Roughing It · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide clarifications, corrections, and additional context for various claims and anecdotes throughout the book, including notes on bunch-grass, vigilantes, Mormon history, the McGee assassination, bullion shipments from Virgi
What happens
The endnotes provide clarifications, corrections, and additional context for various claims and anecdotes throughout the book, including notes on bunch-grass, vigilantes, Mormon history, the McGee assassination, bullion shipments from Virginia City, the Sutro Tunnel, and Hawaiian customs.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Resolution.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the story's dramatic climax because it presents the ultimate psychological peak of fear and vulnerabil…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Get-Rich-Quick Schemes and Speculation
The endnotes include detailed bullion shipment figures and predictions of future yields, reflecting the speculative mania of the mining boom.
- Colonialism and Cultural Change
Notes on Hawaiian tabu, cannibalism, and missionary phrases highlight the clash between indigenous and Western cultures.
- Violence and Desperadoism
The note on Joe McGee's assassination illustrates the pervasive violence and code of the desperadoes in the mining towns.
Characters to notice
- Jack Williams
Referenced in the note about the prophecy of his assassination and the subsequent killing of Joe McGee.
- Mr. Valentine
Mentioned as Wells-Fargo's agent who handled bullion shipments through the Virginia office.
- Mr. Sutro
Noted as the originator of the Sutro Tunnel project, praised for his pluck and perseverance.
Key passages
“Bunch-grass grows on the bleak mountainsides of Nevada and neighboring territories, and offers excellent feed for stock, even in the dead of winter, wherever the snow is blown aside and exposes it; notwithstanding its unpromising home, bunch-grass is a better and more nutritious diet for cattle and horses than almost any other hay or grass that is known—so stockmen say.”
Bunch-grass, found on Nevada's harsh mountainsides, provides superior nutrition for livestock even in winter when snow is cleared away, according to ranchers.
Clarifies the value of bunch-grass as fodder.
“Thus in a year and a half, the Virginia office only shipped $5,330,000 in bullion. During the year 1862 they shipped $2,615,000, so we perceive the average shipments have more than doubled in the last six months.”
Over eighteen months, the Virginia office shipped $5,330,000 in bullion, with shipments more than doubling in the latter half of 1862 compared to the first half.
Provides data on bullion shipments from the Comstock Lode.
“Mr. Sutro, the originator of this prodigious enterprise, is one of the few men in the world who is gifted with the pluck and perseverance necessary to follow up and hound such an undertaking to its completion.”
Mr. Sutro, who conceived the tunnel project, is exceptionally determined and persistent in seeing it through.
Praises Sutro's determination for the tunnel project.
