To William A. Moffett
30 January–1 February 1862 • Carson City, Nev. Terr.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00038)

. . . .

In the little square package of “National” rock, (wrapped in writing paper,) there are particles of free gold which have become detached from the rock, while lying here in the office, and more will crumble away on the road—open carefully.1 I have, in the same package, placed [ in a ]piece of the quartz in which no gold can be seen. If you doubt [their ]being any in it, let Jim Lampton pulverize it in a mortar and wash it out.2 The ledge is 8 inches wide on top, and 22 inches wide at a depth of 34 feet. It will probably grow wide enough before they reach China.

Open the Selenite crystals carefully. They are very delicate, and have already got battered. The strip which is tied to the prism, I split off with my knife. They are from the “Latrobe Tunnel,” (at [Virginia, City]) which is being run by two brothers Van Bokkelen, San Francisco capitalists. They begun the tunnel 12 months ago, and will finish it 2 years from now. It is 6½ feet square, [and is ]already 1,600 feet long. It has a wooden [railway ] [ its throughout ]its [whole ]length, and two air shafts; from [ who which ]air, in pipes, is conveyed to the workmen in the end of the tunnel.3 I went into the tunnel ‸yesterday morning before I left Virginia,‸ in a small car, (which Mr. Van B. pushed from behind,) and carried the lights. I picked up some beautiful crystals (they are either mica or selenite,) in the extreme end of the tunnel, 1600 feet from its mouth and 200 feet below the surface of the ground—but I [ k have ]kept them, and I send you others which will stand the trip better, although they are not very pretty.

We ‸(Van. B. & I,)‸ descended the Ophir incline ‸190 feet‸ (I call it the Ophir perpendicular,) last [ Sunday Saturday ]night at 9 o’clock.4 We went down lying [on] [our ]backs in a little car—not room enough in the shaft to allow you to sit up—and we reached the bottom nearly as quickly as we would if we had jumped down the hole. The foreman [ told took ]us all through the mine (he is not allowed to admit visiters at night, but I was introduced as the Secretary of the Territory, and he said he would take the responsibility of disobeying his orders for once.)5 We were around through the bowels of the earth generally, and the specimens I send you, I picked up from a choice pile marked [ “(“First ]class—No. 2,” ‸(worth 4 or $5,000 to the ton,)‸ at the extremest depth, where the ledge is 52 feet wide. The Ophir, you know, is Silver rock—with some gold in it, though. The yellow spots in the specimen are iron pyrites, (or possibly, they may be copper.) The Ophir has $2,000,000 worth of ore lying on the ground at the mouth of their tunnel incline, which they do not intend to crush until it can be crushed at $20 [ at ‸per‸ ]ton—they pay about $45 now, and crush only 1st 2d and 3d class rock, I believe.

There is one Selenite crystal which is neither tied up nor marked. All the other unlabeled specimens are water formations from Steamboat Springs, 15 miles from Virginia. These Springs effect some great cures in the [rhumatic ]line. [ The Some ]of the springs are hot enough to boil a hog in.

In the box are specimens from the following ledges: [ “National]; Gov. Downey; Alba Nueva; Moonlight—and casing rock of the Sheba.6

Sam. L. Clemens

Love to the folks.

[on outside of letter as folded:] Read this before opening |the packages

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The initial page or pages of this letter are missing. Presumably written to Moffett, whose capital Clemens desired to sustain his mining ventures, the letter was evidently mailed inside the “box” of separately labeled “specimens” it goes on to describe. The ore from the National ledge, near Unionville in Humboldt County, seemingly has had at least a brief time, “lying there” in Orion’s Carson City office, in which to begin to decompose. Clemens had arrived in Carson City from Humboldt, via Virginia City, by 30 January, and he probably wrote no later than 1 February (see note 4).

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2 Clemens’s uncle James A. H. Lampton was hoping to come to Nevada. Being a physician, Lampton would have had the mortar and pestle to pulverize the quartz sample.

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3 The Latrobe Tunnel and Mining Company of San Francisco was incorporated on 29 January 1861. Its president was Jacob L. Van Bokkelen (d. 1873), of Virginia City, who was president of the Council of the first Territorial Legislature (1861) and served on the Council of the second Territorial Legislature (1862). He was probably the legislator mentioned in chapter 25 of Roughing It who proposed dispensing with the legislative chaplain and who “generally sat with his feet on his desk, eating raw turnips during the morning prayer”: on 14 November 1862 he did offer a council resolution that, if passed, would have eliminated the post of chaplain. Van Bokkelen’s brother William, a Virginia City notary public, is not listed in Nevada territorial directories in connection with the Latrobe Tunnel and Mining Company. The company’s tunnel, which was begun on 4 February 1861 on the flat below Virginia City, ultimately penetrated about three thousand feet, reportedly passing “entirely through the Comstock lode” without striking any ore (Foster, 117; Andrew J. Marsh, 3, 449, 666 n. 11; Kelly 1863, 289, 304–5; “A Trip to Washoe,” Nevada City [Calif.] Transcript, 10 July 61, 2).

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4 Since Clemens arrived in Virginia City on 19 January and was back in Carson City by 30 January, his descent into the Ophir (in the Virginia mining district) had to have taken place on Saturday, 25 January. This circumstance helps limit the range of probable dates for the present letter. Clemens could not have written it after Saturday, 1 February, without implying that “last Saturday night” was 1 February, a date on which he could not have visited the Ophir.

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5 Although Clemens had himself listed in the first territorial directory as “Assistant Secretary Nevada Territory” (Kelly 1862, 69), the only office he actually held was that of Orion’s clerk during the first legislative session, 1 October–29 November 1861 (William C. Miller, 2–3).

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6 All of these ledges were on the eastern slopes of the Humboldt Mountains, the first three on a single hill near Unionville in the Buena Vista district. The Moon-light became known as one of the richest mines in the Indian district, about seven miles to the south. The Sheba was the most productive mine in the Star district, to the north of Buena Vista Cañon. A casing was a zone of “material altered by vein-action” between the vein and “unaltered” rock (Raymond, 18, 25).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).

Previous publication: L1, 153–155.

Provenance:see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61.

Emendations and textual notes:

in a • [‘a’ over ‘in’]

their • [sic]

Virginia, City • Virginaia, City [sic; ‘i’ over ‘a’]

and is • and is is [‘d’ over possible ‘is’; false start]

railway • and is railway [‘railw’ over ‘and is’; probably a false start inadvertently echoing ‘and is’ (153.15) directly above in the previous MS line]

its throughout • its throughout g [‘th’ over ‘its’; terminal ‘t’ over ‘g’]

whole • whosle [‘l’ over ‘s’]

who which • whoich [‘i’ over ‘o’]

k have • [‘h’ over ‘k’]

Sunday Saturday • S‸atur‸ unday [‘atur’ over ‘unda’, inadvertently covering too much]

our • our n [‘r’ over doubtful ‘n’]

told took • to‸ok‸ ld [‘ok’ over ‘ld’]

“( “First • “(First [‘F’ over possible opening parenthesis]

at per • [‘per’ over ‘at’]

rhumatic • [sic]

The Some • [‘So’ over ‘The’]

“National • “Natoional [‘N’ over opening quotation marks; ‘i’ over ‘o’]