in the Cripple Creek region. From the
earliest of the discoveries the region had been upsetting all the
well-established mining traditions, and the tenderfoot was quite as
likely to find mineral as was the most experienced prospector; more
likely, in fact, since the man with everything to learn would not be
hampered by the traditions.

The top layer of fine gravel which answers for soil in the district
carries gold "float"--"color," a Californian would say,--in numberless
localities over an area of many square miles; a fact which was well
known long before any one knew of the underlying treasures which have
since been taken out of the deep workings. But there are no vein
outcroppings on the surface, and the prospector's first task is to
uncover the bed-rock by sinking one or more test pits through the
gravel. In some one of these shallow shafts he may--or may not--make
his discovery. If successful, he will find, on some well-cleaned
surface of the bed-rock, a fine broken line; a minute vein in many
instances so narrow as to be discoverable only by the use of a
magnifying-glass; and that discolored line will be his invitation to
dig deeper.

By the morning of the second day Gifford had built our rude windlass,
and the work of shaft sinking was begun. The gravel layer varies in
thickness in different parts of the district, ranging from a few inches
in some places to many feet in others. In our case we were less than
waist-deep in the hole, and had not yet set up the windlass, when we
reached the upper surface of the bed-rock.

Generally speaking, the Cripple Creek district is a dry region as to
its surface, but we were lucky enough to have a trickling rivulet in
our gulch. It was dark before we had carried water in sufficient
quantity to wash off the uncovered bed-rock bottom in our hole, so we
turned in without knowing what we had found, or whether or not we had
found anything.

I was cooking the bacon and pan-bread the next morning when Gifford,
who had gone early into the hole with a bucket of water and a
scrubbing-brush, came running up to the shack with his eyes bulging.

"We--we've got it!" he gasped. "Where's that magnifying-glass?"

I left the bacon to burn if it wanted to and ran with him to the
shallow shaft. He had scrubbed the solid rock of the pit bottom until
it was as bare as the back of a hand, and across the cleaned stone,
running from southwest to northeast, there was a thin line of
disc