Average to each of 56 miners, each day, $3 26.
It would exhibit curious results were I prepared to present a statement of the mining operations of one hundred and twenty-nine miners with whom I have been connected since I came to California. Most of these left the mines before I did, some of them to return home, and many to engage in other pursuits. Some remained only a few days. One of these, though I was not connected with him otherwise than as being with him on a prospecting tour for a day, was a novelty among us. He seemed to have just turned out of Broadway, or to have been turned out of a band-box. He was an exquisite, even to the white kid gloves, eye-glass, and Cologne water, with dancing pumps, and a small gold box suspended about his neck by a gold chain, in which to put his gold. With his dirk-knife, elegantly chased, he would go into a hole already dug, and spend an hour in scraping the dirt from the rocks, which he washed with great care, putting the few scales in the gold box around his neck. He had been transplanted from some greenhouse to these rough mountains, and soon faded away and died.
Nov. 26th, 1850. We set sail in the French ship Chateaubriand, “homeward bound.” On January 8th, 1851, reached Panama. After spending twenty days upon the Isthmus, on January 28th weighed anchor; had a rapid run, the Georgia putting into Havana for coal, and to part with a portion of her six hundred and fifty passengers; and on Saturday, February 8th, arrived at New York, and the same night at Philadelphia, after an absence of two years and eight days.
And now, as I take leave of my reader, he will find me seated again at my old writing-desk—the Christmas present of my dear pupils, some of whom have already called in to see me. How familiar it looks! And how light and cheerful every thing is, as if I had been shut up in a dark, close room so long! And how familiar and dear are all the scenes and faces of home, only grown older and larger! I imagine myself, only one moment, back at the top of the hill from which I last saw my companions. I think they were then looking miserable in the distance, and I think they still look and feel so now. If they could hear me, I would wish them soon that happiness which can make them forget that they have not come home with their weight in gold, though they may find that which is more than worth it, for there are treasures more valuable than gold.
CHAPTER VII.
HINTS TO MINERS.
The experience of sixteen months in the mines enables me to make a few suggestions which may be of importance to those intending to become miners.
And with regard to the preparations which should be made, a great error has been committed by most California emigrants, in making too much preparation. A change of substantial clothing, with several pairs of well-made water-proof boots, form a good outfit in that line. It is important, where so much work is to be done in the water, to wear flannel, even in the summer. It is attended with great inconvenience and much expense to transport a large chest or trunk from place to place. I have known many, on arriving at San Francisco, who sell off, at a great loss, the greatest part of all their stores, reducing them to one change of clothing. There is great risk, also, of losing one’s effects by fire or by water, or by the breaking up of the establishment in which they are stored. The Amity and Enterprise Association, formed before we left Philadelphia, can speak knowingly upon this subject. Each individual of this association had an outfit which would have lasted three or four years. In addition, they had company property, in provisions, tents, mining utensils, &c., to a considerable amount. Most of this was sent around the Horn by several shipments. The rest we took with us to Tampico. When we reached this place, finding that the transportation across Mexico would be about $50 a hundred, we packed most of our individual property in a large box, and shipped it back to the States to be forwarded to California. This is the last we ever saw of its contents. Our provisions we sold at Tampico, which did not pay the custom-house duties upon them. Of those which were sent around the Horn, the provisions did not pay the freight and commissions on the sale; and most of our clothing, &c., were stored in San Francisco, and burned in the second great fire in that city. I do not know of a company which did not meet with losses in proportion to the extent of their outfits. The losses of those who crossed the plains in this respect were very great. Large quantities of valuable mining implements, hundreds of hams, bags of flour, and other provisions—even wagons, in large numbers—were left upon the road. It is often the case that persons suffer very seriously from their ignorance of the difficulties and expenses to which they will be liable after reaching California. Many find themselves in San Francisco with cramped means, and sometimes none at all, and with a long and expensive journey to the mines before them, besides many necessary articles which should be procured. Every miner should have $150 by him on his arrival in the country. More would not be amiss.
I believe all who are at the mine would agree with me in recommending to the new miner to leave all machinery behind him. If he takes any thing in that line, let it be the best mining pick and spade he can find, with a stout sheath-knife, and a horn for crevassing. The “cradle” is found any where in the settlements or in the mines. If it is intended to engage in the quartz-crushing operations, the most simple machinery is the best. The very complicated and expensive machinery which has, in several instances, been taken to the mines, has been useless. The least breakage will delay the whole work for months, till it is replaced from the States.
By all means avoid companies which are got up at home for mining. Whatever facilities they offer; whatever array of influential names they present; whatever they purpose or promise to accomplish—if they come to you with a charter, or a ship, of which you are to share the advantages—avoid companies formed at home! They work badly; they cramp your energies; they entangle all your operations. In the mines, it will always be necessary for you to associate yourself with one or two, and sometimes with twenty, or even fifty mining companions. These associations are formed and terminate with the necessity of the occasion.
Much time is lost in the mines by those who are led, by exaggerated stories of success, from a place where they are working with some advantage, to seek a better location. Leave the work of prospecting, principally, to the more experienced miners. There is an excitement connected with the pursuit of gold which renders one restless and uneasy—ever hoping to do something better. The very uncertainty of the employment increases this tendency. A person may be making his quarter ounce a day, and hears that a person a few miles from him is making an ounce. He is accordingly dissatisfied, and removes to the new diggings, there, probably, to be again disappointed. These exaggerated stories are most generally got up by traders in the place, in order to bring customers to their stores. I have noticed that those who remain most constantly in one place are in the end most successful.