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Capt. W. Alpheus Smith, formerly of the steamer Amazonia, Mississippi river--we recollect the boat pretty well, and so will others of our citizens--navigated in yesterday, from Reese river, where he has been taking the bearings of the country and gobbling up mining claims. He got controlling interests in the Barclay & Smith, the Amazonia and the Ann Smith ledges, and has returned with the impression that he needs no more. We hope it may prove so; but then twenty-four hundred feet, in a new country like Reese river, seems a very small amount for a man to be satisfied with. However, these ledges are respectively eighteen, ten and twenty-five feet wide, and the specimens which Capt. Smith brings from there are exceedingly rich; one from the Amazonia had been roasted, and was entirely covered with a delicate frostwork of pure silver, These leads are situated about nine miles from Clifton. The population of Reese river is steadily increasing, and Capt. Smith says that trading in town lots, in Clifton and Austin, is becoming a business among some of the citizens; the ruling price for single lots is $200, and choice ones range even as high as $500.
[reprinted in Mark Twain in Virginia City, Paul Fatout, (Indiana University Press, 1964), p. 137. Subsequent attempts to locate this item as cited have been unsuccessful. It is possible the date is in error and the item appears in a reprint elsewhere.]
