The prospector is a man of small pretentions, of peaceful disposition, indomitable will, boundless perseverance, remarkable endurance, undoubted courage, irrepressible hopefulness, and unlimited hospitality. He is the friend of every man till he has evidence that the man is his enemy, and he is the most respected man in the mining regions of the West. Of what does the prospector's outfit consist? That is a question the writer put to one of the ilk who was just starting out for the desert. "Plenty of bacon, son," said he, "for that's whar ye git yer grease fer to fry yer flap-jacks, yer stock fer soup, an' it gives ye rines fer the burro to chaw. Next ye takes rice, fer it don't take up much room an' it swells like all-git-out when ye gits it in the pot. Comes mighty handy in yer soup, too. Half a dozen onions an' a few taters--not many, fer ye can't tote 'em--them's fer soup, too, an' then the flour. Flour's the principal thing in the grub line. A few beans is good an' they swells like the rice. Then thar's the tent canvas an' the blankets an' the pick an' shovel an' pan, fer washin' dirt, the mortar an' chemicals fer testin' rock, an' the cookin' outfit. There's a knife, a fork, a spoon, a tin plate an' cup an' the fryin' pan, an' thar ye are." The prospector no longer deems it necessary to seek entirely new territory in which to prosecute his search for the precious metal. He has learned that good results are obtained on ground many times prospected. It takes sharp eyes to detect traces of the precious stuff--not only that, but keen judgment and technical knowledge coupled with experience. [Illustration: AN AGED PROSPECTOR AT MOUTH OF HIS MINE From photograph by C. C. Pierce & Co.] In the early days of mining in this country it was in the placer fields that the prospector reaped his fortune. In California, successive ages of erosion had worn away portions of the gold-bearing veins of the Sierras, and the rains and brooks and rivers had distributed the metal along the valleys and plains where it but awaited the test of the pan to disclose its whereabouts. In ten years after the prospector began his wanderings through the State there were taken from the placer diggings more than $500,000,000 worth of gold. In the year 1875, $20,000,000 worth were washed from the sands of California Gulch alone. When the placer fields were practically worked out the prospector began looking for "mother lodes," as they termed the veins which had furnished the dust and yellow lumps they had been gathering from the sands in the placer diggings. In this search the real skill of the prospector comes into play. Gold is found in a variety of rocks. Its usual home, however, is in quartz, although a few of our richest mines have been found in other rocks. The prospector must be able to read the book of nature closely.