unnecessarily thawed out the mosquitos. The latter, however, though
bothersome at times and in places, were not very annoying. This hot
wave, which practically prevented traveling during the middle of the
day, gave way to cooler, overcast weather, which now and then furnished
a series of rainy, disagreeable days, broken, perhaps, by one or two
hopefully clear and beautiful. It is the most fickle climate in the
world, and will frequently, within a few hours, fancifully exhibit all
its contrary elements of rain and sunshine, wind and chill. But, rain or
shine, day and night, mining operations progress, and the fine treasure
in the earth is laboriously brought to light.

It frequently became necessary for one of us to journey through the now
more sparse timber, up the slaty, moss-covered, mountainous "divide,"
and over to the claims on the fast-becoming-famous Ophir Creek. In the
absence of rain, and with the encouragement of the wind or a little
sunshine, the ground, up to a certain point, dries remarkably soon, and
furnishes fairly good footing. If the day be pleasant, the cheerful
chirp of the inevitable song-sparrow and the song of the wild canary
are heard; a thrush or robin, surprised and alarmed, starts from the
brush; swallows and snow-white gulls from the sea circle over and about
the streams; and odd, unfamiliar little birds hop about in the willows.
How they get there, the Lord only knows. Beautiful--the daintiest--wild
flowers in great variety also do their part to make a desolate country
lovely. Truly, it is a wonderful land of contradictions. Looking down
from the "divide" to the basin below, Ophir Creek, almost a river, is
now dotted with permanent camps along its lengthy, sinuous course; the
little log-cabin settlements, whose lumber has been brought there at
great labor and expense, representing the larger operators or the
companies.

Of course, Frank Shaw was still in charge of the Wild Goose Company's
interests on claim No. 15 Ophir; and he had under him about a hundred
good men, opening up the claim, shoveling the pay dirt into five strings
of sluice-boxes, and some of them, teamsters, carpenters, etc., daily
bringing supplies from Council over the primitive roads, or doing other
necessary work about the camp. A very remarkable young man is Shaw, and
a very fine fellow. Born and bred, so to speak, in the mines of
California and Arizona, and having a genius for the work, he was
naturally a "born miner,