Van Sickles was soon informed of what had occurred, and mounting a fast horse, with a heavily-loaded double-barrelled shotgun in his hand, started in pursuit.
He overtook the desperado before he reached Genoa.
Sam no doubt felt that his hour had come, for an enraged ranchman on his track meant business, as he well knew—it was very different from having to do with a “chief.” Sam turned in his saddle and began firing, as Van Sickles approached; but the ranchman was uninjured, and raising his shotgun riddled the great fighter with buckshot, tumbling him dead from his horse, just in the edge of the town of Genoa. Thus died “Fighting Sam Brown”—died with his “boots on;” an end which all “chiefs” dread.
After the death of Sam Brown, numerous chiefs rose up and there were many bloody fights in regard to the succession. Also, there were many bloody fights in which the chieftainship was not the mooted question. Having knives and pistols ever at hand, men of all classes too frequently used them. The reports of pistols were heard almost nightly, and in passing along the streets frequent stampedes from the gambling-houses were to be seen. As innocent parties were as likely to be killed as the persons engaged in the shooting, those who were not directly interested in a fight always withdrew when pistols were drawn in a saloon or gambling-house. At such times they came out into the street much as a flock of sheep would go through a gap in a fence with a dog at their heels.
The street gained they turned and stood peeping back. If the war did not presently begin they gradually ventured to return and resume their interrupted occupations and pleasures, not expecting an apology from the gentlemen who had inconvenienced them.
Thus were those not directly engaged in mining, or other productive industry worrying along.
CHAPTER XVII.
EARLY COMSTOCK MINING OPERATIONS.
In the mines rapid advances were soon made, both in the development of the various claims and in the machinery and appliances used. Whereas, the first shafts sunk were mere round holes, precisely similar in every respect to an ordinary well, now began to be seen well-timbered square shafts of two or more compartments; the old hand-windlasses gave place to horse-whims and to steam hoisting machinery, and large and substantially constructed tunnels took the place of the “coyote holes” which were at first run into the hills.
The first steam hoisting and pumping machinery seen on the Comstock lead was put in at the Ophir mine, in 1860. The machinery was driven by a fifteen-horse-power donkey-engine. The mine was at that time being worked through an incline (an inclined shaft) which followed the dip of the vein. A track was laid down in this incline and a car was lowered and hoisted through it by steam-power. The pump then used had a pipe but four inches in diameter, and it was hard work to keep the mine drained, even at the slight depth then attained. At this time the dip of the vein was to the west, and all supposed that that was the true dip of the Comstock lode: on this account locations lying to the west of the Comstock were considered to be much more valuable, and were much more sought for than those lying to the east. The westward dip of the great lode would carry it directly into and under Mount Davidson, on the eastern slope of which, and 1500 feet below its summit, the croppings of the vein made their appearance; all, therefore, were desirous of obtaining mining ground on the side of Mount Davidson and the mountains flanking it north and south. But when the depth of 300 feet had been attained in the Ophir mine, the lead began to straighten up and soon assumed its true dip to the east, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, a dip it has maintained ever since, and not only at that particular point, but throughout its entire length of nearly three miles.