Meanwhile I had fingered around the gold,…

chunk 952 · paragraph 1245

our way out safely, and then we planned to get that pillar without jeopardizing our lives. I declined to having anything to do with the affair unless I could get an outside job. This of course, v/as out of the question, as there was only one sack of ore to be removed. So I was considered out of it, which I was only too glad to accept. My com- panions then entered with a horn spoon and a small pollpick, and were soon at work. Shortly they came out, and picking up an old coffee sack, used for a saddle blanket, re- entered the mine. They were very soon out again. They had cut the pillar and filled their sack. Then came a grand handshaking on their success. The sack was opened. Never in my life did I behold such a sight. A coffee sack full of nuggets ! I was told to pick out the finest specimen for my own use, which I did. It was a piece as large as my fist and contained $150 in gold. Camp was made, a metate procured, and grinding at once commenced. It took six days to reduce it to pulp, the whole being done by hand. Then the pulp was washed out in a prospecting pan. The gold was mostly coarse and very bright. The fine gold required amal- gamating. There being no quicksilver the re- maining pulp was taken to Taos, and there amalgamated. The proceeds of that sack of ore netted 937 ounces of gold, amounting to $15,000 in coin.