francisco and went up into the mining regions of Calaveras county to rusticate with some old friends— Steve, Jim and Billy Gillis. Jim Gillis was, and still is, one of the most expert pocket miners in California. Although educated with a view eventually to fight the battle of life as a physician, and though still finding solace in his leisure moments in the works of Greek and Latin authors reposing on a shelf in his cabin, Jim Gillis is booked for life as a pocket miner. The business has charms for him that he cannot break away from — he is bound to it in chains of gold. Show him a particle of quartz gold on the side of a mountain, and if it came to where it was found through the processes or accidents of nature, undisturbed in any way by the interference of man , he will as unerringly trace it to its source as the bee-hunter will follow the bee to its hoard of sweets.

AN ATTRACTIVE LIFE.

Mark Twain found the Bohemian style of mining practiced by the "Gillis boys " much more attractive than those more regular kinds which call for a large outlay of muscle. He and Jim Gillis took to the hills in search of golden pockets and spent some days in working up the undisturbed trail of an undiscovered deposit. They were on the golden " bee line'' and stuck to it faithfully, though it was necessary to carry each sample of dirt a considerable distance to a small stream in the bed up a canyon in order to pan it out. Each step made sure by golden grains, they at last came upon the pocket which had thrown these grains off. It was a cold, dreary, drizzling day when the "home deposit " was found. The first sample carried to the stream and washed out yielded but a few cents. Although the right vein had been discovered, they had as yet found but the " tail end " of the pocket. Returning to the vein, they dug a sample from a new place and were about to carry it down to the ravine and test it when the rain began to pour down heavily. With chattering teeth, Mark declared he would remain no longer. He said there was no sense in freezing to death, as in a day or two, when it was bright and warm, they could return and pursue their investigations in comfort. Yielding to Mark's entreaties, backed as they were by his blue nose, humped back and generally miserable and dejected appearance, Jim emptied the sacks of dirt upon the ground, first having hastily written and posted up a notice of their claim to a certain number of feet on the vein, which notice would hold good for thirty days. Angel's Camp being at no great distance from the spot, while their cabin was some miles away, Mark and Jim struck out for that place. The only hotel in the little mining camp was kept by one Coon Drayton, an old Mississippi river pilot, and at his house the half-drowned pocket miners found shelter. Mark Twain having formerly followed the business of pilot on the Mississippi river, he and Coon were soon great friends and swapped scores of yarns. It continued to rain for three days, and until the weather cleared up, Mark and Jim remained at Coon's hotel.  

THE STORY OF THE " JUMPING FROG "

Was one of the yarns told Mark by Coon during the three days' session and it struck him as being so comical that he determined to write it up. When he returned to the Gillis cabin, Mark set to work upon the frog story. He also wrote some sketches of life in the mountains and the mines for some of the San Francisco papers.

            Mark did not think much of the frog story, even after it had received the finishing touches. He gave the preference to some other sketches and sent them to the papers for which he was writing. Steve Gillis, however, declared that the frog story was the best thing Mark had written, and advised him to save it for a book of sketches he was talking of publishing. A literary turn having been given to the thoughts of the inmates of the Gillis cabin, a month passed without a return to the business of pocket mining.

            While the days were passed by Mark and his friends in discussing the merits of the " Jumping Frog" and other literary matters, other prospectors were not idle. A trio of Austrian miners who were out in search of gold-bearing quartz happened upon the spot where Mark and Jim had dug into their ledge. It was but a few days after Twain and Gillis had retreated from the place in the pouring rain. The Austrians were not a little astonished at seeing  

THE GROUND GLITTERING WITH GOLD.

            Where the dirt emptied from the sacks had been dissolved and washed away by the rain, lay some three ounces of bright quartz gold. The foreigners were not long in gathering this, but the speedy discovery of the notice forbade their delving into the deposit whence it came. They could only wait and " watch and pray. " This hope was that the parties who had posted up the notice would not return while it held good.

            The sun that rose on the day after the Twain- Gillis notice expired saw the Austrians in possession of the ground, with a notice of their own conspicuously, and defiantly posted. The new owners cleaned out the pocket, obtaining from it, in a few days, a little over $7,500.

            Had Mark Twain's backbone held out a little longer, the sacks of dirt would have been washed and the grand discovery made. He would not then have gone to Angels' Camp and would probably never have heard or written the story of the "Jumping Frog"— the story that gave him his first "boost '' in the literary world, as the " Heathen Chinee " gave Bret Harte his first lift up the ladder. Had Mark found the gold that was captured by the Austrians, he would have settled down as a pocket miner.  He would never have given up the chase, and till this day, grey as a badger, he would have been pounding quartz, with Jim Gillis for his "pard," in a cabin somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains.