istake. I learned afterwards that it belonged
to a set of furnaces that were built by a New York company to smelt ore
that never was found. The tools of the workmen are still lying in place
beside the furnaces, as if dropped in some sudden Indian or earthquake
panic and never afterwards handled. These imposing ruins, together with
the desolate town, lying a quarter of a mile to the northward, present
a most vivid picture of wasted effort. Coyotes now wander unmolested
through the brushy streets, and of all the busy throng that so lavishly
spent their time and money here only one man remains--a lone bachelor
with one suspender.

Mining discoveries and progress, retrogression and decay, seem to have
been crowded more closely against each other here than on any other
portion of the globe. Some one of the band of adventurous prospectors
who came from the exhausted placers of California would discover some
rich ore--how much or little mattered not at first. These specimens fell
among excited seekers after wealth like sparks in gunpowder, and in a
few days the wilderness was disturbed with the noisy clang of miners and
builders. A little town would then spring up, and before anything like a
careful survey of any particular lode would be made, a company would
be formed, and expensive mills built. Then, after all the machinery
was ready for the ore, perhaps little, or none at all, was to be
found. Meanwhile another discovery was reported, and the young town was
abandoned as completely as a camp made for a single night; and so on,
until some really valuable lode was found, such as those of Eureka,
Austin, Virginia, etc., which formed the substantial groundwork for a
thousand other excitements.

Passing through the dead town of Schellbourne last month, I asked one of
the few lingering inhabitants why the town was built. "For the mines,"
he replied. "And where are the mines?" "On the mountains back here."
"And why were they abandoned?" I asked. "Are they exhausted?" "Oh, no,"
he replied, "they are not exhausted; on the contrary, they have never
been worked at all, for unfortunately, just as we were about ready to
open them, the Cherry Creek mines were discovered across the valley in
the Egan range, and everybody rushed off there, taking what they could
with them--houses machinery, and all. But we are hoping that somebody
with money and speculation will come and revive us yet."

The dead mining excitements of Nevada were far more