about two o'clock in the afternoon
The apartment in which we were standing was about twenty feet square , and nearly as many high , and , in one corner , we found a spring of clear , cool water . `` Nothing could be nicer than this , '' declared Ned . `` I 'd like to stay here for a month ; it 's just splendid , '' But Ned 's enthusiasm soon died out , for we discovered unmistakable evidence that Indians were in the habit of visiting it . We determined to pass the night there , however , which we did without being disturbed , and the next morning again started for the mine , which we reached about two o'clock in the afternoon . The mine consisted of a horizontal shaft , cut into the mountain-side , that had reached a depth of between two and three hundred feet ; the ore being drawn up in large leathern buckets , by mule power , attached to a windlass . Such portions as were deemed sufficiently rich were at once conveyed to the smelting furnace , where the pure ore was melted down and extracted from the virgin fossil . If of inferior quality , it was submitted to the process of amalgamation .