The sea about us, which before had shown only the tints of the pearl, now took on the hue of amber, but still floated past and gently waved up and down as had the sea of pearl. As the obscuration progressed, the more distant portions of the cloud-sea changed from amber to brown, and this to black, gradually closing in upon us from all sides, but most from the northward. In our immediate neighborhood all had changed from amber to a deep burnt-sienna tinge. So deep and decided was this tint that at one time, for the space of some minutes, it seemed to pervade the whole atmosphere; our clothing partook of it, and the flag-staff near which we stood looked like a great rod of rusty iron.
During this dark stage a heavy breeze sprang up, and the swells in the vaporous sea surrounding us were tossed far higher than before. At times these billows rolled many feet above our heads, and the eclipse being then nearly total, we were sometimes, for minutes, left in midnight darkness, and but for the lanterns we had carried up the mountain, and which were standing at the foot of the flag-staff, we could not have seen our hands when held before our faces. But these waves of darkness seldom lasted more than two or three minutes, and we had, from first to last, an imposing and deeply impressive view of the eclipse. It is probable that a total eclipse of the moon was never before observed under precisely such circumstances as was this by our little party, standing on a mountain peak above the clouds. As the eclipse passed off, about the same phenomena were observed above and about us as in its coming on.
Being chilled to the very marrow in our bones, we left the top of the mountain, however, while nearly half the face of the moon was still obscured. Taking a last lingering look at all about us, observing that our cloud-sea was again assuming the hue of amber and that the horizon was widening and brightening in all directions, as the light spread abroad and drove back the brown and the more distant black, we plunged down into the thick cloud-stratum, and, guided by the light of our lanterns, made the best of our way down the bed of a huge gorge in the face of the mountain, and went back into the city. Strange as it may appear to some, we found it much warmer in the midst of the clouds and drifting snow than above on the summit of the mountain. Not one of the party will ever forget that total eclipse of the moon, seen from old Mount Davidson’s topmost height, nearly 8,000 feet above the level of the sea.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS.
The Virginia range of mountains, of which Mount Davidson is the principal peak, is separated from the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a series of small valleys, the principal of which are Washoe Valley, Eagle Valley, Steamboat Valley, and the Truckee Meadows. The range can be traced for a distance of about one hundred miles from the point where it diverges from the Sierras, as they trend to the northwest, to where it finally dies out in the Mud Lake region. The average width of the range is about eighteen miles, though it is quite irregular. The great mass of the mountains composing the range is made up of volcanic rocks, the accumulation of several successive outpourings.
On the eastern face of Mount Davidson, about 1,500 feet below the summit, are found the croppings of the Comstock lode. The rock on the west side of the vein—called the “country rock” by mining men, because it is the general rock of the country outside of the lode—is syenite, a rock which forms the mass of Mount Davidson; on the east side of the vein the country rock is propylite, a volcanic rock of[of] of much more recent origin than the syenite. (Syenite[(Syenite] is much the same as granite, and propylite is a rock of a porphyritic character.) Between these two rocks, by some throe of nature, was formed the immense fissure in which lies the Comstock vein—a fissure known to be nearly four miles in length and from one or two hundred to nearly fifteen hundred feet in width. This vast chasm was undoubtedly formed by volcanic action. It is not one fissure, but more properly speaking, a series of rents running parallel with the main opening. The smaller parallel fractures are principally in the propylite or east country rock. It is but natural that they should be in this, as it was the stratum that was lifted up and shattered when the main fissure was formed. In depth, all of these rents will be found to be lost in the principal opening.
After the rending apart of the rocks and the formation of the chasm, there doubtless burst up through the opening immense volumes of hot mineral waters, steam, and gases, from solfataras or hot springs underneath, and these charged the vein with its rich sulphurets and other ores of silver.
Signs of hot springs are seen everywhere on the hills to the eastward of the vein, and hot springs that are still active are found in various directions, at the distance of a few miles, the most remarkable of which are those known as the Steamboat Springs; which, even at this day, are briskly sending up hot water, steam, and columns of heated gases through a fissure over a mile in length, in fact are actively engaged in the formation of a metallic lode.
It is not improbable that the fissure in which the Comstock lode was formed was originally rent by the upward pressure of the confined steam and gases of hot springs formed between the syenite and propylite far beneath the surface of the earth. Be that as it may, the rent was formed, and afterwards was charged with its present mineral contents.