forgive, he is as capable of hate as any man I know. He enjoys his hatreds. His contempt for his enemies, and he has some powerful ones on his list, is only surpassed by his loyalty to his friends. In his friendships and in his enmities he is equally outspoken and bold. He cannot do too much for the former, nor is it in him to compromise with or conciliate the latter, except upon occasion when, for the sake of a principle, or out of respect to the majority with whom he is allied, it is manly that personalities be set apart. He is not built right to be a policy man. If he were, I should probably not be discussing him, or, if so, I would be occupied with quite a different and a less agreeable individuality, but one which might by diplomacy succeed in politics where he has failed.

I can readily see how a man of his traits should win such a degree of affection and popularity as he enjoyed among the miners of Colorado, by whom he is better known than any other man in the state. They knew him to be as I have described him, and they admired in him that self-possession and courage which is best manifested in that sort of carriage and address which puts personal encounter out of the question-a presence and character which subdues without offending. During the year that he was mayor of Leadville, when an officer's life might be jeopardized at any moment, he wore a pistol for the sake of caution, but never had occasion to put his hand on the weapon. In whatever society he has found himself he has been at his ease. His manners are agreeable, and his information is wide and varied. He started out with the rudiments of an education, with the tools with which to educate himself. He has accomplished this by reading, for he has found leisure in the midst of his pressing and weighty engagements; and, even better still, by friction among men whose society is a school itself. His knowledge of the drama, in which the mirror is held up to nature, human nature, is extensive and accurate Where can one study Shakespeare

better than in the Tabor opera-house? Being a close and appreciative observer, his extensive travels in the United States and Europe have contributed to the enlargement and accuracy of his ideas, and given him a knowledge of history and geography that cannot be obtained so well in any other way.

Withal, he is still as ever the same generous, open, unaffected citizen, the architect of his own fortune, and chief among the chiefs to whose talent and industry the world owes a great and happy commonwealth, with all that this implies.

Eminently a product of the conditions and opportunities which in no small degree he has himself created, it might be said of him as Napoleon said of himself, "My son cannot replace me; I could not replace myself."

CHAPTER XIII.

MINES AND MINING-COLORADO.

THE OLDEST OF AMERICAN GOLD DEPOSITS ANCIENT SHAFTS OF THE CLIFFDWELLERS OR OF THE SPANIARDS-CALIFORNIA PILGRIMS-CHEROKEES— GOLD DISCOVERED TOWNS-PIKE'S PEAK-LARGE MIGRATION-GEOLOGIC FORMATION-CHARACTER OF THE DEPOSITS-PROSPECTINGS AND WILD RUSHINGS-PARKS AND PEAKS-MINING LAWS-YIELD-MILLS AND PROCESSES-LEAD, IRON, AND COAL.

In this, the oldest portion of the continent, nature stored within the rocks the treasures which, through the agency of man, were destined to transform here, as in other sections, a wilderness into a flourishing state. Thus hidden, few looked for them, notwithstanding the traditions of golden nuggets carried in the shot-pouches of the early mountaineers, and of the published statement of the explorer, Pike, that an American, James Pursley, whom he met in New Mexico, showed him lumps of gold obtained from the South park, and asserted that the Indians, knowing of placers in that region, had roused the curiosity of Mexicans so far as to lead them on a futile search. Old deserted shafts and copper vessels, said to have been discovered in southern Colorado, are attributed to the ancient cliff-dwellers, although they should, with more likelihood, be ascribed to the Spaniards.

It was only when the California discoveries had aroused the attention of the world that gold-hungry pilgrims occasionally halted to test the now repeated rumors, some on the Platte, others in the south. Among these wanderers was a party of Cherokees, in quest not exactly of gold but of a new home for their Georgian tribe. Following the Arkansas and Squirrel

creek route, they reached Cherry creek, and there found gold, continuing their journey thence to California. The discovery was verified by a cattle trader, and by military expeditions which followed the same road in 1857, and previously, but so little metal was obtained that no excitement attended it.

The Cherokees had meanwhile returned from California, and after many efforts succeeded, in 1858, in organizing an expedition to the Cherry creek gold field, composed of thirty Indians and twelve white persons, under the leadership of George Hicks, senior, and John Beck. Among the white members was G. McDougal, brother of the governor of California, who had a trading-post on Adobe creek. They prospected in vain from the Arkansas to beyond the Platte river, but finally W. G. Russell found fair diggings on a dry creek seven miles south of Cherry creek.

The curiosity roused by the expedition and its known object sufficed to start others on its heels. One from Lawrence, Kansas, searched in vain for placers to the south and north of Arkansas river, and then sought compensation in laying out towns near the present sites of Colorado Springs and Denver, for which, however, neither settlers nor buyers appeared. Other and more resolute adventurers from Missouri gathered along Cherry creek, and spent part of their leisure in laying out Auraria, in opposition to which a party from Leavenworth founded Denver, on the opposite side of the creek.

In the autumn D. C. Oakes, of Auraria, returned east with a diary of W. G. Russell, the gold discoverer of this year, and published it under the title of Pike's Peak Guide and Journal. This was widely circulated, together with some similar publications. The result was an excitement fully equal in many respects to that of 1849. With the early spring thousands of wagons were on the way, their white covers bearing conspicuously the inscription "Pike's Peak," often with the addition of some jocose legend. On one was

emblazoned "Pike's Peak or bust!" On its return, soon afterward, were added the words, "Busted, by thunder!"

The migration during the season is estimated at 100,000 persons, a number far exceeding the annual rushes to California. Business depression and the political trouble in Kansas had prepared the people for such a movement, and it needed only the glowing reports from the Rocky mountains to give it direction, after which it poured onward without waiting for their confirmation. Disappointment was therefore to be expected. The diggings so far explored were meagre in extent and yield, and as few among the incomers knew anything of indications or mining methods their inefficient search proved of little avail.

In addition to failure came reports of the violent deeds committed by some of the most desperate characters ever to be found in the train of man's migrations. This with other causes sufficed to start a veritable stampede, and homeward the crowd hastened, faster than it had come, loud in bitter denunciations, and vowing vengeance on the author of the Pike's Peak Guide. Nearly two thirds of the emigrants returned, and almost as many more, then on the way, or preparing to move westward, were deterred by the warnings of the baffled fortune-hunters. Many a trader emptied his load on the roadside, rather than tax his exhausted animals to drag it farther.

Another cause for the discomfiture lay in the abnormal geologic conditions. The formation of the plains was simple enough, with its cretaceous and post-cretaceous strata; but in the mountains the most skillful geologist found himself at fault. Through the tertiary basis of the north and middle parks, appeared masses of volcanic rock stretching westward over the White River region. The South park is an indescribable jumble, and that of San Luis is of recent formation. The Front, most of the Park, all of the