Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/767

Rh went from bad to worse, as every one had access to the record book in the pioneer camp, and most of the prospectors changed their stakes and boundaries as often as seemed best. The most casual study of the Comstock region in 1860 reveals the wildest Walpurgis-night revels of conflicting claims of every size, shape, and age tumbling over each other three and four deep. Besides, the Virginia lode was parallel to the Comstock, and many lesser veins crossed it or ran near, thus giving rise to the great legal problem of the day. Was the Comstock one ledge or two ledges?

Then followed the famous mining cases that fill volume after volume of the Nevada reports—Savage against the Bowers Company, Chollar against Potosi (pronounced Potoseé by all old "Cōmstôckers"), Burning Moscow against Ophir, and others of



equal interest. The total number of lawsuits for twelve mines during this period is 245, and 168 of these were "actions brought" to dispossess the claimants of ground that, under the single-ledge theory, belonged to the first locators. The direct cost of this litigation was $10,000,000, or one fifth of the entire product of the lode during the fighting period. Pitched battles occurred underground; mines were flooded with water or filled with smoke» Forts were built, armed men employed, and battles fought on disputed claims. Some of the best mining lawyers of America were trained in this age of litigation. Stewart, known as "Old Invincible," tireless in devotion to his clients, received $100,000 from Belcher and $30,000 as a single fee from Yellow Jacket. The reputation of the Territorial courts suffered, and some of the judges resigned under stress of public wrath. Lord, in his History of the Comstock, sums up the period from 1860 to 1865 with