Chapter I: Front Matter

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HISTORY OF

THE BIG BONANZA:

AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY, HISTORY, AND WORKING OF THE
WORLD RENOWNED
COMSTOCK SILVER LODE OF NEVADA

INCLUDING THE

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS MINES SITUATED THEREON;
SKETCHES OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN INTERESTED IN
THEM; INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES CONNECTED WITH
MINING, THE INDIANS, AND THE COUNTRY;
AMUSING STORIES, EXPERIENCES,
ANECDOTES, &C., &C.
AND A FULL
EXPOSITION OF THE PRODUCTION OF PURE SILVER

BY
DAN DE QUILLE.
(WILLIAM WRIGHT.)

=PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.=

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SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.

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HARTFORD, CONN.:
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.:
A. L. BANCROFT & CO.
1876.

Entered according to act of Congress, in year 1876 by
AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO.,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

INTRODUCTORY.

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One easily gets a surface-knowledge of any remote country, through the writings of travellers. The inner life of such a country is not very often presented to the reader. The outside of a strange house is interesting, but the people, the life, and the furniture inside, are far more so.

Nevada is peculiarly a surface-known country, for no one has written of that land who had lived long there and made himself competent to furnish an inside view to the public. I think the present volume supplies this defect in an eminently satisfactory way. The writer of it has spent sixteen years in the heart of the silver-mining region, as one of the editors of the principal daily newspaper of Nevada; he is thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and wields a practised pen. He is a gentleman of character and reliability. Certain of us who have known him personally during half a generation are well able to testify in this regard.

MARK TWAIN.

HARTFORD, May, 1876.

TO
JOHN MACKEY, ESQ.,
_PRINCE OF MINERS_,
AND
“BOSS” OF THE BIG BONANZA,
IS THIS BOOK
RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.