of our
working, and we were therefore secured against interference on the part
of the new comers, who went prospecting all over the adjacent country,
locating claims by the hundred.

As the process of "locating" claims may be new to the reader, I will
give a brief description of it.

The first thing is to find your "lead," for this precious metal is not
found indiscriminately in every rock or ledge you may chance upon. It is
found only in the quartz rock, a ledge of which, say twenty feet in
thickness, may run like a curbstone set on edge for many miles across
hills and in valleys. It may be a mile in depth, and maintain a nearly
uniform thickness, being perfectly distinct from the casing rock on each
side of it, and keeping its distinctive character always, no matter how
deep or how far into the earth it extends. Wherever it is bored into,
gold and silver are found; but none in the meaner rock surrounding it.
This peculiar rock formation is called a "lead;" and one of these you
must first find before you have anything to "locate" a claim upon. When
your prospecting has resulted in the discovery of a "lead," you write
out and put up a "notice" as follows:

NOTICE.

I (or we), the undersigned, claim one (or more, according to the number
of the party) claim of three hundred feet, and one for discovery, on
this silver--(or gold) bearing quartz lead, or lode, extending east and
west from this notice, with all its dips, spurs, and angles, extensions
and sinuosities, together with fifty feet of ground on each side for
working the same.

Then you file a copy of the same with the Mining Recorder in the town,
and your claim is "entered." In order to secure it, however, you must,
within ten days, do a certain amount of work upon the property, or any
one may re-enter it at the expiration of that time.

Among the most important citizens in every mining community are the
assayers, of whom there are generally a swarm to be found about every
new strike; some of them the veriest charlatans that ever disgraced an
honorable profession.

When you have located your claim, the next thing is to select some
specimens and subject them to the test of the "fire assay." For this
purpose it is customary to select the richest lump you can find, and
take it to the assayer. On the result of his assay, he will predicate
that a ton of such ore would yield hundreds, perhaps thousands of
dollars; and in this way many a worthless mine has been