At one time it was thought by some that this would prove to be the main or “mother” lead of the range, as at the surface, and for a considerable distance below the surface, the Comstock vein dipped west toward it. Parties bought Old Virginia’s claim, and began suit against the Ophir Company, asserting that the lead on which they were at work was the same as that located, in 1858, by Old Virginia. It was a sort of speculation on the part of those who brought the suit, and it is understood that they succeeded in obtaining $60,000 from the Ophir Company.
At the beginning of this suit it was necessary, if possible, to produce the original notice placed upon the croppings of the lead by Old Virginia, but the parties to whom he had sold his claim could never get him sufficiently sobered up to show where it could be found. Growing desperate, they at length seized the old fellow one evening, and thrusting him into the mouth of a big tunnel, closed and locked upon him a heavy iron gate. The next morning when they went to the tunnel they found Old Virginia sober, but very savage.
He would say nor do nothing until they had taken him down town and given him half a tumbler of whisky. This swallowed, he was ready for business. He marched directly up the side of the mountain, and going straight to a large tower of croppings, drew out a small block of rock, and lo! behind it was seen snugly stowed the much-desired notice.
It was probably on account of his having made this location that Old Virginia was given the credit of having been the discoverer of the Comstock lode, his interest in which he was said to have sold for an old horse, a pair of blankets, and a bottle of whisky. He sold a third interest in the sluices, water, and diggings in the cañon to John Bishop, for $25.
James Hart, who had an interest in the sluices, and diggings in the cañon, sold his right to be “considered in” on the big discovery to J. D. Winters, of Washoe Valley, for a horse and $20 in coin. In this way Winters got into the Ophir as one of the locators, and from this came the “old horse” story that has always been saddled upon Old Virginia—to fix it still more firmly upon the old fellow, the bottle of whiskey was added.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DISCOVERY OF SILVER.
Once Comstock got into the Ophir claim he elected himself superintendent and was the man who did all of the heavy talking. He made himself so conspicuous on every occasion that he soon came to be considered not only the discoverer but almost the father of the lode. As it was all Comstock for a considerable distance round the Ophir mine, people began to speak of the vein as Comstock’s mine, Comstock’s lode, and the lead throughout its length and breadth came to be known as the Comstock lode, a name which it bears to this day; while the names of O’Riley and McLaughlin, the real discoverers, are seldom heard, even in the city that stands on the spot where they first opened to the light of the sun the glittering treasures of the vein.
Even after the Ophir claim had been duly recorded and its owners had gone regularly to work upon it, they had no idea that the ore contained anything of value except the gold that was found in it.
For some weeks they dug down the rich decomposed silver ore, washed the gold out of it, and let it go as waste—throwing it anywhere to get it out of the way of the rockers. They not only did not try to save it, but they constantly and conscientiously cursed it.
Being very heavy, it settled to the bottom of their rockers, covered up the quicksilver they contained, and prevented the thorough amalgamation of the gold. The miners all thought well of the diggings, but for this stuff. It was the great drawback. In mining on Gold Cañon, they had been bothered with a superabundance of black sand and heavy pebbles of iron ore, but this new, bluish sand was a thing which they had never before encountered anywhere in the country.