But why does life seem so short to the miner, and why do the years seem to crowd so quickly upon each other, and to pass in such rapid succession? That such, however, is the case, and that we grow up amid the excitement of such conditions unconscious of the existence of time, all old miners can testify to. We find that before we are aware of it our hair is tinged with gray; our children grown up around us; they, in their turn are married, and lo, and behold, we, the old-timers, who have remained unconscious of the fact that time will not even wait for a Forty-niner, are to our astonishment informed that we have attained at last to that period of our existence when we can adopt the title of father with the grand in front of it. But why does time pass so rapidly with those who are engaged in mining? Is it in the climate? No, but in the industry which we follow. We read in Pope that man never is, but always to be, blessed, and this applies to the business of mining with full force; for the miner never has yet, but always is just going to strike it. It is always just a little ahead, and so it continues to the miner, for but a small proportion of them ever reach it. Yet the continuation of daily, weekly and yearly anticipations, as yet unrealized, but which are soon to be, causes time to pass unobserved, and the old Forty-niner, who, in his imagination, has been here but a few short years, finds to his astonishment, when the little ones are climbing over him, pulling his whiskers and calling him “Grandpa,” when he comes to think of it, as old Pike would say, that he has been here a right smart chance.
But the old miner might ask if this is not true of all other kinds of business, or of human affairs in general, as well as the business of mining? No, only to a limited extent, although, ’tis true enough, as observation and experience shows us, that the continual expectation of the satisfaction of our desires is the fundamental base of all human action; the one great incentive to exertion. We find, however, that whilst a reasonable length of time in which to satisfy our desires is allowed and expected in all other kinds of business, in mining the case is reversed. And it was for this reason that thousands left their Eastern homes, upon the discovery of gold in California, believing it possible that gold in large quantities could be scraped up from the surface of the earth in a very short space of time. If a proper knowledge of gold mining had been as well understood at that time as has since been acquired by dearly-bought experience, and that only about the same proportion of persons would have succeeded in it as was possible in any other business requiring the same space of time for its development, the emigration to this Coast would have been much less in early days. The amount extracted from the mines would, no doubt, have been the same and with similar effects, perhaps. At any rate, the expectations of the early pioneers would have been more reasonable, and disappointments in the business of mining would have been less, since they would have corresponded with such expectations.
In view of the fact that forty years have now elapsed since the exciting news was wafted across the continent that gold had been discovered upon the Pacific Coast, it would be of great interest to know what has become of this vast army of gold seekers, the Argonauts, who left their friends and homes in the year ’49.
The estimate has been made that the number of vessels which sailed from the Atlantic seaports of the United States in the year ’49, including steamers bound for California, was something near 400. The number of persons, including the emigration across the plains in ’49, therefore, who left their Eastern homes in the year ’49 to seek their fortunes upon this side of the continent, must have been nearly 60,000. Taking an estimate of those who are now living, and of those who joined the various Pioneer Associations, it would be safe to conclude that there are living at present of that vast multitude, at least 15,000. About 8,000 of them are living upon the Pacific Coast, while the greater portion of the remainder are scattered
throughout the United States from Bangor, Maine, to New Orleans on the south, and to Colorado in a westerly direction.
The greater portion of the Argonauts are making their homes in the towns and cities, where very many of them are yet engaged in active business; while a journey throughout the agricultural districts of the Pacific Coast will discover the fact that large numbers are engaged in farming in all its various branches of grain, fruit and stock raising. In some of the mining counties will be found, also, many of the old-timers who have abandoned the business of mining, and are now engaged in the fruit industry, and in many cases, too, in the very same localities where they mined long years ago. They have filled up the deep shafts, levelled off the piles of rocks and tailings, and by means of brush dams have restored again to their original condition the barren and stony places which were washed out in the search for gold.
A visit to some of the now deserted mining camps throughout the mining regions, will bring to light many of the old pioneers who are yet lingering around the spot where they first located upon their arrival, loath to break away from their first and earliest associations, and content to remain and live over again, in imagination, the early mining days, with their pleasing incidents and associations. Of the Argonauts who are at present engaged in mining the number would be found small, not exceeding, perhaps, 500. But they are scattered throughout the length and breath of the Pacific Coast, wherever there is a prospect of new mining discoveries, from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, and a few of them will be found in every mining camp of any importance.
