MINING IN NEVADA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 157, 3 July 1872, Page 4

MINING IN NEVADA.

A gentleman in Timaru has kindly permitted us to make extracts from a private letter lately received from a friend in Elka Co., Nevada, which shows that silver mining there, and the general life is not quite couleur de rose. The writer says :—" Speaking generally, I am glad you have not, nor are likely to put any money in American mines, for grosser swindles you cannot conceive. It is impoßible to describe in words the cheatiiiq and roguery that is carried on, or howanybody can be so easily duped by such _detes*.ble wretches, called in this country ' smart men.' The worst is you have no security, as foreigners cannot hold property in the country, and although they will sell you any quantity of worthless property, the moment you get hold of a good thin-; they will try to take it on the grounds before mentioned. This sort of thing happened a short distance from here. A company, after paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mine, which, turning out better than was expected, they (the Americans) came to take it away by force from this English company; and what did the company dp ? Go to law ? No; for there is no law in the country. They had to have armed men, with mines filled with powder, and oppose force to force, and hold possession by force. It' is scarcely credible, but the English have had to employ ' fighting men ' at 20dol. per day to hold their property, and these kill off any obnoxious people tbat may be pointed out by the directors. Fancy sueh things being carried out in.a free country ! " The writer goes on to say: — "I got on very well indeed with the people, as I know how to manage them, but it is a rough, country. When I left you that night I went on in the stage, and got here at midnight, almost frozen to death,- and we have had more or less snow storms ever since. It appears to bo an unprecedented winter. If so, I am very unfortunate. The Union Pacific was blockaded for a month, and we had no letters, and I should say you had received your mails very irregularly. It iß.a bad thing to throw overboard an established line like the P. and 0., and to think that every advantage is to be gained, by the American route, but there are. always some people who wish to- mould .England .and. her colonies' on the same ,plan as this great Republic, but, I'tfust, it-will never happen for the term of my.natural existence. * * It is. snowing or hailing very heavily at present; and 'the aspect. oi the, country is a very ,'jbarpn "o.n^^n'o;tbjng,at,;all moving about^ind^the only .cbmfort u «re have is „a .very nice, well-furnished house. To live in the so-called hotels 4s i perfect misery. The stage* *has been robbed since I have

been here — last night by four men, and everything taken from, the passengers aud coach ! The country is so free that you can keep nothing yourself, and if a man tells tho truth without prejudice, he will acknowledge the superiority of the old country. There are a great mimy Scotchmen (miners) here, who are very steady fellows, and save their money, The pay is very good, four dollars per day, and their board ten dollars per week; but then the miners are changing so often, tbat they can save but little money of their earnings. I never saw so many men looking for employment in any country before, or seen so many dusty fellows begging, or as they say 'dead broke,' and wanting afew dollars to take them on the next mining camp." — G. R. Argus.