My adventures in the Sierras

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MY ADVENTURES

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IN THE

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SIERRAS.

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BY

OBED G. WILSON.

FRANKLIN, OHIO.
THE EDITOR PUBLISHING CO.

1902,

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COPTRIGHE BY

OBED G. WILSON.
1902.

OBED G. WLLSOX,

(FROM A PICTURE TAKEN UPON DAY OF LEAVING HOME.)

My Adventures

In Th>e Sierras.

CHAPTER I.

In the fall of 1854, when the California gold
excitement was at its height, and every boy who
was mature enough to feel within him the first
faint throbbing of the manly spirit of self-reli-
ance and concern for his future well-being, was
possessed with a desire to try his fortune in that
disiant El Dorado, I gained from my parents a
reluctant consenUo join in the adventurous rush
over that supposed short cut to fortune and to
fame.

My home was a secluded one in the upper
Kennebec valley, and though I had reached the
age of eighteen, I had enjoyed but limited
glimpses of the big outside world and knew
little of what I must encounter in my effort to
fulfill the possibilities of the ambition that moved
me.

Eager as I was to assume the new role of man
of the world, I felt a painful reluctance at leav-
ing the old home that held so many near and

1

2 MY ADVENTURES

dear to me, and around which clustered the pre-
cious memories of a happy childhood. Its moss-
grown roof and the towering elms that had for
nearly a century, like faithful sentinels, pro-
tected it from the scorching summer heat and
the chilling blasts of winter, had sheltered four
generations of my family, and every building and
tree and surrounding hill was endeared by sacred
associations that bound me to the spot and
which have kept alive, through all these suc-
ceeding years, the tender memories and better
influences of my youth — memories that gleam
like stars through the deepening shadows of the
past, and influences that come like balmy breezes
to temper the heat of my daily strife and tinge
with clearer light and purer motives the acts of
my busy life.

But I was impelled to make the sacrifice by an
urgent necessity for a change of climate for the
benefit of my health, and by the hope of success-
fully wooing the fickle goddess of fortune in the
newly discovered placer mines of the northern
Sierra mining region.

There were three routes to the Pacific coast,
all of which were tedious and perilous. The
overland route traversed the Rocky Mountains
and the arid plains of Utah and Nevada among
hostile tribes of Indians who very naturally re-
sented bitterly and persistently that unjust inva-
sion of their hunting grounds and ruthless

IN THE SIERRAS 3

slaughter of their game by the merciless emi-
grants.

The Nicaragua and Panama routes were even
more tedious and dangerous, as the transporta-
tion and accommodations were very poor, and
the exposure of the passengers to the extreme
changes of temperature and tropical diseases
proved fatal to thousands.

The steamers were almost wholly without sani-
tary provision, and the second cabin and steer-
age departments kept so foul thatcholera,yellow
fever and ship fever prevailed to a frightful
extent nearly every trip during the summer
and fall months.

I chose the Nicaragua route, and one bright
November morning sailed from New York on a
crowded steamer, but in a sea so calm and an air
so still and balmy as to make the trip delightful
in spite of our poor accommodations.

An uneventful run of eight days down the
coast and through the pleasant windings of the
route among the Bahamas and past the Antilles
into the Caribbean brought us to Graytown,
Nicaragua, where we were transferred to two
small steamers that took us up the winding, tur-
bid river of San Juan to Castillo, a picturesque
little town of one thousand inhabitants. There
we disembarked and walked past the rapids that
bar navigation and took smaller steamers for the
rest of the trip.

4 MY ADVENTURES

A notable relic at that point of the ancient
wealth and power of Nicaragua is a dilapidated
stone fort situated on the apex of a cone-shaped
hill three hundred feet above the river. It was
built several hundred years ago for the protec-
tion of the country around Lake Nicaragua which
was then populous and wealthy. Grenada, on
the west side of the lake, was one of the largest
and richest cities on the continent and was con-
stantly menaced by the numerous buccaneers of
the Spanish Main.

It is said that Nelson, when a young captain
of marines, made an unsuccesssul attempt to
take the fort, approaching it in small boats from
the English ships at the mouth of the river. As
a revolution was in progress in Nicaragua then
it was garrisoned by about two hundred govern-
ment soldiers who presented a ludicrous appear-
ance, being but half dressed, and armed only
with flint-lock muskets and rusty machotes, and
too listless and indifferent to be dangerous foes.

We were detained there a day in consequence
of a rumor that a body of insurgent soldiers was
in ambush farther up the river waiting the
arrival of our steamers with the purpose of inter
cepting them and capturing a quantity of arms
and ammunition that was being taken to a gov-
ernment garrison at Virgin Bay on Lake Nicara-
gua.

The rumor caused quite a panic among the

IN THE SIERRAS 5

passengers, most of whom had scattered through
the little town, where they heard the most thrill-
ing stories of barbarous depredations by the in-
surgents and were assured by the natives that if
the boats proceeded farther up the river they
would be captured and the passengers robbed ;
but the officers of the boats, having received in
the evening a contradiction of the rumor, reas-
sured the passengers aaid succeeded in getting
them all on board.

A woman eighty years of age who was on her
way to her son in California, accompanied only
by a little grand- daughter ten years old and
who had been rendered feeble and nervous by
sea-sickness, was so overcome by the frightful
rumors that she died soon after we left Castillo,
and her remains were taken on shore and buried
in a small village twenty miles east of Lake
Nicaragua.

It was a dreary looking place in a small open-
ing in the dense tropical forest, occupied by
about thirty miserable huts and a general store.
Several ladies and gentlemen who had become
interested in the woman and the lovely little
grand-daughter, urged the captain to take the
remains on to Virgin Bay; but he coldly refused
and ordered the removal of the body from the
boat.

Forty or fifty of the passengers followed it to
the edge of the village, where two of the boat

6 MY ADVENTURES

hands had already dug a grave, and witnessed
the burial. A short prayer was offered by a cler-
gyman who chanced to be anong the passengers,
and as the grave was being filled twenty or thirty
of us joined in singing an appropriate hymn,
which brought out a dismal echo from myriads
of curious monkeys in the surrounding tree tops
and sent a chill to the heart of the grief-stricken
little mourner, who cried in her anguish, "O I
can't leave grandma here!" and refused to be
borne from the grave. One of the ladies knelt,
and folding the child in her arms, assured her
that she would not leave grandma there, that
they had buried only her worn-out body, and
that grandma herself would still be with her on
their journey, keeping loving watch over her
till she was safe with her father in California.

That thought seemed to bring comfort and
calm to her breaking heart, and she permitted
t!-ie lady's husband to bear har in his arms back
to the boat. The scene was pathetic beyond
expression, and every passenger present left the
spot a tearful mourner for the sad bereave-
ment of our little fellow-passenger. She was
tenderly cared for during the rest of the journey
and restored to her father in San Francisco.

The upper half of the river was beautiful and
the scenery along its banks as novel and
enchanting as the fabled fairy-land. The cur-
rent was lees sluggish, the water clearer and the

IN THE SIERRAS 7

country on each side higher and dotted with
little clusters of thatched huts, half hidden by
luxuriant orange, lime, and banana groves.
The overhanging trees were noisy with ceaseless
screeching of a great variety of birds of brilliant
plumage and the angry chatter of hordes of
monkeys, who seemed greatly disturbed by the
hoarse puffing of the engines and the offensively
odorous clouds from the smoke stacks. At every
turn in the river scores of alligators were seen
scrambling from the hot sand on the shores for
concealment in the murky water.

Delightful as was the run up the river, we
were glad to emerge into the pure air of Lake
Nicaragua and free our lungs of the debilitating
miasma of the dense tropical forest.

At Virgin Bay on the west side we disem-
barked and were assigned saddle mules for the
remaining twelve miles of our journey across to
San Juan del Sur.

The road was a rough one over a chain of
hills, the connecting range between the Andes
and the Sierra Madres, and across a stretch of
five miles of swamp. I joined a party of about
one hundred young men and started a little in
advance of the other passengers, and as we were
descending the range of hills we were startled
by the sudden appearance of a squad of abtmt
two hundred insurgent infantry. They drew up
in a double line across the road fifty or sixty

8 MY ADVENTURES

rods ahead of us as if to dispute our passage.
We came to a halt, and while we were consulting
our guide as to whether we should turn back or
advance and demand the right of way, the sol-
diers were withdrawn from the road and formed
a single line on each side.

The commanding oilicer then signaled us to
pass on. Though we recognized the revolution-
ary movement there as a lawless venture we were
half in sympathy with it and hoped it might
succeed so far as to result in the subjugation of
the masses and the establishment of a wholesome
form of government under which the wonderful
possibilities of that beautiful country could be
realized ; and when we advanced to the head of
the lines we raised our hats above our heads
and gave three cheers for the insurgent leader
and his brave followers, which was answered
with hearty shouts from the insurgent lines.

We reached the Pacific six hours before the
boat left for San Francisco, which gave me time
for a delicious bath in the salt surf and for a
visit to a small plantation one mile from the^/
town where I first saw a cocoa palm grove and
first plucked rich oranges, limes and bananas.

I provided myself with a peck basket full
of this fruit for my trip north, for which I
was charged ten cents. The day after leaving
Nicaragua we encountered a terrific storm wThich
drove us twenty-four hours out of our course

IN THE SIERRAS 9

and brought us about midnight in contact with
a wreck of some sort that stove in a plank under
the second deck, making a dangerous opening
through which the waves dashed till the floor
was covered with eight or ten inches of water
and many of the passengers drenched. It pro-
duced a frightful panic and hundreds of the
passengers rushed half dressed through the
water to the gangways and attempted to escape
to the deck, but only to find the hatches barred
down and egress impossible.

For a time the cabin was a perfect pande-
monium. Men cursed and howled with rage
because they could not escape to the deck, and
women and children rushed frantically to and
fro screeching like maniacs; and above this
discordant babel of voices and the angry roar of
the waves could be heard from both men and
women loud and earnest prayer for deliverance.

The course of the boat was finally so changed
that the waves did not strike that side and
the plank was replaced and the water pumped
from the cabin. When the storm subsided one
of the side wheels was so injured that it was nec-
essary to anchor twelve hours for repairs. We
finally reached Aoapulco, Mexico, where we were
detained two days for further repairs and coal-
ing. I went on shore and spent part of each day
looking through that picturesque little town and
foraging on the surrounding hillsides for fresh

10 MY ADVENTURES

fruit. A majority of the people of the town
were of pure Castilian blood, but the surround-
ing rural population were nearly all of the Mes-
tizo class. A few were of the cholo, or pure
Spanish and Indian type, but most of them bore
marks of negro blood also.

Acapulco, being the principal Mexican sea-
port on the Pacific, had a large trade in tropical
fruits, sugar, coffee and tobacco, and various
valuable woods, which products were exported
to California and various European countries.
This trade gave the -little town quite a business
air, much of which was duo to the energy and
Yankee push of two of our own countrymen who
had years before settled there and gained con-
trol of the fruit and tobacco export trade.

Most of the passengers went on shore and in-
dulged freely in the tropical fruits and pulque, a
domestic beverage made from the juice of the
maguey plant, and as a consequence about one
hundred and fifty of them were taken sick the
night before we left port and the following day.
Most of them recovered in a few days, but about
twenty cases of genuine Asiatic cholera and as
many cases of ship fever developed, creating a
panic among the passengers and clouding our
narrow limits with the gloom and despair of a
pest house.

No one who has not experienced such a trial
can imagine what a sense of helpless despair

IN THE SIERRAS 11

comes to one with the consciousness that he is
surrounded by a deadly contagion from which
he cannot flee. He seems to hear his own death
summons echoed in every dying groan around
him and to feel a fatal sting in every breath of
the infected air.

A yoiing man from Pennsylvania, whose ac-
quaintance I made soon after leaving New York,
and whose companionship was quite a delight to
me, was among the cholera stricken, and I
nursed him for two days, at the end of which
time he died. I assisted in his burial at mid-
night and at the same hour witnessed the burial
of four others, one of whom was the first mate
of the steamer, who had died that day with the
cholera.

So reckless and indifferent were the officers of
the boat that no fresh water was taken aboard
at Acapulco, and after leaving that port all the
water supplied to the second cabin and steerage
passengers was thick with coagulated globules
and as foul and poisonous as a cess-pool. I tried
to avoid drinking it, but the intense tropical
heat excited free perspiration and so much
thirst that I was compelled to strain a little of
it through my teeth two or three times a day.

The night of the burial of my friend I went
to bed nearly exhausted from lack of sleep and
proper nourishment and woke in a few hours in
a burning fever and with intense pain in my
head and back.

12 MY ADVENTURES

A man from my own state, by the name of
Ross, who had settled ia California two years be-
fore and was returning from a visit to Maine,
had been very friendly to me all the way from
New York, and now assured me that he would
care for me till I was better. He called the
physician of the boat, who pronounced my ail-
ment simply cholera morbus, and instructed my
friend Ross to give me a tablespoonf ul of brandy
and cayenne pepper every hour. I had no con-
fidence in the physician, having noticed that he
spent most of the time gambling and drinking
with a fast party of first-cabin passengers, and
after a day's trial of hi3 medicine refused to
take more, for the vile compound had already
eaten my stomach raw and increased the fever
until I seemed to be burning up. He came to
see me twice more, but gave me no other medi-
cine.

After the second day the pain left me, but the
fever continued until we reached San Francisco.
It centered in my chest which seemed on fire,
while my extremities were cold and numb.

When the boat stopped at the pier in San
Francisco my friend Ross left me alone, to find
some quiet boarding house or hotel to which I
could be taken instead of permitting the officers
of the boat to send me to some miserable hospital
where I would die from neglect. 1 had not slept
for three or four days, and when the motion of

IN THE SIERRAS 13

the boat stopped and the noise of the departing
passengers had ceased, I fell asleep.

He returned in about an hour and aroused me
and carried rue in his arms to the wharf and
placed me on a mattress in an open express
wagon and took me to "Hillman's Temperance
House," kept by one "Father Hillman,"as he
was generally called, a whole-souled, generous
Samaritan who never shunned the distressed, but
extended his hospitality alike to the prosperous
and the sick and penniless. It was probably the
only hotel in the city to which I could have been
admitted in that condition.

I was taken to a room and consigned to the
care of an elderly physician and his wife resid-
ing in the house. Mr. Ross assisted the doctor
in removing my clothes, and I requested them to
take off and deposit with the landlord a buck-
skin belt containing my money; but they re-
ported that there was no belt on me, and nothing
in my pockets.

The announcement stunned and confused me,
and yet I was conscious enough to realize that
while I slept on the boat I had been robbed of
every dollar I possessed and left adrift penniless
and helpless in that strange, cold city, where,
as I had been told, "every man cared nothing
for his neighbor, but all for his neighbor's
purse," and my heart sank within me.

CHAPTER II.

The doctor's wife noticing the effect it was
having upon me, urged me not to think of my
loss and assured me they would give me the
same kind care I would receive if I possessed
thousands.

They commenced at once a vigorous effort to
restore my external circulation, surrounding me
with bottles of hot water and rubbing me with
various heating applications, which they kept
up from ten in the morning till night without
any perceptible results. They then called in
another physician who remained with me most
of the night. At ten o'clock the next morning,
twenty-four hours after my arrival, there was no
change. They could not keep the medicine in
my stomach an instant and the rubbing had no
effect. I was steadily growing weaker and my
breathing more difficult. The physician finally
decided that restoration was impossible, and
the resident physician took my name and the
name and address of my father and that of a
friend in the mountains of the northern part of
the state, whom I intended to join, and then
left me. The clerk of the hotel came and did
the same and left me alone with the doctor's
wife.

14

IN THE SIERRAS IB

She took a seat by the bed, and taking my
hand in hers, asked if my parents were Chris-
tians and what my religious training had been,
and asked permission to pray witli me. Her
prayer was a simple, eloquent appeal in my
behalf and was followed by the singing of a
plaintive hymn in a low, sweet tone; but all
this failed to arouse any responsive feeling, for
I was just beginning to realize that they had
abandoned all hope of my recovery and was
absorbed in the thought of the distress my
death would bring to my parents arid brothers
and sisters, and failed to join her in the devotion.

The slowly growing consciousness of my crit-
ical condition aroused a spirit of resistance and
I uttered mentally, "I must not, I will not die!""
and repeated many times with increasing force
of will, "7 must not, I vjill not!^ and this vig-
orous exercise of the will so re- acted upon my
sensitive system that the nerves and muscles of
my limbs quivered under the high tension and
my hands clenched till I felt the nails press-
ing into the palms. I soon felt a prickling sensa-
tion in my limbs and back indicating a return of
blood to the surface ; and as the prickling
increased the suffocating pressure on my lungs
grew lighter and I began to breathe easier.

My attendant stopped singing, and stroking
my forehead said, "If you do not recover would
you have me write to your father and mother?
And what would you have me say to them?"

16 MY ADVENTURES

I replied, "I feel better and am going to
recover." I opened my eyes as 1 spoke and
found her bending over me gazing intently into
my face, with her cheeks bathed in tears and
with an expression of tender sympathy and
concern that moved me deeply and did me a
world of good. She thought, as she afterwards
told me, that the change I felt was but the
momentary quickening of the dormant energies
just before dissolution.

She did not speak again for a minute or two,
but with her hand still on my forehead gazed
into my face while my own hungry eyes, now
wide open and blazing with the new hope this
slight relief from suffering had brought me, were
feasting on the grateful sympathy that flooded
her sweet face.

She finally drew the clothes from my chest
and thrust her hand under my arm, where she
felt the returning warmth, and without speak-
ing rushed hurriedly from the room and soon
rerurned with her husband, who tested my pulse
and felt under my arm, then threw off his coat
and commenced rubbing me while his wife called
the other physician and ordered the hot bottles
again. They soon restored my circulation and
relieved me of the painful struggle for breath ;
and as my breathing became easier and the
distress in the chest subsided a delicious sense
of relief came over me and I fell into a quiet

IN THE SIERRAS 17

slumber from which the physicians aroused me
half an hour later to give me medicine.

From that time I improved steadily under the
motherly care of that good woman who was with
me almost constantly for two weeks. Mr. Ross
came in frequently to see me till I began to
recover. He then, without my knowledge, gave
the landlord and the physician each fifteen dol-
lars to be credited on my account and told them
that when I was well enough to leave, if they
could not trust me for the balance I owed, to
send their bills to him. He then left to resume
his mining operations in the Calaveras county
mines.

After I was able to sit up and to do without
an attendant most of the time, I was awakened
one night by a terrific crash and found that a
furious gale sweeping in from the ocean had
driven something from an adjoining building
against a window of my room, crushing it in
and admitting an avalanche of sleet and hail
that dashed over my head and drenched the
carpet, making the place dangerous for one in
my feeble condition ; and to add to the horror
of the situation the hotel, I found, was moving
with a swinging motion to and fro, and my
first impression was that it was collapsing and I
would soon be buried in its ruins.

It was a five story wood building built on
long piles over an arm of the bay, and the strong

18 MY ADVENTURES

gale had set it swinging to and fro like a tree
top. I was in the fourth story and the vibra-
tion of my room had a compass of about one
foot.

Not knowing how the building was constructed
I was terrified for a few moments, but finally
sprang out of bed, rang my bell, wrapped a bed
covering about me and went out into the hall to
avoid the wind and hail. Ihe doctor and a por-
ter soon appeared and took me to another room,
but the fright and chill I got resulted in a re-
lapse that confined me to my bed several days.

I began to feel sorely troubled about my pen-
niless condition. There w*s no telegraph line
east, and it would take from two to two and
one half months to communicate with my father
and get a return. The doctor had, at my re-
quest, written to my friand in the northern part
of the state the morning after my arrival at the
hotel, telling him that I was very low and prob-
ably wonld not survive many days; but three
weeks had passed and I had heard nothing from
him. I was able to walk about some supported
by a eane, and waa anxious to get into the
mountains.

Believing that my friend had not received the
doctor's letter I wrote him myself and waited in
vain a week for a reply. The good-hearted
doctor, noticing how distressed I had become
over the matter, then offered to take my note for

IN THE SIERRAS 19

the amount of his bill and to loan me twenty-
five dollars for my expenses to the mountains,
and assured me that the landlord would also
take my note for the amount of his bill. I con-
sented to this arrangement, believing that I
would soon be able to discharge the indebted-
ness ; and theugh still very weak I took passage
up the Sacramento river to Marysville, paying
nearly half my scanty means for boat fare.
From that point my route to the mining town in
which my friend lived, lay through the foot-
hills and high up among the Sierra ranges. The
distance was seventy-five miles, and I found
I could go only about half the way by
stage, and would have to aomplete the trip on
Norwegian snow-shoes, as there was no snow
trail open. I knew I was far too feeble for such
a journey; and besides that I had aot enough
funds left for expenses.

My dilemma was a sad one. I knew no one in
Marysville. The hotel, boarding house and res1-
taurant keepers were charging fabulous prices,
and gave no credit. My few remaining dollars
would soon be gone. I was too feeble to work,
and there was not even'the refuge of a charity
hospital nor a poor house of which I could avail
myself. I had arrived in the morning and sent
my baggage — two valises — from the boat to
the mountain stage office, and on learning that
I could not go further then, I had it removed to

20 MY ADVENTURES

the cheapest hotel I could find, the charges of
which were three dollars a day.

In- the afternoon I went out and tried to sell to
Jewish clothiers and pawnbrokers my revolver
and an extra suit of clotfies I had brought, but
could not get a sixteenth part of their value. I
knew not what to do. I slept but little that
night, and rose in the morning weak and faint
from worry and loss of sleep.

After eating a light breakfast, I tottered out
on to a broad common a few squares from my
hotel and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree.
It was a clear, balmy winter morning and the
sun had just risen above the foot hills and
bathed in golden sheen the whole broad valley.
The view was one of rare loveliness. The noise-
lees sleep of the placid river with its overhanging
arch of white mist, the towering foot-hills all
aglow with the first touch of mellow sunshine,
and the broad plain dotted with grazing herds
as far as the eye could extend and streaked with
slowly winding lines of freight wagons and pack
trains plodding their weary way to the moun-
tains, made indeed, a scene of beauty which at
another time would have charmed and entranced
me, but none of its sunshine and warmth now
reached my burdened heart.

In my despair I threw myself at full length on
the tree and wept aloud, and finally slid from
the tree to my knees and prayed, throwing my

IN THE SIERRAS 21

whole overburdened heart and soul into earnest
pleading for help from the only remaining source
available. I had never entertained firm faith in
the eflicaey of prayer, and my petition was,
therefore, in a measure, "but the agony of hope-
less pleading;" but it dispelled my paroxysm
of grief and restored in a degree calm and resig-
nation.

I started slowly back down the principal busi-
ness street and had approached within a square
of my hotel when my eye caught on a sign-
board over the side-walk the familiar name of
John W. Moore, which was the name of a promi-
nent citizen of my native town in Maine, and I
remembered that his eldest son, John W. Moore,
Jr., went to California in 1849 and had not re-
turned.

The thought came to me that this man might
be that son, and if he were he knew my father
and would befriend me. It was a straw at which
I eagerly grasped, and I advanced to the entrance
of the building, when my heart took anotheT
bound at a display of harness and saddles in the
show window. I knew that John W. Moore, Jr.
had been raised to the harness and saddlery
business, as that was the business his father fol-
lowed, and encouraged by this slight confirma-
tion, I entered the store.

A tall, dignified looking man sat at a desk
near the door, of whom I inquired for Mr. Moore.

22 MY ADVENTURES

He replied, "I am Mr. Moore, sir, what can I do
for j'ou?" "Permit me to ask you if you were
from Somerset County, Maine?" I said. "Yes,
sir," he answered. "And did you know Daniel

?" I asked. "Very well," was his reply. I

then introduced myself as the son of Daniel

and commenced telling him the story of my mis-
fortunes, but discovering how feeble I was, he
stopped me and said "I will hear all that when
3 ou are stronger. Youmust go to my house at
once and have medical attention and good nurs-
ing until you are well."

'He called a hack, helped me into it and we
drove to the hotel for my baggage and thence to
his pleasant home, where I was very soon made
comfortable on an easy couch before an open
grate and nursed with motherly tenderness by
his estimable wife.

Two days later Mr. Moore surprised me by
coming home from the store about the middle
of the forenoon accompanied by my friend of
the mountains to whom the doctor and I had
written. He had not received our letters till
about the time I left San Francisco, as the snow-
fall in the mountains had been unusually heavy,
so blockading the trails that for a month no
mail reached him. On receiving the letters he
started for San Francisco and passed me on the
Sacramento river as I came up. He found my
creditors, took up my notes and returned to

IN THE SIERRAS 23

Marysville to look for me, inferring from what
the doctor told him of my condition that I would
not attempt to go beyond that place before
spring.

He knew Mr. Moore, and after searching sev-
eral of the leading hotels, he called upon him to
learn whether he had seen me, and was told
that he had me in safe keeping at his home. He
supplied me with what money I needed and
returned to the mountains, where I was to join
him as soon as I became, under the kindly care
of Mr. and Mrs. Moore, able to travel. I
returned to Mr. Ross the money he had advanced
to my landlord and the doctor for me, and main-
tained for several years a pleasant correspon-
dence with him.

About the middle'of March I said a reluctant
good-bye to the friends whose generous hospi-
tality had been so much to me, and took passage
in a huge, old-fashioned Concord coach for the
mountains. The journey, though tiresome, was
full of deep interest to me. We sped through
the winding pass of the foot-hills and on and up
among the snow-capped peaks, at times scaling
airy summits where we were bathed in the mist
of the flying clouds and the eye caught momen-
tary glimpses of the fading panorama of the
valley and hills and stream below, and along
rough mountain sides where our antique vehicle
rocked and plunged like a fishing smack in a
high sea.

24 MY ADVENTUEES

A run of eight hours brought us to the snow
line, where I spent the night in a comfortable
little hotel in a wooded glen between two high
mountain ranges. The next morning I con-
signed my baggage to the care of what was called
"The Norse Hand Express," a line of hand
sleds drawn by Norwegians on snow-shoes, that
connected daily with the stage at that point and
transported baggage and mail and express mat-
ter to several mining towns in the snow region
farther north, and started on foot with several
others for a tramp of twenty miles on a narrow
snow trail. I found it very tiresome, for I had
not yet recovered my strength, and was com-
pelled to rest so often that my companions left
me behind in a few hours.

At noon I took a long rest and a good dinner
at a little Swiss tavern. At two o'clock I
resumed my solitary march and at seven was
with my friend comfortably ensconced in a
miner's cabin in a small mining town between
the Yuba and the Feather rivers, in the very
heart of the rugged Sierras.

The sudden change from the low altitude of
the Sacramento valley, and all the charm and
delight of opening summer with its wealth of
birds and flowers and waving foliage, to the rare,
eool atmosphere and bleak, cheerless aspect of
that high winter region was a novel and trying
one ; and it was hard for me to realize that the

IN THE SIERRAS 25

strange experience was an actual fact and adapt
myself to the situation.

As my system was still weak and very suscep-
tible to climatic influences, I found it necessary
to exercise great care to avoid taking cold or
overtaxing my strength ; but I soon became
inured to the new condition of things and took
on the hardy appearance and general air of the
mountaineer. -

The town was called Camp Warren, and com-
prised about three hundred cabins and two
supply stores, all of which were nearly buried
in snow, which had fallen during the winter to
a depth of twelve feet and had not yet melted
much.

The mines of that vicinity were operated
wholly by the hydraulic method, and as the
streams from which the water supply was drawn
were frozen up, the miners were idle and impa-
tient for the release of the imprisoned element
and a renewal of the activity and intoxicating
excitement of another mining season.

From two to four men occupied a cabin, and
as they had put in a winter's supply of provisions
before the heavy snowfall, they had no other
employment from November to April than to
prepare their meals, keep up their fires and keep
clear the cuts that had been made from cabin
doors and windows up to the surface of the snow
for egress and light.

26 MY ADVENTURES

The little reading matter available was of the
most ordinary character and very expensive.
One was compelled to pay from twenty-five to
fifty cents each for the most trashy weekly
newspapers, and an exorbitant price for books;
consequently but a small proportion of the
miners gave much of that long season of
enforced idleness to reading, but collected after-
noons and evenings in small parties in the stores
and larger cabins and indulged in card-playing,
story-telling, joking, wrestling and other inno-
cent pastimes.

Coasting and deer hunting, too, were indulged
in for out-door amusements. Drunkenness, gamb-
ling and wrangling rarely occurred in the camp
in spite of the almost total absence of all politi-
cal and social restraint. Every man seemed to
realize in some measure the danger attendant up-
on such a life of isolation and became a restrain-
ing law unto himself.

The amusement of coasting became very pop-
ular among the miners, and many of them ac-
quired a skill in the art that was really marve-
lous. It was done not on sleds, but on Norwe-
gian snow-shoes, standing erect. The shoes
were made of thin strips of ash or hickory about
twelve feet long and three inches wide, turned up
at the front end. The strips were thoroughly
seasoned and slightly charred over a fire and then
polished till they were as smooth as burnished

IN THE SIERRAS 27

steel. Near the center of the shoe was a leather
loop into which the toe of the boot fitted and
which was sufficient to keep the foot in place,
as in traveling one did not lift the shoe, but kept
a sliding motion. One experienced in the use of
them would travel very fast and with compara-
tively little fatigue.

The men would go on their shoes in large par-
ties to the summit of a mountain range nearly a
mile above the camp, each with along balancing
pole to assist him in his zig-zag ascent and in
keeping his balance on his swift descent. At
the top they would form in line eight or ten feet
apart and shoot down the mountain with a speed
often of a mile a minute. Occasionally one
would strike an obstacle in the light snow that
would cause him to lose hi3 balance and plunge
into the feathery surface with a forward momen-
tum that would send him ploughing ahead for
forty or fifty feet, when he would emerge half-
smothered and looking like a befurred and
storm-beaten Esquimau and perhaps disabled by
numerous scratches and sprains.

In several larger mining camps near ours there
were a few women, nearly all of whom were ex-
pert in the use of the snow-shoe, and as fond of
coasting as the men.

The miners used to hunt deer on snow-shoes
while the snow was very deep and light. The
deer yarded for the winter in the sma1! wooded

28 MY ADVENTURES

valleys and ravines, where they found protection
from the cold winds, and evergreens and mosses
upon which to feed. The hunters would frighten
them out of their yards into the deep snow
where they were very soon exhausted and caught
alive. Calves were often caught in that way
and brought home alive and tamed and well fed
until they attained full size and were in good
condition for the table.

Soon after the mining season opened an inci-
dent occurred that to me, at least, was very im-
pressive and instructive. Mies Sarah Pellet, of
New York, who was delivering temperance lec-
tures in the state, under the auspices of some
temperance association, was billed in our camp
for a ]ecture in Spanish Flat, a very disorderly
place of about twelve hundred inhabitants,
chiefly Spanish and Portuguese, and only two
miles from our camp. The startling news that
a woman would pass through our place the fol-
lowing day and could be seen and heard that ev-
ening at Poker Hall on Spanish Flat spread
rapidly and created a profound sensation. I de-
cided to hear her and went early, that I might
not fail to secure a seat.

The hall had previously been occupied as a
gambling resort and had no stationary seating;
but rough stools and benches sufficient to seat
about five hundred were carried in and were oc-
cupied by a noisy crowd long before the speaker

IN THE SIERRAS 29

arrived. Her appearance on the stage, however,
restored silence. She was then about twenty-
eight years of age, of very commanding appear-
ance and a fluent, pleasing speaker. Her address
was short, but pointed and effective. In closing
she requested her hearers to come forward to a
table before her and sign the pledge and peti-
tion for the organization of a lodge of the Sons
of Temperance in the place.

To this request there was no immediate re-
sponse and she commenced repeating it, when I,
feeling ashamed that some of my older fellow
miners did not respond, advanced and put my
signature to tbe papers and was followed by a
score or more who did the same. She took me
by the hand and commended me for my willing-
ness to be first in a move of that kind, and re-
marked to the audience that they must, in spite
of any deterring considerations, feel a little
ashamed to be outdone in a good cause by a
boy.

She then announced that she endeavored to
raise funds for her expenses by taking up a col-
lection at each meeting she held and requested
several men to pass their hats through the audi-
ence. I was amazed at the prompt and almost
universal response made to this call for contribu-
tions. For five minutes the two and a half and
five dollar gold pieces rattled like hail, and the
contents of the four hats passed, when piled on

30 MY ADVENTUBES

the rusty gambling table before her showed how
effective had been her earnest plea in that good
cause.

While it was evident that much of this gen-
erosity was prompted solely by admiration for
the speaker, it was apparent that the majority
of the auditors were actuated by sympathy with
the cause she advocated; and it taught me the
profitable lesson that all such men have abetter
side than their rough exterior — a hidden well-
spring that is never quite dry and from which
may be drawn nobler impulses and higher mo-
tives than their daily lives reveal.

About the first of April the snow had become
so compact as to admit of traveling without
snow shoes, and a party of eight or ten of us
started one afternoon in single file on a narrow
snow trail for La Porte, another mining camp
two miles distant. On the way we met with a
thrilling but withal rather amusing adventure.
About half way between the two towns, on a
sparsely timbered flat, we were confronted by an
enormous grizzly bear who sat on his haunches
in the trail quietly waiting our approach, hav-
ing evidently heard us sometime before we saw
him. He presented a savage appearance as he
sat there snorting like a frightened horse, work-
ing his jaws and rolling his huge head from side
to side ; and as I had never before seen a grizzly,
I was badly frightened and tempted to run, till

IN THE SIERRAS 31

one of our party recognized him as a half
domesticated non-combatant belonging to a
butcher in the town to which we were going and
assured us that he was "stone blind," as the result
of having been over-fed by the butcher. We
knew he must have broken out of his pen and
stolen away and decided to try to drive him
back , so we divided into two parties, one party
going a little out of the trail on one side and
the other party on the other side.

We then greeted him with a volley of snow-
balls and Comanche yells which we thought
would cause him to beat a hasty retreat home-
ward ; but no, he was not to weakly submit to
an insult. Roaring like an infuriated bull he
bounded out of the trail and galloped towards
the men on that side. But a volley from the
opposite party caused him to turn and plunge
wildly in that direction ; in that way we kept
him wildly bounding from side to side until he
finally made a sudden dash some distance from
the trail toward a man who was indiscreet
enough to attract him by continuous laughing
aloud.

The man was moving hurriedly backwards
unconscious of any other danger than that
before him, when he suddenly, with an agoniz-
ing cry, dropped out of sight into a prospect
shaft about fifteen feet deep, which^had been
sunk the fall before and was partially filled with

32 MY A.DVENTCRE3

snow. He was uninjured by the fall, but the
walls of the shaft were so coated with ice that
it was impossible for him to climb out.

The bear was still moving in that direction,
frothing with anger, and we were all wild with
terror at the thought of his tumbling into the
shaft, which now seemed inevitable. We closed
in on him with a desperate rush, forgetting our
own danger in our eagerness to save our imper-
iled companion, and pelted him with a perfect
avalanche of snow ; and one of our party
approached near enough to strike him a sharp
blow on the rump with his cane, after he had
advanced within a yard of the shaft. That
caused him to turn and give us a brisk chase
back to the trail.

At that juncture we were reinforced by the
butcher who had missed Bruin and tracked him
down the trail. On learning that his pet had
got the best of the fight and made a prisoner of
one of our number he loaned us a lasso he had
brought, with which we drew our badly fright-
ened companion to the surface. The butcher
soon had Bruin calm and quiet again by talking
to him in a gentle soothing tone, and at last
threw the lasso over his head and led him back
to town.

But poor Bruin's restless, adventurous spirit
brought him, a few days later, to a sad end.
He escaped from his pen one morning and stole

IN THE SIEKRAS 33

into the back yard of a private residence near
by, where the woman of the house was prepar-
ing steak for breakfast on a bench by the door.
Attracted by the smell of the beef, he came up
noislessly behind hsr, and with one sweep of his
huge paw knocked her down and captured the
steak. Her screams brought her husband to the
scene, who gave the offender several shots from
a revolver, wounding him so badly that they
had to kill him. His fat carcass was dressed
and put on sale and very quickly disposed of at
fifty cents a pound, for fat young bear was
a great luxury there.

A resident of our mining camp , one Colonel
Finn, had a thrilling experience with a wild
grizzly the summer before while out hunting on
the side of a mountain range about three miles
from home. He was moving cautiously along
looking for deer he had been tracking for some
time, when he discovered on a grass plat about
two hundred yards below him a very large
grizzly lying on his side and evidently asleep.

He hesitated some time about shooting, know-
ing that if his shot were not fatal the bear would
pursue him ; but he was an unerring marksman,
and having served through the Mexican war
and roughed it for years in the Sierras he was
accustomed to danger and so fond of hazardous
adventure that the temptation to risk a shot
was irresistible. So stealthily advancing a

34 MY ADVENTURES

little nearer he took careful aim at a point just
back of the shoulder and fired.

The bear sprang to his feet with a terrific
roar, and discovering his assailant, bounded up
the rugged ascent after him. The Colonel knew
the bear could run much faster up hill than he
could, and therefor ran with all the speed pos-
sible along the range in the direction of home,
hoping to reach a conical bluff of bare stone he
had passed a little way back before he was
overtaken, but the bear gained on him so fast
that he was compelled to take a stand behind a
sugar pine about six feet in diameter and face
his foe. The bear came up and commenced cir-
cling around the tree after the Colonel who
found it an easy matter to keep out of his way.

After Bruin had made four or five rounds he
stopped to rest and coughed violently for a min-
ute and bled freely at the mouth. Discovering
this the Colonel knew that he had wounded him
badly and felt greatly relieved. They made a
few circles more and then rested again, and so
long that the Colonel had time to partially re-
load his rifle, and at the third stop finished load-
ing, advanced behind the bear while he was sit-
ting on his haunches coughing, and lodging a
shot in the back of his head, ended the struggle.
He took off the bear's skin and cut from the car-
cass a choice loin roast for his dinner, and with
these trophies returned home.

IN THE SIEREAS 35

Our party lingered in La Porte till evening, in
order that another young man of the party, re-
cently from the east, and myself might have an
opportunity to see the town when the miners
were at leisure and the usual jollity and dissipa-
tion were at their height.

La Porte then had a population of about two
thousand, and its adjacent mines were among
the richest in that part of the state. Unlike
Camp Warren, in which I was located, it was
infested by scores of gamblers and desperadoes
of every character who fleeced a class of reckless
and susceptible miners out of their gold and held
law and order in defiance.

There were four or five gambling houses, with
their whole fronts thrown open to the street, in
which chance games of almost every kind were
in operation ; and one could see from the street
the tempting piles of gold coin on the tables, and
witness the reckless venture of hundreds and
thousands on the casting of a die or the turn of
a card, by the infatuated devotees of that vice.
To me, as young and susceptible as I was, the
scene had in it nothing alluring or tempting, but
gave me a feeling of sadness and disgust which
was ever afterward a safeguard against the fas-
cinations of that kind of amusement.

Two years later, while passing one of these
gambling houses with a friend, I met the Rev.
Dickinson, a brother of the noted Anna Dickin-

36 MY ADVENTURES

son, of New York, who was then in charge of a
Methodist church in the place and a very zeal-
ous, effective worker in every department of re-
ligious service. He told me that he visited these
gambling houses frequently and did some of his
best missionary work there. He knew most of
the miners, and having made himself popular
among them, was able to command a strong in-
fluence over them.

The hydraulic mining season that year was
very short, having closed about the tenth of July
on account of the failure of the water supply.
No rain falls in that region from about the mid-
dle of May till November; so nothing could be
done there until rain came late in the fall or the
following spring. Most of the mintrs of the
camp owned claims on adjacent streams, where
they spent four or five of the summer and f.ill
months, and such as had not possessions else-
where usually spent that time prospecting on the
small streams farther north and east; so there
was a general storing away of hydraulic imple-
ments— the canvas hose, pipes, derricks, etc, —
and packing of light mining tools, cooking uten-
sils and bedding, preparatory to the exodus to
summer quarters. I had not yet possessed my-
self of a claim, so I joined a party of three men
for a prospecting tour farther east on the tribu-
taries of the Yuba river.

One of my companions was a young man

IN THE SIERRAS 37

twenty-two years of age, of unusual culture and
refinement, who had been brought there an almost
helpless invalid four years before, and in the
meantime had become as hardy and robust as an
Indian, and one of the most proficient miners in
the place. The other two were men about thirty
years old from Maine, one of whom had been
raised a farmer and went to California in 1849
and had been in the mountains ever since; the
other was raised on the headquarters of the Ken-
nebec river, and from fourteen to twenty-eight
years of age lived in the pineries of that region,
engaged winters in cutting lumber and summers
in running it out of the small streams into the
Kennebec.^ He had little mental culture, but
possessed an inexhaustible fund of humor and
so much native wit and natural kindness of
heart that he made a very desirable acquisition
to our party.

He was addicted to the vulgar habit of swear-
ing, but finding that offensive to us, he promised
never to indulge in the vice again in our pres-
ence. He claimed to have some Indian blood in
his veins, so we named him Paugus, an appella-
tion by which he was everywhere known as long
as he remained in the mountains.

We engaged a stout young mule of the propri-
etor of one of our supply stores, on which to move
our goods until we made a permanent stand,
when we were to return him. The trader as-

3 8 MY ADVENTUKES

sured us that the animal, though young and
spirited, was very docile and tractable under the
pack saddle. Paugus led him from the stable
to our cabin soon after daylight appeared, as we
wanted to get an early start in order to scale
the first two mountain ranges before the midday
heat came on, knowing that on the east side of
the second range we would find a trading post
and comfortable resting place in which to take
our nooning.

We soon had our effects on the pack-saddle,
and were taking the last turns of the lariat that
bound them when Paugus brought out a small
sheet-iron cooking stove that weighed about
eight pounds and insisted upon adding that and
a joint of pipe to our load, which was already
piled high with blankets, cooking utensils, min-
ing tools and provisions; so we perched that
and a small tin reflector, or baker, on top, fast-
ening all as securely as possible. Our Forty-
niner, whom we recognized as leader, then gave
the command to start, and Paugus, leading the
mule took the head of the line.

We had moved only a few steps when the
mule, who had been dozing while we packed
and still seemed half asleep, stumbled over a
rock, jerking the load so violently as to cause
the stove and tin reflector to rattle like a kettle-
drum.

The mule, cocking his head on the side,

IN THE SIERRAS 39

caught a glimpse of the bright, rattling turret
above him, and made one frantic bound forward,
knocking Paugus head first into a thorny chap-
arral bush, and then performed a rapid succes-
sion of grotesque evolutions that would have
shocked Buffalo Bill himself, kicking, bucking,
jumping, as it seemed, three ways at once and
with the agility of a wild cat, until the air
seemed full of picks, shovels, fry-pans, stove
pipes and tin ware, nor did he stop to take
breath until freed of every article he bore. He
then faced U3 looking as innocent and docile as
a lamb.

The scene was too melancholy for comment,
and Paugus, who had crawled out of the chap-
arral bush and taken refuge behind a high stump,
peeped around it 1o see if the cyclone had
passed, and then came forward in solemn silence
and took the mule by the bridle and started for
the stable ; but after taking a few steps stopped,
glanced at the grotesque scene before him, then
exclaimed in a solemn, pleading tone,

"Boys, for mercy sake give me fifteen minutes'
license to swear."

This speech aroused us from our awe-stricken
mood, and we sat down on a log together and
gave vent to our pent up feelings in a long,
hearty laugh in which Paugus finally joined and
forgot his temptation to profanity.

The mule was changed for one more accus-

40 MY ADVENTURES

tomed to strange sights and sounds and our
scattered goods collected and repacked. Forty-
nine and Pangus, who had mastered pretty well
that mysterious art of properly adjusting a
miscellaneous load to a pack saddle and so
securely fastening it with a single cord that it
would carry safely all day over the rough moun-
tain trails, performed the work this time with
unusual care, leaving nothing so adjusted that
it could move out of place or rattle.

When I first saw the professional Mexican
packers do the work I studied with deep interest
the complicated process of binding the load and
endeavored to prepare a formula of the opera-
tion : but their movements were so rapid that it
was impossible for me to follow them through
the intricate windings and weavings, and the
matter remained a mystery to me for a long
time.

We again took up our march, and at twelve
o'clock reached a lively little mining camp,
where we rested an hour and had refreshments
for ourselves and our faithful mule. A tramp
of ten miles more brought us to Dovvnieville, a
prosperous mining town on the Yuba river,
where we spent the night.

There I first saw river mining on a gigantic
scale. At various points above and below the
town dams were built across the channel and
the river taken up into a flume about twenty

IN THE SIERRAS 41

feet wide and a third of a mile long, leaving
the bed of the river for that distance nearly dry
and its garnered wealth accessible.

The next day we moved up the river about
seven miles and there left it and turned north
into a deep, narrow gorge called Jim Crow
Canon, through which flowed a cool, rapid
stream about ten yards wide. Up this we slowly
wound over a rough, blind trail till dusk, when
we camped on a narrow bar, or intervale, about
ten feet above the stream, that afforded a good
quality of grass on which our mule fed for an
hour before his oats were given him.

While Paugus and Forty-nine relieved the
mule of his load and tethered him on the grass
plat, Gale, my other companion, and I started a
fire and prepared supper. After a hasty supper
we cut a quantity of fine, elastic fir boughs,
which we spread under a tree for a bed and on
which we all slept soundly, each rolled in a pair
of heavy Indian blankets.

Paugus rose early and went out to change the
location of the mule, but soon aroused the rest
of us with the startling announcement that the
mule had drawn the lariat over the bush to
which he was tied, and escaped.

CHAPTER III.

We rolled out of our cocoons in a hurry and
held a hasty council, the result of which was that
Forty-nine and Paugus should search for the mule
while Gale and I prepared breakfast.

I sadly bemoaned our misfortune, not relish-
ing the idea of having to pack my share of our
goods to our destination on my back. We wanted
to go five or ten miles farther up the canon to
be sure of a location where no prospecting had
been done ; and to pack a heavy load that dis-
tance over a rough route I knew would be te-
dious indeed, and perhaps a hazardous under-
taking for a boy of nineteen unaccustomed to
such service. But Forty-nine assured me that no
mule would wander far from the party he was
serving while in a region strange to him and so
far from home, and that they would doubtless find
him not far off. And sure enough, they returned
with him in about an hour, having found him
grazing about a mile down the canon.

After eating our breakfast we packed our load
and moved on up the stream about eight miles
farther, where we decided to camp for a day or
two and prospect. We made the mule secure on
a grass plat by the stream, ate our dinner, and

42

IN THE SIERRAS 43

then with picks, iron pans, shovels and crevicing
spoons, we started out eager to learn whether
that noisy little stream held hidden from our
vulgar eyes the desired compensation for the
hardships of our long, tedious journey. The
water was very low, and a little above our stop-
ping place we built a winged dam, turning the
water on to one side of the channel and enabling
us to examine the bed.

We got a fair prospect there and at two other
points farther up, and decided to locate there
for the summer. The next day Forty-nine took
the mule and went to the nearest trading post on
the Yuba river near Downieville, and about fif-
teen miles distant from our location, and pur-
chased the large rope and iron fixtures for a
derrick with which to handle the heavy stone in
the stream, while the rest of us made a derrick
mast and arm, and cut and prepared pine logs
and splits for a cabin. Forty-nine returned late
that night, bringing with the derrick material
additional tools for our carpenter work, and six
seven-by-nine panes of glass for the cabin win-
dows.

In a few days we had our rustic domicile
completed and furnished in the most ap-
proved style, with furniture made from the sweet
fir and sugar pine by Paugus, who proved to be
quite a mechaninal genius and well informed as
to our needs in that line, having had much ex-

44 MY ADVENTURES

perience in building and furnishing cabins in
the lumber woods of Maine.

Our furniture consisted of a stationary center
table made of two broad slabs split from the
trunk of a sugar pine, a side table, four stools
and a small cupboard made of spHts and nailed
against the wall. At the other end of the room,
opposite the door, were our four bunks lined
with soft fir boughs on which the blankets were
spread. In each side wall was inserted three
panes of the glass which we had bought; but as
these two small windows afforded hardly suffi-
cient light, we cut a third opening, four by four-
teen inches in size, into which we fitted two
large glass pickle jars that Forty-nine picked up
by the trail as he returned from the trading post
thinking we might need them for some purpose;
and this device gave us the additional light
needed.

While at the po3t Forty-nine met the proprietor
of a passenger saddle train that was to go west
the next day to Camp Warren, and who offered
to take our mule back to its owner without ex-
pense to us, and save one of our party the long
journey over there and back. The train was to
leave the trading post at nine A. M., so Paugus
started with the mule at four o'clock and deliv-
ered him in good time to the trainmaster. He
then arranged to have a lumber dealer to send us
by pack mule Monday lumber for the construe-

IN THE SIERRAS 45

tion of a small sluice thirty six feet long,through
which to wash the dirt we took from the
bed of the stream.

The first Sunday in our new location we spent
in reading, writing to far-off home friends, and
making up our sleep for the past week. Our en-
tire stock of reading matter consisted of a di-
lapidated copy of Rollin's History, which I had
brought with me from our mining camp, copies
of Bacon's Essays and Campbell's Poems, the
property of Gale, and two pocket Bibles, But
Gale and I made good use of this small stock.
We committed much of Campbell and Bacon to
memory, and recited them to each other, and oc-
casionally entertained our partners with re-
hearsals.

The canon was so narrow and deep that our
days were only aboui seven hours long; so we
had ample time in those long evenings for read-
ing. The mountain range on either side was
very abrupt and about one mile high, and densely
wooded with immense sugar pine, pitch pine, fir
and oak. The sun was visible to us only about
four hours — rose over the east range about ten
o'clock and disappeared behind the summit of
west range about two.

A more delightful spot in which to spend the
summer could not have been found, and we
enjoyed its advantages, never for a moment
regretting our isolation or feeling a sense of

46 MY ADVENTUEES

loneliness. Those towering walls, around us,
whose distant summits were dim in the blue haze
of a cloudless summer, the musical murmur of
the wind in the dense pine foliage, the cheerful
ripple of the crystal stream and the exhilarating
fragrance of the evergreen forest that filled the
whole visible expanse around us all conspired to
give us a feeling of gladness and perfect con-
tentment.

On Monday we completed and put in position
our derrick and sluice box and commenced a
more thorough examination of the bed of the
stream, which we found sufficiently productive
to justify us in continuing the work till the wet
season came on the last of November. The
largest nugget I found during my four years'
experience in gold mining I took from a crevice
in the bed of that stream only four or five days
after we commenced work. I was scraping with
a large iron crevicing spoon, a deep crevice that
extended across the bed of the stream. I had
been scraping up fine gravel and sand for some
time when my spoon struck what I thought was
a large pebble stuck fast in the bottom of the
crevice. I pried it loose and lifted it out on my
spoon, and lo ! it was a clear, bright nugget
weighing six and one third ounces. At our sel-
ling price of eighteen dollars an ounce this nug-
get was worth one hundred and fourteen dollars.
I was jubilant over my good fortune and crev-

IN THE SIEEEAS 47

iced the rest of the day diligently, hoping to
gain another such prize, but failed in the effort.

Here is a fact that many of my young readers
have not learned: The gold taken out in differ-
ent parts of that state varies much in quality
and value. For instance, while that mined on
Jim Crow Canon sold for eighteen dollars an
ounce, that taken from Goodyear's Creek, fifteen
miles west, sold for only thirteen-fif ty an ounce.
The poor qualities are from five to fifteen per
cent silver which gives the metal a very bright
attractive appearance but detracts from its com-
mercial value. In some parts of the country
copper and iron are combined with it. The
purest gold found there is of a dull, bluish
shade.

As I was the youngest and weakest of the
party I was persuaded to take charge of the
culinary department of our work. They were
to give me what assistance I required, but I was
to officiate as steward of the establishment,
keeping the larder supplied and preparing the
daily menu ; but I sacrificed the dignity of my
office by doing most of the cooking also. I went
to the trading post twice a month and sold our
gold and ordered a fresh supply of provisions,
which was sent to us on a pack mule. Once I
found the trader short of help and unable to
spare a man to deliver my order, but proposed
that he pack my goods on a mule and that I

48 MY ADVENTURES

drive him myself, assuring me that the mule
would return to the trading post alone; so
having no other alternative, I started with my
charge and got along very well till I entered the
canon.

There the trail was so rough and indistinct
that my progress was slow and somewhat peri-
lous in places where sharp turns were made
around bluffs on the steep mountain side,
requiring the utmost caution to avoid a misstep
that might cause one to lose his footing and slide
over a precipice into the stream below.

I had passed over the roughest part of my
route and began to relax my vigilance for the
safety of the mule when suddenly a mass of
loose shale on the outer edge of the trail gave
away under his hind feet and the hind part of
his body swung over a steep bluff that descended
to the stream thirty feet below.

With the heavy load of about two hundred
and fifty pounds on his back he could not raise
his body enough to draw the hind feet under
him, but with his fore feet and his nose pressed
firmly on the trail he held himself there, but
moaned loudly as though fully conscious of the
danger of his situation.

I quickly drew a Spanish stiletto, or breast
knife I carried when traveling, and cut the
lariat, freeing him of the load, and then grasp-
ing the pack-saddle with one hand and a small

IN THE SIERRAS 49

tree above me with the other, I gave him an
encouraging word and a hearty pull, and with
a desperate spring he scrambled into the trail;
but the poor fellow trembled violently for ten
minutes. I rubbed his limbs and patted him
for a few minutes and then went down to the
stream and gathered up my load, which con-
sisted of a sixty pound sack of potatoes, two
fifty pound sacks of flour, a five gallon keg of
syrup, a twenty-five pound sack of sugar and
many other smaller articles, all of which I had
to carry up the stream abou'o one hundred feet
and thence up on to the trail.

The keg of syrup had rolled into the water,
and I had some difficulty in fishing it out. I
finally succeeded in repacking and getting home
without further trouble ; but darkness set in
when I was about two miles from our cabin, and
I had to grope my way that distance very
slowly and cautiously.

We retained the mule over night tethered on
the grass plat by the stream, and after supple-
menting his breakfast of wild grass with four
quarts of corn meal, we buckled on the pack-
saddle and started him homeward.

That day wa3 Sunday, and in the afternoon
Gale and I went to the summit of the range west
of us to watch the sun as it sank in a sea of
molten glory among the distant peaks of the
Coast Range. We were early for that view and

50 MY ADVENTURES

after reading awhile from New York weeklies
we had brought with us, we strolled along the
range half a mile to a peak from which we could
get a more extended view north and west.

Around this peak we secured a harvest of
three or four quarts of clear white pine sugar,
of which we were very fond. A fire had passed
through there the summer before burning near
the ground the outer bark of the sugar pines,
and the sweet sap had oozed out and granulated
in lumps. It has a pungent, hoarhound flavor,
but is very palatable and is said to possess a
valuable tonic quality. The Indians sometimes
build fires against the large sugar pine trunks in
the spring, burning the outer bark from a cluster
of pines, and in th? fall visit the spot again and
harvest their sugar.

We strolled down on the west side of the
range inspecting the pine trunks for more sugar
when suddenly a light breeze from the north
struck us, loaded with a strong, delightful odor
unlike that of the foliage around us and for
which we could not account. We finally decided
to go up in that direction and if possible dis-
cover its source. We had gone but a short dis-
tanca when we emerged from the underbrush
into an open space of seventy-five to one hundred
acres that a fire had devastated the fall before
and which was as white as an October cotton
field with a rich variety of the calla lily, some of

IN THE SIERRAS 51

the stalks ot which stood six feet high, hearing
delicate, white lilies as large as coffee cups and
fragrant as the trailing arbutus. It was really
queen of the California flora, and is still recog-
nized there as such.

We lingered, breathing the rich odor, as long
as we could without missing the object of our
trip to the summit, and then each gathered a
large bundle of the lilies and climbed back to
the peak to find

"Sunset burning like the seal of God

Upon the close of day."
It dropped slowly among the glistening peaks in
a changing sheen o£ golden light that held us
entranced till the view was veiled by a somber
shade that changed all to gloom and broke the
spell that bound us. We descended into the
darkness and solitude of our cabin home and de-
lighted our partners with our rich harvest of
lilies and pine sugar. We decorated our tables
and walls with the flowers, and Forty-nine de-
clared he dreamed that night of being back in
his mother's flower garden among the hollyhocks,
sweet williams and poppies which so delighted
his olfactories in boyhood.

My next trip to the post was a more eventful
one still. A fire had been raging for several
days on the east side of the canon, half a mile
above the stream and about half a mile down the
canon from our location, which had probably

52 MY ADVENTURES

been accidentally started by Indians, as small
bands were constantly passing through there on
their way from the Upper Sacramento Valley to
the vicinity of Beckworth and American Val-
leys to fish and trap for the summer. Down op-
posite the fire the smoke was settling into the
canon so dense that I did not dare take the usual
route down the stream, but went west up the
mountain range to the summit, to get above the
smoke, and followed the range south till I was
opposite the post, when I descended without en-
countering much smoke.

I had started from home at half past four, and
at half past nine I reached the post. In an hour's
time I had made my purchases and had them
packed on the same mule that had served me so
faithfully two weeks before, and was on my way
back by the summit route. As there was no
trail that way I led the mule by the bridle, urg-
ing him on as fast as possible that I might reach
home before dark.

I arrived at the top of the range blowing like
a porpoise and wet with perspiration; and the
poor mule was as badly worried as I was. The
atmosphere was so rare at that altitude that very
little exertion excited full, rapid breathing. Af-
ter resting for fifteen minutes, I moved on along
the range, picking my way through an under-
growth of chaparral and manzanito, shaded from
the noonday sun by a dense canopy of waving

IN THE SIEKRAS 53

pine foliage that filled the air with its healing
fragrance and seemed to infuse new vigor and
buoyancy of spirit.

I stopped at one o'clock and rested again half
an hour and ate a luncheon I had brought with
me, while I revelled in the grandeur of the vast
panorama of mountain and valley, and forest
and stream that lay spread before me to the west
and north as far as the eye could extend.

Directly west towered Table Mountain and
Pilot Peak, and in the north-west Shasta's snow-
capped peak shone like glass in the bright sun
high above the surrounding mountain tops; and
below these ancient landmarks nestled here and
there parched little valleys, winding streams
that seemed to labor their half hidden way
through the rough defiles, and yawning chasms
that looked dark and forbidding.

It was a rough picture, but in its entirety
beautiful and inspiring beyond description; and
I moved along the range lost in a dreamy con-
templation of the mystery of that anomalous
jumble on nature's fair face till suddenly the
mule aroused me with a loud snort and a jerk at
the bridle that nearly threw me off my feet, and
looking up I found myself face to face with a
stalwart, ugly looking Indian who stood erect,
gazing steadily at me.

He was clad in a red blanket tiedloosely over
his shoulders and extending below the knees, and

54 MY ADVENTUBES

his matted hair was decorated with a profusion
of feathers and scarlet flannel that gave him a
wild ferocious appearance. I was badly fright-
ened and involuntarily thrust my right hand in-
side the breast of my coat on the handle of my
stiletto, the only weapon I carried. He under-
stood the movement and said in a gruff tone :

"Knife?"

Then throwing his right hand back under the
blanket, he drew out an eight inch revolver, and
holding it up gave a triumphant chuckle, which,
with the sight of the revolver, seemed to chill me
to the bone.

I felt the blood receding from my face, and
realized that I was growing pale, and knowing
that I should, if possible, conceal my fear from
him, I summoned all the courage and strength
of will I could command and forced a loud laugh.
Then hastily tying the bridle rein to a bush I
reached out my hand and slowly advanced
toward him. I was an expert wrestler and felt
I would be safer within reach of him.

Seeing me coming he put up his revolver and
took my extended right hand in a firm grasp.
When I tried to withdraw it he was not satisfied
with the conventional shake, but closed on my
hand with a vice-like grip that gave me pain and
said, pointing with his left hand to the load on
the mule:

"Got whickey? backey? powdey?" (whiskey,

IN THE SIERRAS 55

tobacco and powder the Digger Indians would
always beg whenever they could.)

To these questions I answered no. Then
placing his left palm against my chest, he pushed
me from him, still holding firmly my right hand
and said, with an expression of disgust and dis-
appointment :

'Bad! bad!"

I replied: "When I go to Yuba river I bring
you backey and powdey," and he quickly asked :

"Whickey, too?"

"No," I said "can't carry whickey on mule —
break bottle." I was a zealous temperance boy
and could not have been induced to buy whiskey
for any one. He then said :

"Wha you bring him? — how many sun?"
and held the fingers of his left hand before my
face. By this he meant, "When will you bring
the tobacco and powder? — in how many suns?"
(days.) So I held up three fingers. He made
me repeat the promise, and then releasing my
hand, and turning his head to one side, he gave
a low, prolonged hoot, and in an instant the
thick underbrush on every side of me was alive
with Indians who had concealed themselves, by
order of the chief, when I was seen approaching.

I was surrounded by at least two hundred men,
women and children. I felt comparatively safe
then, knowing that the leaders of the various
tribes in the state did not permit their subjects

66 MY ADVENTUEES

to commit depredations against the whites if
they could prevent it; tut there were in every
tribe some rough, unmanageable young bucks
who would wander off alone and kill a miner for
the plunder they could get.

I was afraid at first that the chief who had
stopped me might be one of that class, and for
the ten minutes I was with him alone I was under
a nervous strain that tried me severely, and from
which I did not recover for days.

The sudden appearance of such a grotesque
company set my mule to prancing and snorting
wildly, and I got hold of the bridle as soon as
possible and started on, shaking hands "with a
dozen or more as I passed through the crowd. I
was afraid they would attempt to pilfer from my
load on the mule, but, though they eyed it very
closely and felt of the various packages they
made no attempt to remove anything; though it
is probable that they would have done so had I
not kept moving rapidly.

As soon as I was out of their sight I urged
the mule into a trot and made the best time pos-
sible for the r.ext three or four miles, fearing that
I might be followed by some vicious member of
the party. They probably belonged to the Yuba
tribe and were going to some point farther east
to hunt deer and bear. The smoke in Jim Crow
can >n had made it necessary for them to halt
and wait for a breeze that would scatter the
smoke and make the canon passable.

IN THE SIERRAS 57

My promise to bring the chief tobacco and
powder I made in good faith, knowiug that I
must go to the post again the following week for
our mail matter from the east, which came via
Panama and San Francisco twice a month and
which, though overdue, had not arrived when I
left the post. I arrived at the point where I was
to descend to our cabin a little before dark,
nearly exhausted by the long tramp and the ex-
citement of my encounter with the Indians, and
found my three partners waiting for me there.

They were as badly exhausted and excited as
I was, and finding them in that condition
startled me more than my encounter with the
Indians. The smoke in the canon had worked
up to our location during the afternoon, sweep-
ing in upon them so suddenly that they came
near suffocating before they could escape. They
ran from the claim to the cabin and hastily
gathered up a bucket of food, a can of water, a
few blankets and an ax and fled up the moun-
rain range.

The hasty climbing of course accelerated the
action of the blood, resulting in heavier breath-
ing and strangling, and for a time they nearly
despaired of reaching the clear air above; and
when they did finally arrive at the summit they
were all completely prostrated. When I reached
them Forty-nine and Gale had so far recovered
as to be comfortable, but Paugus, whose lungs

58 MY ADVENTURES

were very sensitive, was still wheezing and
coughing badly, and the hoys were deeply con-
cerned about him.

I was in despair, for with the Indians to
guard against on one side, and the deadly smoke
pressing us on the other, with a prospect of its
submerging the summit before morning, we
were in a sad dilemma. In addition to all that,
I was worried by the fact that we had no feed
for the poor mule and could not send him back
that night by either the summit or the canon
route.

He had eaten nothing since morning, and the
long, hurried tramp under a heavy load had
nearly worn him out. Dazed and perplexed by
our sad situation I threw myself on the grass
unable to touch the food Gale had spread on a
newspaper before me.

CHAPTER IV.

In a little while more Paugus had cleared the
smoke from his lungs, his cough had subsided
and he was quite himself again. In the mean-
time Forty-nine had elimed to the top of a peak
a little way north of us to determine the course
and force of the breeze, if there were any, and
returned with the cheering news that a breeze
was setting in from the north-west, which was
already strong enough to keep the smoke back
from our position on the summit, and that if it
continued all night, as it would probably do, it
would drive it out of the canon. We had great
faith in Forty-nine's weather predictions, and
his announcement fell like a ray of sunshine
upon the cloud of gloom that shrouded us ; and
we were all soon busy with our preparation for
the night.

Gale had already gathered fir boughs for our
bed and spread them under a tree a little below
the summit and removed-the load from the mule.
Paugus relieved us of our concern about the
animal by volunteering to take him down the
west side of the range to a small stream along
which he said there was an abundance of grass,
as he had discovered the Sunday before while

59

60 MY ADVENTURES

strolling in that direction. So I gave him a
generous loaf of bread to feed to the mule after
he had drank and watched them down the range
till they were lost in the gathering darkness. I
suggested to the trader in the morning that it
would be well to put on the load a few quarts of
oats for the mule, but he declared it unnecessary,
saying that the mule had just eaten, and that
if I turned him loose on my arrival at our cabin
he would return to the post that night before he
would need feed.

In about an hour Paugus returned and
reported the mule provided for. After a cold
supper I told the story of my encounter with the
Indians, and they decided that I must not make
another trip alone. Paugus in particular, was
very much excited over the affair and declared
that he would accompany me next trip armed
with our long-handled sluice foik and all the
cutlery we possessed and would harpoon and
flay every red skin that dared to intercept me.
I assured them that my experience of that day
had not made me so timid as to make a guard
for future trips necessary.

A year or two later I could not have been so
easily caught in the trap the old chief set for
me, for I soon learned when traveling in the
mountains to be constantly on the watch for
Indians, and learned to distinguish their trail
from that of white men, and the smoke of

IN THE 8IEEEAS 61

their fires from that of fires built by white men,
and could therefore tell, nine times out of ten,
on seeing a smoke rising above the trees miles
away whether the n > from which it came was
built by a white ma, or an Indian, which is
a very simple matter after one becomes
acquainted with the Indian's habits.

If I got in that way the location of an Indian
encampment ahead in my line of march, I always
made a circuit around it, sometimes going five
or six miles out of my way to avoid contact with
them. The difference between the "Indian's
smoke" and the white man's is accounted for in
this way : the Indian always selects for his fire
a dry spot where there is no decaying vegeta-
tion and builds a small fire of hard wood limbs
that will make hot coals on which to broil his
meat; such a fire sends up a clear, blue smoke.
The white man almost invariably builds his fire
by the side of a fallen log, and instead of taking
the trouble to hunt and cut hard wood limbs he
gathers for the purpose pine knots and any
other dry fallen timber at hand, as he always
carries a fry pau in which to cook his food;
such a fire emits a dense, dark smoke, which
can be easily distinguished from an "Indian's
smoke" a distance of eight or ten miles in the
clear air of that high altitude.

We had a sound sleep that night in the pure,
sweet air of our elevated resting place, and

62 MY ADVENTURES

were rejoiced in the morning to find that the
breeze was slowly driving the smoke out of the
canon. It was Sabbath morning, quiet and
peaceful. No sound broke the silence save the
low, sweet warbling of the birds and the faint
music of the breeze in the green vault above us.
So exhilarating was the pure, odorous air that
exercise to work off our surplus energy seemed
more necessary than breakfast ; and while Pau-
gus went to the ravine to minister to the needs
of the mule the rest of us took a rapid walk of
ten minutes, sang old "America" and then applied
ourselves to the preparation of our simple break-
fast.

About ten o'clock Forty-nine and Gale de-
scended and inspected the canon and reported it
sufficiently free from smoke to admit of our re-
turn ; so the mule was led up from the ravine
and saddled and our groceries, blankets and a
few other articles my partners had brought from
the cabin were loaded on the saddle, and we de-
scended to our little home which had been so
thoroughly fumigated that it smelled like a
smoke house.

We started the mule on the trail for the trad-
ing post and then took a delicious bath in the
cool stream. After dinner Gale and I climbed
the range east of us to get a view of the fire
raging there, and finally decided to scale the
next range east of that, as we could there get an

IN THE SIERRAS 63

extended view of the north fork of the Yuba
river. A tedious walk of two miles further
brought us to the summit of that range and we
were well repaid for that toilsome climb. The
long stretch of river, clearly visible, with its
net work of flumes and mining machinery made
a novel picture and an interesting study. While
sitting there we made an important discovery.
On the east side of the range a few hundred
yards below us we noticed an expanse of about
fifty acres, on which there was no large timber
and which looked like a peach orchard in bloom.

We descended to it and found it to be a wild
plum patch of thousands of trees loaded with a
delicious looking scarlet plum, many of which
were as large as peaches. They were not quite
ripe enough for use, but ten days later we had
the mule in the canon again and Gale and Pau-
gus, taking him and a few flour and potato sacks
went over and gathered a load of five or six
bushels of the ripe plums from which we made
plain sauce, preserves, puddings, pies and vari-
ous other dishes. We filled two five gallon syrup
kegs with preserved plums which made a very
palatable dessert for our table as long as we re-
mained there.

The third day after my encounter with the
Indians I went to the trading post for our mail,
accompanied by Paugus and with half a pound
each of tobacco and powder for the chief, but

64 MY ADVENTUEES

we found their camping place vacant. Their
fires were still smoldering, indicating that they
had decamped that morning. I felt much re-
lieved by the discovery for I did not care to come
in contact with them again.

The following morning Paugus met with an
accident that afforded the rest of us considerable
amusement in spite of our sympathy for him. I
had announced that n« article of apparel should
be left in the corner in which the cooking was
done and the food was kept, but Paugus came
home the night before very tired, and though as
a rule scrupulously observant of our family code
he placed his high topped boots against the wall
under a shelf on which I kept a large yeast can.
During the night the yeast rose,lifting the cover,
and about a quart of the foaming mixture
streamed down into one of the boots.

Paugus dressed in the morning hurriedly, and
without noticing what had occurred, thrust his
foot into the boot, forcing the light yeast up
around the ankle. With much difficulty he drew
off the boot, looked at the be-daubed foot, and
for a moment forgot another law of our house-
hold, and in a frenzy of passion pronounced an
anathema against yeast in a language more em-
phatic than elegant; but he promptly apologized
for his irreverent outburst and confessed that
he deserved punishment for his carelessness in
leaving the boots thus exposed. It took him

THE SIERRAS 65

half an hour to scour the yeast out, and as he
had no other boots, he was compelled to wear a
shoe on one foot all day while the boot dried in
the sun,

A few days later we had a very happy surprise.
For two weeks we had taken out only about gold
enough to barely pay expenses, and were all get-
ting somewhat discouraged except Forty-nine,
who was kept hopeful and contented by a sort
of Micawber optimism that never forsook him.
He used to say when we got restless and impa-
tient; "Keep pegging away, boys, results will
average well."

We had decided to make a test a few rods fur-
ther down the stream and had moved our der-
rick and other fixtures to the spot chosen and
built a wing dam, shutting the water out of a
section of the channel about thirty feet square.
That morning we removed the large stone from
the space within the wing dam, put in position
our sluice boxes, adjusting the riffles that lined
the bottom and in which the gold was caught;
and having turned a stream of water, sufficiently
large for the purpose, into the head of the sluice,
we commenced shoveling in the sand and gravel
that covered the bed rock in the bed of the river.

Three of us used the shovels at a time and the
fourth one, with a four tined sluice fork, kept
the sluice free of the stones that were too large
for the water to carry off. We had been at work

66 MY ADVENTURES

about three hours, Forty-nine UBing the fork,
and Gale and Paugus shoveling on one side of
thtj sluice and I on the other side, when I ran my
shovel on a flat stone about two feet square lying
on the bed rock under the sand and gravel I was
shoveling up; and after removing a shovelful of
gravel from the rock I discovered on the top of it
a nugget about the size of a large bean, and
s»oo,>ing down to pick it up, I discovered four or
five tie Hy as large. I then stirred with my fore-
finger the Jou.se gravel bringing to view nugget
after n 'gget on the top of the flat rock until I
had filltd my left hand as full as it would hold
with the shiuing metal.

Then rising I held the loaded hand up to my
partners and shouted "Eureka!" and they
shouted back "Hallelujah!" and Paugus, throw-
ing his hat high in the air, scaled the sluice box
at a bound to look at the repository I had un-
earthed. We immediately shut off the water to
see what the riffles had caught, and on getting
a view of tho-e we all shouted again, for they
were yellow with the precious dust.

Turning on the water again we worked hastily
cleaning up the side of the cleared spot on which
I made the discovery, forgetting to go to our
dinner at noon. About three o'clock we shut off
the water, took out the riffles, cleaned the bot-
tom of the sluice and putting the day's yield in-
to an iron pan, we quit work for the day and
returned to the cabin.

IN THE SIERRAS 67

After a hasty dinner we got out our scales and
weighed our gold and found we had a fraction
over fifteen hundred dollars' worth. We believed
we had opened an extensive lead, which, accord-
ing to outward indications, ran up that side of
the stream for some distance and into the side
of the mountain and would be a source of lasting
income to us; so we spent the evening exchang-
ing congratulations and laying plans for the dis-
posal of our vast wealth.

Forty- nine declared he would buy the besi farm
in Maine and supply us all with Alderney cows
and fast horses ; Paugus decided to invest seventy
five or one hundred thousand in pine lands on
the head-waters of the Kennebec and resume the
lumbering business on a gigantic scale ; Gale
and I thought we would first complete our studies
and then build castles somewhere on the coast
of England in which to spend the rest of our
days in quiet ease. We arose early next morn-
ing and were in our claim as soon as it was light
enough to work ; and we plied the pick and
ihovel with a hearty will till four o'clock, stop-
ping only for a hurried luncheon at noon.

On cleaning up we were sadly disappointed,
for our yield, which we had expected would ex-
ceed that of the day before, was only about
seven hundred and fifty dollars. That evening
our planning and dreaming of future opulence
and ease took a more modest turn. The third

68 MY ADVENTURES

day we did not wash any, but spent the day ex-
tending our wing dam and removing large stone
and surface gravel. The following day our yield
was only about four hundred dollars; and from
that time on we averaged only about fair wages.
What we supposed was an extended lead proved
to be only a "pocket" or depression in the bed
of the stream in which the gold we found had
lodged ages before, when the water flow was
larger and the gold was being swept down the
stream by the moving sand and gravel.

The following week I met with a serious acci-
dent, narrowly escaping death. We were re-
moving some large boulders from the stream and
Paugus and I were turning the windlass, he by a
handle on one side of the derrick and I by a
handle on the other side. We had lifted a boulder
weighing several tons, and the other two men
were swinging it round to the point where we
were to drop it, when suddenly the handle Pau-
gus held broke, throwing the whole weight upon
me with a jerk that threw the handle out of my
hands, and the falling stone set the windlass
spinning with the velocity of lightning.

I instinctively threw up my hands to protect
my face from the flying handle and received a
blow across the back of each, crushing a knuckle
of the left hand, and cutting an ugly gash in the
other. Those blows turned me a little to the
right, and I received a blow back of the left

IN THE SIERRAS 69

shoulder that pitched me forward over an em-
bankment five feet high on to a pile of gravel.

My partners sprang to my side and first ex-
amined my head to see if that had been 6truck,
and then drew me a few feet to the stream and
thrust my bleeding hands into the cool water.
After the bleeding had subsided, they helped me
to the cabin and to bed and dressed my wounds.
For four days I could not sit up at all and suf-
fered intensely. The wound in the back proved
the most serious. It was very painful for a week
and the back so swollen and painful that I could
hardly move at all. For over a week I had no
use of my hands, and the little food I ate was
fed to me by Gale.

Forty-nine insisted upon calling a surgeon
from Downieville, but as Gale had some know-
ledge of surgery and was an excellent nurse, I
preferred to trust myself to his care. We were
provided with a choice selection of standard
remedies for domestic treatment, and both Gale
and I had learned pretty well how to administer
them. In about ten days I was able to stir about
again and do a little work.

During my confinement to the cabin, Paugus
made a trip to the trading post for our mail and
a fresh supply of groceries and returned with a
sensational circular announcing a bull and bear
fight which was to take place in Downieville a
week from the following Saturday. We had

70 MY ADVENTURES

never witnessed one, and though we regarded
that amusement as extremely barbarous and de-
moralizing and were loath to give it the support
of our patronage, we finally decided to see it. I
consented to go, not because I expected to be en-
tertained, but because I wanted once to witness
an atrocious practice of which I had heard and
read much, and be able to speak intelligently
concerning it.

Paugus' only pair of pantaloons had worn out
in the seat, and in order to be in decent trim
for to-morrow's outing he found it necessary to
patch them. We had been testing a self rising
flour that came in fifty pound sacks with the
words "Self Rising" stamped in large black
letters on the side ; and one of these sacks being
the only available material for his purpose, he
cut therefrom a patch about ten inches square
with the words "Self Rising" across it and
stitched it on the seat of his pantaloons.

As the day was hot and he had on his heavy
flannel mining shirt, he wore no coat, and the
suggestive lettering could be read^half a square
off and excited considerable merriment on the
streets of Downieville next day. Paugus cared
little for that, however, for his personal appear-
ance was as good as that of a majority of those
around him. Most of the miners of that region,
the prosperous as well as the unprosperous, ap-
peared on all occasions in patched and mud-
•tained garbs.

IN THE SIEREAS 71

The entertainment was to open at two p. m.;
eo we started early, as we were to go the whole
distance on foot and wanted to arrive in season
for dinner and a rest of an hour or two before
the opening. After we passed uut of the canon
on to the bank of the Yuba, Forty-nine called
my attention to a novel institution I had not be-
fore noticed and which amused me not a little.
It was a primitive Chinese laundry, consisting
of a pier or raft of pine timbers and slabs, about
fifteen feet square, built out on the water. The
clothes are taken on to the raft, wet and soaped,
and then beaten over a large block, or on a broad
slab elevated a foot or two above the raft. They
would take a garment by one end and dip it into
the clear running water and then, swinging it
over the shoulder, bring it down upon the block
with great force.

The dipping and beating were repeated until
the garment was supposed to be clean. A email
shanty stood on the shore opposite each raft, in
which the ironing was done. In going a distance
of three miles I counted fifteen of those, each
occupying a force of six or eight men. They
charged the miners twenty-five cents apifcefor
washing plain flannel shirts and under garments
and fifty cents for linen shirts.

That method was, of course, very destructive
to garments, but as it was the only one employed
in that vicinity, the miners who preferred not to

72 MY ADVENTURES

do their own washing, had to submit to Chinese
John's rough usage and sometimes wear button-
less and tattered shirts.

Our inspection of the laundries made our ar-
rival in Downieville a little late, but we had
time for a hearty dinner and to glance at the
latest papers before two oVock. We found the
town crowded with a motley gathering of miners
and sporting characters of every nationality and
grade of intelligence from the dusky Malay to
the college bred Englishman and American.
Exerybody seemed excited and talkative, and
the narrow streets were a perfect Babel.

I had never seen such a heteiogeneous gather-
ing before and the sight was an interesting study
to me. On the principal street[were four or five
large gambling houses, with open fronts, into
which the miners were lured and fleeced of their
earnings. Hundreds of professional gamblers at
that time infested every mining town of that
size, and the authorities imposed little or no re-
straint upon them, as the public officials then
were largely of that class.

The amphitheater in which the entertainment
was given was a temporary roofless structure,
built for that sole purpose, with a seating ca-
pacity of about ten thousand. Below the seating
was an inner circle forty feet in diameter, en-
closed with a heavy plank wall seven feet high.
In this circle two grizzly bears were tied, each

IN THE SIERRAS 78

by a cord around one hind leg, the other end of
which was fasiened to a swivel in the center of
the circle. The length of the cord being only
half the diameter of the circle, they could not
leap up among the spectators. I was shocked to
discover, on entering the amphitheater, that at
least eight thousand people were already seated,
several hundred of whom were women of Downie-
ville and neighboring mining towns. Many of
them were Mexican women who were expected
to take delight in such an entertainment, but a
majority of them were our own country women.
Duwnieville was a county seat, and two courts
were in session at the time, both of which ad-
journed to attend the entertainment The two
judges and a bevy of fifteen or twenty lawyers
had reserved seats directly in front of our party.

As there must have been at least ten thousand
persons admitted before the entertainment
opened who had paid two dollars and a half each
for their tickets, the receipts must have reached
the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.

After the seats were all filled a slim, wiry,
wild-eyed Mexican bull was turned into the
arena with the bears. This was the signal for a
dismal chorus of bellowing and growling that
was almost deafening. For fifteen minutes both
the bull and the bears seemed shy and unwilling
to risk an attack; but finally one of the bears,
finding the bull was slowly edging toward him,

74 MY ADVENTUKES

made a sudden spring, high above the horns of
the bull, and lighting on his shoulder fastened its
jaws in the back of his neck, causing him to bel-
low wildly with pain.

He was soon shaken to the ground, however,
but in falling held fast to the neck of the bull
and threw him down on his side. The bull rose
again, and placing his fore feet on the bear, trod
briskly till he was forced to release his hold
upon the neck, and before he could spring away
the bull caught him on his horns and threw him
six or eight feet into the air. At that juncture
the other bear, who was edging up unperceived
by the bull, sprang forward and caught him by
the nose. It was a tender place for a grapple,
and the bull settled back and roared for a min-
ute like a lion. Then he sprang forward, throw-
ing the bear upon his back, and placing both fore-
feet upon him, gradually drew his hind feet for-
ward until those also were on the bear ; he then
trod steadily with all four of his feet until the
bear, screeching with pain, relaxed his hold up-
on the nose and was tossed to the other side of
the arena, where he crouched and whined piti-
fully, having been gored severely in the bowels
and crushed by the feet of the bull.

The other bear was cowed and so frightened
that he tugged violently at the cord around his
leg and finally drew it over his foot, and to the
horror of everybody, sprang from the arena up

IN THE SIERRAS 75

on to the front row of seats, landing among the
bevy of judges and lawyers and only about ten
feet from our party. The spectators at that
point scattered right and left and so rapidly that
they piled upon one another three or four deep

My partners and I were seated next to an
aisle up which we all ran to the top row of seats
next to the outer wall. Paugus was ahead ;
to our amazement did not stop at the to
mounted the wall without once lookii:
and disappeared over it, falling a die
eighteen feet on to a bed of sand. I peered ove
the wall and was surprised to see him
there uninjured and anxiously waiting f
follow. The bear did not advance any
as two of the lawyers discharged re •■ s in s
face, so stunning him that he lost; his ah ee
and rolled back into the arena; but he in m<
ately sprang to his feet and seenitu to be io par-
ing for another leap.

Then commenced a geuerai fusilade from ev-
ery part of the building. At least five hundred
revolvers were discharged at him from the s< a s
above, and the balls rattled like hail a gai 8t t
side of the arena. For ten minut s the amp
theater was a perfect pandemonium, Women
screamed, men shouted, and a wild tamped<
toward tho entrance con ■ > nci;U.

CHAPTER V.

The poor bear'was still able to walk, but was
so crippled that he could not leap from the
ground again and was soon dispatched by one
of the Mexican matadores who reached him with
a knife from a side door. The bull in the mean-
time was skirmishing with the other bear on the
opposite side of the arena, and had gored him
till he was almost helpless. Till this time Forty-
nine, Gale and I had remained standing where
Paugus left us, and though the remaining spec-
tators were getting quiet, we decided that we
had seen enough of Mexican barbarity, and
worked our way to the entrance and joined Pau-
gus outside.

A more disgusted, dejected, shame-faced quar-
tet than we were, as we turned our backs on the
barbarous scene and strolled up town, could not
have been found. I felt that I had sacrificed
half my self respect and firmly resolved never
again to countenance in any way, such an atro-
cious practice. We had intended to remain in
Downieville over night, but the hotels were full,
and the streets crowded with a noisy, drunken
rabble, and we were glad to take up our march
homeward and exchange scenes and sounds so
distasteful for the quiet and peaceful security

76

IN THE SIERRAS 77

of our forest home. Inexperienced &s I was then
it was hard for me to realize how small a propor-
tion of mankind have within themselves spirit-
ual energy sufficient to control the brute force
dominant there. Most persons, like the planets,
are kept in their spiritual orbits not by any force
inherent in themselves, but by the outward or
centripetal influences operating upon them.

I knew in that lawless region scores of men
who in the East were sincere, pure, earnest
Christians, but who, when thrown into that mael-
strom of evil temptation, where every civil law
could be violated with impunity and no social
restraint deterred them, proved to be, as the
poet expresses it,

"Great pulpy souls who showed
A dimple for every touch of sin."

I knew there a bright scholarly man who was
educated for the ministry, and who for four
years filled most acceptably a pulpit in one of
our New England cities, and who went to Cali-
fornia on a leave of absence for one year, to re-
store his impaired health, and who finally be-
came one of the most daring and successful gam-
blers in that part of the country, and of course
never returned east. He was evidently a man of
noble impulses, and had he remained in the
east, protected by home influences, would have
led a consistent and useful life.

On the other hand, there was in every mining

78 MY ADVENTURES

camp a sprinkling of staunch characters whose
pure principles were immovably fixed and whom
no temptation could shake; and many of them
were men who professed no religion nor made
any pretension to moral excellence. But the
great majority of men are of the former class.
They never attain a moral growth and a degree
of spiritual perfection that renders them self-
sustaining. A sage has said "No man is wise
alone;" and very true is the remark. Life is
brief and no man has time in his short busy pas-
stge through it to acquire much by his limited
research and experience. And it is as palpable
a truism that no man is strong alone. Man is by
nature imitative and dependent. Outward in-
fluen -es beget and foster his life purposes and
shape his career. His moral sustenance comes
from without by absorption, and he must keep
in clos touch with his fellows to acquire it; and
the effective exercise of his moral powers de-
pends 1 trgely upon his sense of moral obligation.
If placed where he is conscious of receiving di-
rectly none of the benefits of society and lacks
the stimulus of good example, he is not likely to
conform to social requirements, and in that re-
pose of his moral energy becomes weak and in-
differen .

At the trading post two miles from Downie-
ville we got a lantern \*e had left there in the
morning, and refreshed ourselves with a light

IN THE SIEERAS 79

luncheon. It was quite dark when we reached
the canon, but with the light of the lantern we
were ab'e to keep the trail. We reached home
at nine, having traveled the seventeen miles from
Downieville in five hours, including our stay at
the trading post; but we were a tired party and
after a light supper were glad to get to bed and
forget the day's exploits. I had not yet fully
recovered from the injuries received in the dig-
gings, and my long tramp so exhausted me that
I was compelled to keep to my bed most of the
day Sunday.

We were completely cured of all desire to
mingle in the gaities of Downieville and did not
visit the place again till we passed through it
the la?t of November on our way back to our
winter quarters. We found in our own little
circle and in the smiling concourse of forest
pines and the singing birds and laughing stream
a more congenial society.

We were fortunate enough that week to secure
a supply of excellent venison. Paugus had dis-
covered a mile above us on the stream, a spot to
which deer came from the mountain in the morn-
ing twilight to drink and graze ; so he borrowed
a rifle of the proprietor of the trading post the
day we were there, and Tuesday morning rose
early and was secreted near the deer haunt
before daylight. He had not waited long when
three appeared, one of which, a fat doe, he

80 MY ADVENTURES

secured. He dressed it there and brought the
carcass home on his shoulder. We had choice
venison steak for breakfast, and a roast for din-
ner; and I have never since eaten venison so
tender and delicious.

Our little cooking stove had no oven, and our
fatal tin reflector, to which that hysterical mule
objected, we could not use, as we had no fire
place in our cabin ; but we had improvised an
oven that excelled for baking pork and beans
and roasting meat all the ranges and reflectors
ever made. It was constructed as follows: A
round hole about two feet deep and one foot in
diameter was dug in the ground in front of the
cabin. In the bottom of that we placed a flat
stone and then built a fire in the hole with hard,
dry wood which we kept burning for about an
hour, or until the earth around the hole was
well baked and heated. We then removed most
of the fire and placed therein a deep, sheet iron
kettle containing the roast and adjusted the close
fitting cover ; we then buried it in the hot embers
and over them put a heavy layer of earth.

Pork and beans were usually left thus buried
from eight in the evening till seven or eight in
the morning, and a roast from seven A. M. till
twelve. Meat cooked in that way, without
exposure to~the air is more tender and juicy and
has a higher, richer flavor than when cooked in
a range. In our winter home, though we had a

IN THE SIEEEAS 81

good cooking range, we always cooked our pork
and beans in the ground.

I had now been in the mountains over six
months and had but once in that time spoken to
a woman, and little thought that my second
introduction to the gentler sex was to occur in
that uninhabited and to her, as I supposed,
impenetrable region ; but such was to be my
fa'te. One morning about ten o'clock, while we
were busy in the claim about twenty rods down
the stream from the cabin, we were startled by
the clatter of hoofs and saw emerging into an
open space on the opposite bank, through which
the trail ran, a man and two women mounted on
horses. They discovered us and the man saluted
us raising his hat and bowing politely, and we
returned the curtesy in like manner. He was a
little in advance of the women and quite near
the bank of the stream which was about six feet
above water.

The current of the stream had been turned
against the bank there by our wing dam and
had made a deep excavation under the trail
which we had not observed. When the man
reached that point the bank suddenly gave way,
and horse and rider both dropped that six feet
into the excavation, the horse landing on its
side in six inches of mud and water and the man
on top of it unhurt, but badly frightened and
bedaubed with mud. The women had just time

82 MY ADVENTURES

to draw up their horses and avoid following him.
We hurried acros3 the stream to his relief, half
glad in our wicked hearts that the accident had
happened, as it secured to us the pleasure of
meeting and condoling with the women.

After helping the man np on to the trail, we
got the horse up and found he had received no
other injury than a slight cut on the side of the
head. We took the party to our cabin and had
the women dismount and rest while we sponged
off the man and his horse and saddle. He
informed us that he was proprietor of a trading
post twenty miles north of us and had been to
Goodyear's Bar and the Yuba with his wife and
his sister-in-law, and that they decided to return
via Jim Crow Canon, as they could save about
five miles of travel by doing so and also avoid
the dust and hot sunshine of the higher route.
When they were in condition to move again it
was past noon, and knowing they would not
reach a town before four or five o'clock, we
invited them to take luncheon with us, which
they consented to do providing they were per-
mitted to tax our hospitality only to the extent
of furnishing them coffee, as they had brought
a light luncheon with them ; so I donned my big
kitchen apron, which covered me from the chin
to the knees, and with all the courage and suav-
ity of a French professional, prepared luncheon.

Over their coffee the women threw off their

IN THE SIEREAS 83

reserve and we had a very jolly pleasant time of
it. Paugus amused them by remarking that it
seemed like God's country again. They con-
sented to taste our sugar cured ham, ginger-
bread, doughnuts and plum preserves, and of
course felt bound to praise them. They were
very pleasant, intelligent persons, and it was
with sincere regret that we bade them good bye.

The little episode relieved for many days the
dull tenor of our secluded lives.

My next trip to the trading post I made alone
and returned without the mule, as I had pur-
chased only a few light articles easily carried
in my hand. The semi-monthly eastern mail,
which I expected to find at the post, had not
arrived at noon, but it had reached Downieville,
the only post town in the vicinity, and the
trader as was his custom, had sent a messenger
there for the mail for his customers ; so I waited
until three o'clock for his return.

Having left the post so late, I did not reach
the canon till dusk, and had not proceeded far
up the narrow defile before total darkness set in.
The small expanse of sky visible between the
two mountain ranges was completely hidden
most of the way by a dense arch of pine and fir
foliage through which no light penetrated. I
could have borrowed a lantern at the trading
post, but forgot to do so or even to supply my-
self with matches. The trail was rough and

84 MY ADVENTUKES

crooked, and in places ran for rods along the
edge of precipices where a misstep might send
one bumping down a slide into the stream or on
to a pile of jagged rock.

I moved slowly, keeping a cane I carried on
the ground before me, as I had often seen blind
men do. When I was within about two miles
of home and rounding a bluff point, where I had
to exercise great care, I was startled by a hoarse
groan that sounded much like the growl of a
grizzly, followed by hasty scratching and shuff-
ling in the loose shale in front of me and not
three yards distant. Supposing that our party
were the only tenants of the canon, I instantly
decided that I was confronted by nothing less
formidable than a grizzly, and as I dare not run,
I did not move a muscle for a full minute, but
stood terror stricken and helpless; but in
another minute I had recovered from my leth-
argy and was slowly and noislessly backing
away with my cane in one hand and my stiletto
in the other, but still half paralysed with fear.
I had moved only a few [paces when another
growl broke the stillness, and then came a
mumbling in which I thought! could distinguish
several words. I stoppedand listened, and the
thought came to me that if it"were a man he
must be either an Indian or a Mexican who was
camping on the side of the mountain, and hav-
ing heard me coming, was playing an opposum

IN THE SIEEKAS 85

game to entrap me. I mustered all the courage
I could command and called in a heavy, gruff
voice,

"Who is there?"

And immediately came the response, "Me —
me, whe-e-r-e's th-th-trail?" I called again,

"What is the matter with you? Are you
hurt?" to which he replied : "Tr-a-il's got away
from me. Help a fell-er up. Who-o ar-ar yer,
stranger? Yer see I w-e-nt down ter Tom
Smith's with th' boys and t-took a leetle too
m-much whisky — leetle too m-much. You
d-drunk too, stranger? Which w-a-y yer
g-goin'? Let's s-strad-dle th' trail to-geth-er."

I concluded he was really drunk and harmless,
so I approached and got hold of him, and found
he had slid off the trail where the descent was
so steep that he could not recover his footing and
was holding himself by a bush. I drew him on
to the trail and questioned him as to which way
he was going, whether up or down the stream.
He told me that he and two other men had come
on to the stream a few days before over the
mountain from the Yuba river and were pros-
pecting somewhere above our location.

So I got him in front of me and worked him
slowly along the trail, shaking and scolding him
at times to keep him alert and active. We had
gone about half a mile when to my great joy
Foity-nine suddenly appeared with a lantern.

86 MY ADVENTURES

The boys had become anxious about me, and
knowing that I must be somewhere on the way
home and perhaps without a lantern, he started
out to meet me. By the time we reached our
cabin my befuddled charge was sober enough to
walk without assistance. So after shower-
ing his face with water and taking a few
matches, he started on his way alone, and we
did not hear from him again.

My long walk to the post and back, together
with the heavy tax upon my nerves by the fright
I had received so exhausted me that I had no ap-
petite for supper, and went to bed at once, where
I soon forgot the trying events of the day. I
was aroused next morning late by Gale, who had
prepared breakfast and had my coffee, toast and
ham already steaming on the table. I ate a
hearty breakfast and felt quite myself again.
Good-soul Paugus, wishing to contribute some
special compensation for my hardships of the
day before, presented me with a very tasty
pair of moccasins he had made from the hide of
the deer he killed.

He had smoke-tanned it with the hair on and
cut out and stitched the moccasins very neatly.
I found them very serviceable for indoor wear
for several years. That was Sunday, and I
spent most of the time till three o'clock reading
and lounging, when we all ascended to the sum-
mit of the range west of us, to witness another

IN THE SIERRAS 87

sunset and get another airing in the cool breeze
from Mount Shasta's icy top. The sun had
moved farther south and sank this time where
there were no peaks to hold and diffuse its lin-
gering rays, and we therefore found the view
less pleasing than that Gale and I had witnessed
earlier in the season.

The following Saturday Gale went to the
trading post, and among the reading matter he
brought was an illustrated document entitled,
"The Miner's Ten Commandments," which,
though awkwardly expressed, amused me, and
a copy of which I have always retained among
other souvenirs of those days and will here give
a brief extract from each commandment.

THE MINER'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.

I.

Thou shalt have no other claim than one.

II.

Thou shalt not make unto thyself any false
claim, nor any likeness to a mean man by jump-
ing one, lest thy fellow miners assemble and in-
vite thee to take thy pick and thy pan, thy
shovel and thy blankets with all thou hast and
hastily go prospecting for other diggings.

HI.

Thou shalt not go prospecting before thy claim
gives out. Neither shalt thou take thy money,
nor thy gold dust, nor thy good name to the

88 MY ADVENTURES

gambling table in vain ; for there thou wilt
quickly learn that the more thou puttest down
the lees thou shalt take up : and when thou
thinkest of thy wife and children, thou shalt not
hold thyself guiltless.

IV.

Thou shalt not remember what thy friends at
home (to on the Sabbath day, lest the remem-
brance may not compare favorably with what
thou doest here. Six days thou mayest dig, but
the other day is Sunday ; yet thou washest all
thy soiled shirts, darnest all thy stockings, chop
thy wood, and bake thy bread and pork and
beans, that thou wait not when thou returnest
from thy long- torn weary. For in six days labor
only thou canst not wear out in two years,but can
if thou workest on Sunday also, and thou and
thy son, thy daughter, thy morals and thy con-
science, be none the better for it.

V.

Thou shalt not think more of all thy gold and
how thou canst make it fastest than how thou
wilt enjoy it after thou hasb ridden rough shod
over thy good old parents' precepts and exam-
ples.

VI.

Thou shalt not kill thy body by working in
the rain, even though thou shalt make enough
for thy physic and attendance. Neither shalt
thou kill thy neighbor's body in a duel; for by
keeping cool thou canst save his life and thy
conscience. Neither shalt thou destroy thyself
by getting tight, nor slewed, nor high, nor corned,
nor three sheets in the wind.

IN THE SIERRAS 89

VII.

Thou shalt not grow discouraged, nor think of
going home before thou hast made thy pile, be-
cause thou hast not struck a lead, nor found a
pocket, lest in going thou shalt leave five dol-
lars a day and goto work ashamed at one dollar.

VIII.

Thou shalt not steal a pick, or a pan, or a
shovel, from thy fellow-miner ; nor borrow that
he cannot spare, nor talk with him while his
water rent is running on ; nor remove his stake
to enlarge thy claim, nor undermine his bank,
nor pan out gold from his riffle box. Neither
shalt thou steal from thy cabin mate his gold
dust to add to thine, lest thy evil doing should
be discovered and straightway thy fellow miners
should assemble and hang thee, or give thee fifty
lashes and brand thee like a horse thief with
"R" upon thy cheek to be known and read of
all men.

IX.

Thou shalt not tell any false tales about gold
diggings in the mountains to thy neighbor, that
thou mayest benefit a friend who hath mules and
provisions he cannot sell, lest when he returneth
through the snow with nothing but his rifle, he
present thee with the contents thereof, slaying
thee like a dog.

X.

Thou shalt not commit unsuitable matrimony,
nor forget absent maidens, nor neglect thy first
love; but thou shalt consider how faithfully and
patiently she awaiteth thy return. Anew com-

90 MY ADVENTURES

mandment give I unto thee: if thou hast a wife
and little ones that thou holdest dearer than thy
life, that thou keep them constantly before thee
to cheer and urge thee onward until thou canst
say "I have enough — God blees them — I will re-
turn."

The literary products of California from 1849
to 1856 were largely of a coarse, humorous char-
acter, pandering to the testes of the rough, illit-
erate element of that cosmopolitan society. The
writings of "Dow, Jr," "Sluice Fork/' "Old
Block," and those of a score of other humorous
scribblers of local fame found a ready sale in
the mining towns everywhere; and though they
did not perhaps inculcate the highest moral
principles nor add to the culture and refinement
of the people, they were not without their good
results, for they certainly did much to inspire
a spirit of good cheer and contentment among
those toiling, self-denying delvers of the moun-
tains— much to lighten the burden of their cares
and hardships.

The following week Paugus shot another deer.
He went out in the evening to a deep pool on one
side of the stream, near where he killed the
other, and where he had discovered they went
to wade and escape the flies. He shot a large
young doe in the pool, wounding her in the
shoulder, and in her frantic struggling to escape
instead of approaching the shore she moved in
a circle, keeping in the broad pool.

IN THE SIERRAS 91

Paugus, unfortunately, instead of taking time
to reload his gun and shoot again, sprang into
the pool, thinking to get hold of the deer and
dispatch her with his knife; but as he ap-
proached her, wading to his shoulders, she raised
her fore legs above the water and, with her hind
feet upon the bottom, sprang forward about
eight feet, nearly clearing the water and light-
ing on the top of poor Paugus with a force that
sent him to the bottom.

CHAPTER VI.

Though cut on the shoulder and the side of
the head by the sharp hoofs of the deer and par-
tially stunned, he retained his self-possession,
and regaining his footing raised his head above
water and caught the deer by the nose and with
his knife put an end to the struggle.

He dressed it, and taking the edible parts and
his gun started for home; but he was weak from
the over exertion and loss of blood and found it
tiresome walking in his wet clothes with so
heavy a load and sat down on a log to rest. While
sitting there he saw two young coyotes, about
the size of a cat, run out of the hollow end of
the log. On seeing him they started back, but
he sprang to the end of the log in season to catch
one of them, which he brought to the cabin
alive.

He was nearly exhausted when he arrived and
still bleeding from the wound on the side of his
head which gave him a frightful appearance. I
dressed his wounds while he gave us an amusing
account of his hazardous exploit; and we could
not refrain from laughing at him for his reckless
daring. He was very lame the next morning,
and for several days unable to do much.

92

IN THE SIERRAS 93

We made a pen and a warm nest for the coy-
ote by the side of the cabin and kept it until it
was fully grown and well domesticated. It was
as cunning and playful as a kitten and made a
nice pet for us. I was in the habit of rising
earlier than my partners, to prepare breakfast,
and as soon as the pet heard me moving he would
commence begging to be admitted to the cabin ;
and as soon as I let him in he would mount the
bunks and wring the nose and eara of each one
of the boys until they were wide awake. After
we gave him his liberty, he would make excur-
sions into the woods around the cabin, look for
mice and rabbits, but never failed to return to
the cabin by dusk, to get his supper and have
his evening frolic with us.

The middle of November arrived and the cold
winds were driving in from the ocean clusters of
portentious little clouds, indicating the near ap-
proach of the wet season ; so we decided to
"break camp" and return to our winter home.
We had already arranged for the sale of our der-
rick and mining tools to a party of miners On
the Yuba, near the mouth of the canon, who
were to send for them when we were r;ady to
leave. We had also arranged with the trader at
the post for a mule on which to transport our
other goods and which we were to send back
with a saddle train that ran between Downie-
ville and La Porte.

94 MY ADVENTUKES

The day before we were to start Paugus went
to the post for the mule, and while he was gone
the rest of us packed such things as we would
not want to use before leaving. After noon lun-
cheon Gale and I crossed to the other side of the
range to get a few of those calla lily bulbs to
take home with us ; and returning we stopped
to rest on the summit and take a last view of the
delightful picture to the west and north. While
sitting there I made a discovery new to me and
which interested me deeply. There was a steady
breeze from the west that brought into view
clusters of dark, low clouds from the Pacific that
passed over the Sacramento Valley without ma-
terial change, but suddenly disappeared when
they came in contact with the peaks of the high
Sierra ranges. No rain had fallen on the moun-
tains for five months, and they were so parched
that they readily absorbed the clouds, drinking
them up like a sponge.

We rose early next morning, and by the time
if was light enough to follow the trail, we had
taken our breakfast, packed our goods on the
mule and started on our journey. We took our
pet as far as the trading post and presented it
to the little son of the trader who promised to
care for it tenderly. We stayed that night in a
mining camp a few miles beyond Downieville,
and the next morning Gale, Paugus and I took a
saddle train home, leaving Forty-nine to follow .

IN THE SIEEEAS 96

on foot with the mule. We reached home soon
after noon more lame and tired than we would
have been had we walked the whole distance.
Our saddles were of the poorest Mexican pattern
and the mules untrained and awkward, and as
they were urged along at a frightful speed by
the muleteer in charge we often found it hard to
keep our seats and were in constant danger of
having our necks broken.

We were crossing the mountain ranges, and
in the whole distance of twenty miles there was
not fifty yards of level trail. The train of thirty
mules, each carrying a passenger, was driven
down the steep mountain sides over the rough
zig-zag trail so fast that a mule would occasion-
ally, on reaching an unusually steep place, settle
back on his haunches, brac»e his fore legs out in
front and slide a distance of fifty or seventy-five
feet,then rise, catch his footing and lope again
until he had another opportunity to relieve the
pain in his strained knees by sliding. Mules
well accustomed to rapid mountain travel nearly
all learned that trick, and were quick to avail
themselves of the relief it afforded their tired
limbs.

I remember seeing a man the following sum-
mer, who was taking his first ride on a moun-
tain trail, jump from the saddle while the mule
was shooting down a shale slide and roll a long
distance in the dust. He naturally had the im-

96 MY ADVENTURES

pression that the mule, instead of recovering his
footing at the bottom of the slide, would fall
and roll.

We had our cabin cleaned and put in order and
a supply of provisions stored before Forty-nine's
arrival in the evening. Most of our neighbors
of the camp had also returned from their sum-
mer diggings and the place was lively with prep-
aration for the coming winter. The winter's
supply of wood, most of which was prepared in
the spring, had to be drawn up and packed in
the spacious sheds adjoining the cabins, and the
staple groceries, as flour, potatoes, beans, syrup,
sugar and coffee, were stored in the "hole" as
the shallow cellar Was called, and in the cabin
loft. Then their hydraulic claims had to be put
in order — the flumes through which the dirt was
washed and in which the gold was caught, ex-
amined and repaired or replaced with new, and
perhaps the flumes extended; so for two or three
weeks after the return of the miners the camp
had a lively appearance.

It was amusing to go into their evening gath-
erings and hear them relate their novel experi-
ences of the summer. Some had spent the four
or five months of their absence mining on the
Yuba or Feather rivers, some on small streams or
in gulches, some by the tunnel method, and some
had moved like gypsies all the while, prospect-
ing with pick and pan and with no other shelter

IN THE SIERRAS 97

than the evergreen thickets; and nearly all had
some strange experiences to relate.

A few days after my return from Jim Crow
Canon I went on foot to a small mining camp
seven miles north, where I thought of buying an
interest in a hydraulic claim; and in going I
had to cross from one high range to another
through a dismal, wooded gulch, where I had a
new experience which so impressed me that I
have never forgotten it.

Half way down the first range, in a grove of
fir and pine, a little way from the trail, stood
quite a large frame cabin that bad been built the
year before by two Mexicans of mysterious ap-
pearance who seemed to have no legitimate em-
ployment's there was no mining in that vicinity
and no town within several miles. Several rob-
beries had occurred in the gulch below since the
cabin had been built, and the marshal of La
Porte, the nearest town, had been watching the
place for some time, and having discovered that
about once a month twelve or fifteen Mexicans
assembled there for a night or two of revelry, he
was satisfied it was a rendezvous for Mexican
thieves and highwaymen and was waiting for
sufficient evidence of the fact to justify a raid
on the place. I had heard those facts and nat-
urally felt a little nervous as I passed the place
and descended into the gulch.

At the foot of the range the trail turned and

98 MY ADVENTURES

ran down the gulch, along the bank of a small
stream for the distance of fifteen or twenty rods
before mounting the opposite range. Just as I
reached that point I heard the clatter of a horse's
feet and discovered a horseman emerging from
the thicket down the gulch where the trail
crossed the stream, on a full gallop towards me
holding a heavy revolver in his right hand on a
level with his shoulder. He was so besmeared
with dust that I could not tell whether he was a
Mexican or a white man but felt sure I was to
be "held up," and having no fire arms for de-
fense I stepped out of the trail in a measure re-
signed to my fate, and waited the dread com-
mand to deliver up my valuables. He rode up
and without slacking his rapid pace greeted me
with a graceful wave of the left hand and a smile
and disappeared in a cloud of dust up the wind-
ing trail. I breathed easier and felt thankful
that my buckskin purse, lean though it was, was
still in my possession.

When I reached my destination I made in-
quiry as to who the mysterious horseman was
and learned that he was an express messenger
in the employ of Wells, Fargo & Co., who twice
a week visited six or seven mining camps north
of there, collecting the gold dust their agents in
those camps had bought and taking it to their
offices in LaPorte ; that he carried back from
ten to twenty thousand dollars' worth of dust in

IN THE SIEKRAS 99

his saddle bags and always passed through that
gulch on a rapid gallop with his revolver drawn
and cocked, as a messenger for the same com-
pany had been waylaid and killed there and an-
other wounded two or three years before. Those
express messengers all over the mining region of
the state were a courageous class of men eo in-
ured to danger that they had no dread of it, but
on the contrary rather courted it for the pleas-
ure found in the excitement attending it.

Thoroughly skilled in the use of fire arms and
with the practiced eye ot a eagacious Indian it
was hard for an enemy to surprise one of them
and gain any advantage over him. They knew
by sight all frequenters of the trails of their
routes and all the dangerous passes, and though
their routes ran among bluffs and through
woods and dark ravines, they were rarely dis-
turbed.

I returned home the following day and found
awaiting me letters from my good friends Mr.
and Mrs. Moore, of Marysville, inviting me to
spend the winter with them instead of burrow-
ing in the snow for the whole season in idleness,
and I was glad to accept the invitation, for I
had looked forward with dread to the long term
of close confinement and dull monotony. So a
few days later I bade my cabin mates good-bye
and took passage at LaPorte on a huge, cum-
brous but comfortable coach for Marysville,

100 MY ADVENTURES

In epite of my reluctance to spending the win-
ter in the snow, I was sorry to leave my three
companions, for I had become warmly attached
to them. I resolved, however, to write them of-
ten and to keep them supplied with reading
matter. The stage road had been completed
but a short time and was very rough, and in
places around precipitous mountain sides the ut-
most care was required to guide it safely ; and
yet we made the trip of seventy miles in nine
hours and a half, including a stop of thirty
minutes for dinner. Five changes of horses were
made, and at most of the relay stations the dri-
ver did not leave his seat. The four fresh horses
were standing in front of the station. Two at-
tendants in less than ten seconds' time released
the tired horses and in less than a minute more
attached the fresh relay and handed the driver
the reins and we were off again. There were
eight passengers in all, two on the outside and
six in the inside.

Our inside party were bumped against the
top of the coach, thrashed from side to side and
scattered promiscuously over the bottom till we
were as battered and sore as a football champion.
It was a week before I recovered from the jolt-
ing and bruising of that ride.

Marysville was a pleasant little city of about
six thousand inhabitants, and was the principal
shipping point for the mining territory north

IN THE SIERRAS 101

and east of there. Small boats ran up the Sac-
ramento river as far as Red Bluff, but most of
the traffic for the country east of the Upper
Sacramento Valley went from Marysville by
wagon and pack train. One could see daily
long trains of immense freight wagons, each
drawn by six mules or horses and trains of sev-
enty or one hundred pack mules, each bearing
from three to four hundred pounds of freight,
all winding across the valley from the city to
tbe foot hills, while a counter current of empty
wagons and pack saddles poured into the place.
The friend with whom I stayed owned a large
cream colored Mexican pony which was the best
trained saddle horse I ever saw; and I spent
much time exercising with him on the unoccu-
pied plain between the city and the foot hills.
I usually carried a shot gun, as ducks were
abundant on the plains and easily approached
then. The bridle rein I seldom touched, but let
it hang on the horn of the saddle and guided
him with my knees. If I sighted a duck ahead
within range I called softly, "Stop!" and he
would come to a stand still so suddenly as to
nearly unseat me if I were not well on my guard ;
and when I raised my gun he would brace his
fore legs out in front, drop his nose down be-
tween his knees and stand as rigid and still ae a
post till I had fired, when he would raise his
head and wait for the next word of command.

102 MY ADVENTURES

He took even more delight in duck hunting than
I did and wag never ready to give up the sport
and go home.

A short distance above Marysville on the op-
posite side of the river was the Yuba Indian
Reservation, and I visited their village frequent-
ly during the winter, making a close study of
their habits. I found them inferior in every
respect to the Indians of the eastern part of the
continent. The mild climate and abundance of
wild vegetables, fish and game of the Pacific
slope had enabled them to live in ease and com-
parative idleness with nothing to tax and de-
velop their energies, and they were among the
most listless, lazy, stupid creatures of the human
race. There was in them none of that vigor of
mind and body which characterizes the Indians
of New England and Canada ; and that differ-
ence is not due to the fact that they had been
but a short time in contact with the white man,
for their heads indicate a much lower mental
development than those of the Indians of the
Atlantic region.

One never sees among them the tall, straight,
lithe form, long oval face and Roman nose so
common among the Indians of the East.

In the spring of 1856 while the Sacramento
river was swarming with salmon and the half
flooded plains were spotted with ducks, I found
the Yubas feeding chiefly on grass- hoppers,

IN THE SIERRAS 103

acorns, roots and decaying refuse meat picked
up around the slaughter houses of Marysville.
The soil of their reservation was the most pro-
ductive in the world — a rich, calcareous loam
that would produce two crops of vegetables a
year ; and they could easily have raised vegeta-
bles enough to support them and without much
labor, but were too indolent to do that or to fish
or hunt.

The first white settlers there found them liv-
ing largely on roots and gave them the name of
Diggers, and they are still spoken of there as
the Digger Indians. The rich valleys of the
Pacific slope afford a large variety of wild edi-
ble roots, and it was easier to dig these than to
fish and hunt; but when the valleys were occu-
pied by the whites that resource was cut off.
The women and children could gather grass-
hoppers, acorns and refuse meat enough to sus-
tain life and they cared for nothing beyond that.
It was amusing to see them gather grasshoppers
and prepare them for winter use. One or two
hundred women and children would go out on
to the open plain where the grasshoppers were
abundant and large, and form a circle around a
patch of four or five acres, each with a little
bush with which to beat the grass, and then
close in slowly, driving the grasshoppers before
them until they had them crowded into a space
a few yards square, when a few of the women,

104 MY ADVENTURES

with sacks tied to their waists, would enter the
ring and gather up the game by the handful
and thrust it into the sacks, while the rest of the
party kept up the switching to keep them to-
gether.

After they had gathered them all up they
dipped the sacks into pots of boiling water and
then* spread the contents on blankets in the sun
to dry. When dry they were re-sacked and
hung up in their tepees. When they prepared a
mess for cooking they took them from the sack
by the handful, rubbed them slightly together,
blew out the wings and legs and threw them into
an earthern pot with a few acorns and a little
meat and cooked the compound about an hour.
It made a stew which was said to be quite nutri-
tious, but how palatable I do not know, never
having tasted it.

The Yubas were passionately addicted to
gambling among themselves, and would run any
risk or make any sacrifice to gratify that pas-
sion. A short time before I went there the
chief was presented with an expensive suit of
clothes, a pair of boots and a silk hat, by a
government agent, for some special service he
had rendered. He donned the outfit in the
agent's office and went back to the reservation
as proud of his improved appearance as a boy
in his first suit; but three days later he came
over to the city with nothing on but a flannel

IN THE SIERRAS 105

shirt and the silk hat, having gambled the other
garments all away.

Salmon and duck were so abundant all that
spring that they could be bought in the markets
for three or four cents a pound while beef and
mutton were selling for twenty and twenty-five
cents a pound ; and yet the Indians seldom
hunted them. Wild duck were brought in by
the white hunters by the wagon load and hawked
on the streets till night when the unsold part of
their loads were often dumped into the gutters
to be picked up by the Chinamen and Indians.

Salmon fishing was carried on in the Sacra-
mento river only during the months of February,
March and April and the fall months of October
and November. The number taken out in 1856
was estimated at four hundred and fifty thous-
and, amounting in the aggregate to six million
five hundred thousand pounds. Most of these
were smoked or canned in Sacramento for ship-
ment.

It was during that season that the famous
San Francisco vigilance committee of 1851 was
re organized and resumed its commendable work
of suppressing the rough element that had long
terrorized all the larger cities of the state, defy-
ing law and encouraging crime and vice of every
character. That element was led and controlled
largely by professional gamblers and adventur-
ers who elevated men of their own ilk into the

106 MY ADVENTURES

gubernatorial chair, on to the supreme bench,
and, in fact, into most of the higher offices of
the state; and so bold had they become in their
unchecked excesses that the higher interests of
the state were imperiled and the better class of
citizens seriously alarmed for the reputation of
the state and the safety of their business in-
terests.

Judge Terry, who was put onto the supreme
bench and who killed U. S. Senator D. C. Brod-
erick and was finally, in an attempt to kill an-
other man, killed himself, was one of that class.
The assassination of U. S. marshal Richardson
and James King of William, editor of the Bulle-
tin, by two leading gamblers and politicians
caused intense excitement all over the state and
aroused a wholesome feeling of resentment that
resulted in the re-organization of the San Fran-
cisco vigilance committee, which had never
disbanded.

The committee tried, convicted and hanged
the murderers of U. S. marshal Richardson and
James King of William, banished from the state
many of the other desperadoes and put an ef-
fectual check upon the infamous doings of that
olass.

The excitement in Marysville for several days
was intense. Business was partially suspended,
and the streets were crowded with an excited,
noisy class who had been driven to the verge of

IN THE SIERRAS 107

madness by the highly exaggerated reports that
came hourly from San Francisoo and Sacramento.
Though most strenuous effort was being made
by leading citizens to allay the excitement and
disperse the noisy crowd, the city by evening
had become a perfect bedlam, all effort by the
authorities to restore order having proved futile.

Finally the mad crowd conceived the idea of
breaking open the county jail and lynching six
or eight criminals confined there and of burning
the residences of certain prominent citizens who
were known to be in sympathy with the domin-
ant political element of the state. When this
purpose became known a feeling of terror spread
throughout the city. No rain had fallen for
weeks and the city was as dry as a tinder box,
and such citizens as were calm enough to reason
about the matter realized that if buildings were
fired in various parts of the city and the fire
department restrained by the mob the city would
probably be destroyed.

Hundreds of prominent citizens gathered at
the principal hotel in the center of the city for
consultation, and several attempted to address
the frenzied mob from a balcony, but could not
command attention ; finally in utter despair they
dispersed to their homes to severally protect
as best they could their families and property.

CHAPTER VII.

Finally Rev. Mr. Briggs, pastor of the First
Methodist church, who was very popular in the
city with all classes, a very eloquent speaker
and a man of strong, commanding personality,
appeared at the hotel and was persuaded to
make an appeal to the mob. Taking a position
on a balcony in front of the hotel, he threw up
his right hand in an attitude, not of supplica-
tion, but of stern command, and in a clear,
trumpet tone that had in it an irresistible air of
authority, he commanded silence and then made
an able, stirring appeal to their honor, patriot-
ism and manhood to hold sacred the obligation
of obedience to the powers that be, and assured
them that the seed then being sown in San Fran-
cisco would surely fall over the whole state and
be productive of a purer politics, a more honest
judiciary and of justice in the treatment of the
criminals of the state.

The appeal cooled their frenzy, restored order
and sent the crowd away submissive and silent.
A gentleman who was present on that occasion
said to me, "I have heard nearly all the promi-
nent orators of this country, but have never
witnessed a more striking example of the power
of eloquence."

108

IN THE SIERRAS 109

About the middle of March I started on my
return to the mountains, leaving the valley al-
ready smiling in the embrace of early summer,
with its decoration of green foliage, blooming
orchards and waving grain. Whirling past
myriads of grazing cattle and plodding wagon
and pack trains, we entered the meandering
pass of the foot hills fringed with the opening
foliage and redolent with the grateful perfume
of an abundant flora; and the winding ascent
was as novel and delightful as a vision of fairy
land.

As I looked back an hour later from a height
of one thousand feet upon that summer land,
glowing in sunshine and bloom, with its three
sluggish rivers, its slowly winding caravans and
its fading cluster of distant spires, it presented
to me a scene of rare loveliness which forty
years of intervening time have not effaced. At
four o'clock that afternoon we reached the snow
line and greeted solemn winter again. The
coach could go no farther and the remaining
twenty miles of my journey was to be made on
foot in a snow trail with my valise strapped to
my back ; but I had the companionship of two
entertaining fellow travellers and enjoyed the
exercise in that bracing mountain air.

After a brisk walk of two hours we stopped
for the night at a French tavern in the pine
woode by the roadside, where we were provided

110 MY ADVENTURES

with good meals, but found the sleeping accom-
modations miserable. We were compelled to
sleep on cots in a large open attic with fifteen or
twenty French miners who kept up such a chorus
of French jargon and vociferous snoring that I
got little sleep and was in poor condition next
morning for my long tramp.

I got an early start, however, and reached
Camp Warren at noon and received a warm
welcome from my cabin mates. They were ex-
pecting me, as I had written them when I should
start, and had prepared an elaborate dinner
which was soon steaming on the table and to
which I did full justice. I well remember the
principal dishes of that meal and how well they
all tasted after my tiresome walk in the cool
forest air. They were roast beef and potatoes,
pork and beans, light bread, gingerbread and
doughnuts, rice pudding and rich, fat mince pie
that would have excited the admiration of our
New England mothers. Paugus said, by way
of explanation, that he knew I would need,
"after having fed so long on city delicacies, a
fillin' up with the substantial. "

I found the camp busy with preparation for
the coming mining season. The water supply
was brought in a large ditch from Feather river
thirteen miles north, and a large party of work-
men were engaged shoveling the snow out of
the ditch in places where it had not been pro-
tected by a cover of some kind.

IN THE SIERRAS 111

A few days after my arrival the water came
in a heavy flow, and for a week the whole camp
was on a strain of intense enthusiasm. Very
few of the miners slept much for a week, but
were busy day and night getting their hydraulic
fixtures in position and in working order. The
whole season, in fact, was an unusually busy and
successful one. The process of "cleaning up"
and getting the gold in marketable condition
was a very interesting one. In most of the
claims this was done once a week. After hav-
ing washed thousands of tons of gravel through
a narrow flume from three hundred to five hun-
dred feet long, in the bottom of which were
riffles, or cross bars, sprinkled with quicksilver
to catch the fine, powdered gold, the water was
shut off, the riffles taken up and the contents of
the flume scraped from the head to the foot and
taken up into iron pans.

These pans were taken to the cabin or office
of the foreman and the sand and other refuse
matter carefully washed out in a large tub of
water, leaving the clean amalgam — the quick-
silver and gold — in the pans. No gold was vis-
ible as the quicksilver wholly covered it. This
amalgam was rolled into a round ball and put
into a globe-shaped iron retort with a small hol-
low stem or tube about two feet long.

The retort was then put into a hot fire and the
end of its stem placed in a pan of cold water.

112 MY ADVENTURES

The retort was brought to a red heat, when the
quicksilver evaporated and passed out through
the stem and was condensed in the cold water
and held for further use. It was then removed
from the fire, cooled and opened, exposing the
half melted mass of clear gold ready for the
market.

At the close of the mining season the first of
July, Forty-nine bade us good bye and returned
to Maine. We were sorry to part with him, but
he consoled us with the assurance that he would
be with us again the following spring. But we
were convinced by certain vague indications
that he would bring with him a more agreeable
cabin mate instead of re-joining us. Paugus
declared he could see it in Forty-nine's merry
eye.

On the fifth of July I accompanied Paugus
and Gale on a prospecting trip four miles west
to Little Grass Valley, a timberless expanse of
marsh about two miles long and half a mile wide,
between two ranges and through which a Email
branch of Feather river ran.

After pros pcting for gold in this stream at
various points along the valley with indifferent
success, we finally decided at the close of the
second day, to try our luck next morning on a
small bar at the head of a narrow canon into
which the stream escaped from the valley. So
we built a pole and brush shanty on a wooded

IN THE SIERRAS 113

knoll under a bluff overhanging the mouth of
the canon, and I prepared our suppers while my
companions gathered fir boughs for our beds.

We had each brought two pairs of heavy In-
dian blankets, and wrapped in these on the soft
boughs we were soon lost in restful sleep": but
about midnight a strong breeze swept down up
on us from another deep canon at the north end
of the valley and suddenly changed our summer
climate to the frigid frost and chill of winter.

We woke shivering with the cold and got up
and rebuilt our log fire and remained up the rest
of the night chopping and packing wood and
dozing in our seats before the blazing iogs.

About two o'clock our situation was made
still more precarious and alarming by the sud-
den appearance cf about three hundred wild
Mexican steers that were being herded in the
other end of the valley by LaPorte butchers.
As they had come but a week or two before from
the warm valleys of the southern part of the
state they werte not accustomed to the sudden
changes of temperature common in that high re-
gion and had been stampeded by the cold wave,
and attracted by the blaze of our fire, were com-
ing down upon us with the speed and roar of a
whirlwind.

We knew the danger of contact with such a
herd and hastily gathering up our blankets,
cooking utensils and provisions, we climbed to

114 MY ADVENTUEES

V

a spur of a bluff above us barely in time to es-
cape being trampled to death.

The column parted near our camp fire and
passed on each side of it, demolishing our
shanty and finally coming to a halt at the foot
of the bluff fifty feet below us, where they
surged and bellowed and shook the frosted foam
from their mouths for a few minutes, then
startled by our yells and a shower of rocks we
hurled among them, they galloped across the
shallow stream and disappeared in a pine
thicket on tiie other side of the valley. We had
been fearful that the fascinating attraction of
our camp blaze might hold them there till morn-
ing and keep us chilling on the bluff at the haz-
ard of our lives ; and the very thought terrified
me, for I was thitly clad and perched on a nar-
row point of rock where I could not exercise
any and knew I would suffer intensely with the
cold if kept there long.

After the last one had disappeared we crept
back to the fire, leaving on the bluff everything
but our blankets, in order that we might be able
to make a quick retreat in case they returned.
They did not reappear, however, but knowing
they were liable to trouble us again and that the
climate of the valley had become dangerously
severe, we took a scanty breakfast, packed our
effects and beat a hasty retreat homeward.

Though it was the seventh day of July and the

IN THE SIERRAS 115

day was clear and bright, the valley stream was
fringed with ice an eighth of an inch thick and
the clear air had the frost aad chill of Decem-
ber. One hour's travel took us over the range
that walled the valley on the east, on to a south-
ern slope where we were in the embrace of sum-
mer again among the birds and flowers that
relieved in a measure the dreary aspect of
LaPorte.

Three days later Gale and I went to Onion
Valley, thirty miles north, to see some recently
discovered diggings about which there was some
excitement at tb£ time. We started very early,
leaving our camp hot and dusty, and traveled
on foot due north to Pilot Peak, on the west
side of which we encountered snow ; and as wfe
had been suffering with thirst for hours, we sat
down and cooled our parched tongues with that
and ate a luncheon we had brought. We then
moved on, wading in snow for some distance and
about three o'clock, still keeping our northerly
course, we began our descent into Onion Valley
and at sundown were walking through rich
fields of waving corn and golden wheat ready
for the harvest — a veritable paradise as com-
pared with the fruitless, bleak country we had
left in the morning and the chilly snow region
we had traversed only a few hours before.

The fact that at that height above the sea a
difference of a few feet in altitude marks a

116 MY ADVENTURES

greater change in temperatuie than many miles
in latitude was new and wonderful to me. We
had left in the morning a section of country
where even potatoes would not mature and trav-
elled north thirty miles into almost perpetual
summer. We stayed in Quincy that night at the
principal hotel, but as it was full of miners and
its beds all pre-empted we were compelled to
sleep on the bare floor with no other bedding
than a single Indian blanket.

We found rich digging there, but were too
late to secure claims in a desirable location. Af-
ter spending a day and a half in that pleasant
little valley, we started on our return by a route
that led over the east side of Pilot Peak and
through a mining camp about fifteen miles from
Onion Valley, where we proposed to spend the
night. We reached Pilot Peak just before sun-
down, and as we were only about half a mile
from the summit, we decided to climb that dis-
tance and enjoy the extended view it commanded
and a beautiful sunset, notwithstanding the de-
lay would make late our arrival at the town
in which we were to spend the night.
We ascended on the north side, wading in damp
snow half the distance, but the view from the
top well repaid us for our exertion. It was
more extended and varied than that from the
range near Jim Crow Canon which we found so
delightful the summer before.

IN THE SIERRAS 117

Looking north we had a clear view of the
northern extremity of the Sacramento Valley
and the ice-capped peak of Mt. Shasta; and to
the west towered the jagged Coast Range, and
nearer and far below us stretched the yel-
low expanse of valley visible for a distance of
eighty or ninety miles and through which we
could trace for half that long a stretch the Sacra-
mento River, winding like a great serpent down
the misty valley till lost in the purple distance.

I think there is no elevation on the continent
commanding a more enchanting view. A thick
haze veiled the horizon and rendered the sunset
less pleasing than we had expected to find it. A
hurried walk of an hour in the twilight brought
us to a small mining camp called Whiskey Dig-
gings where we found good accommodations for
the night, and to our surprise, found it a very
quiet, sober place in spite of its suggestive name.
I learned that the peculiar name of the camp
originated as follows: Three Irishmen went there
two or three years before from an adjacent min-
ing camp to prospect, taking a bottle of whiskey
with them, and returned drunk and reported
that they had discovered not gold but "whiskey
diggings," and the place was ever afterward
called by that name.

A very large proportion of the mining towns
of the'state at that time bore odd names. Among
those^of that characterwere the following, many

118 MY ADVENTURES

of which may still be found on the maps of the
state: Pancake Gulch, Lover's Hollow, Pepper
Box, Ragged Breeches Bar, Bloody Run, Louse
Place, Rum Blossom Plain, Pitch Fork, Devil's
Basin, Salt Pork Ridge, Greenhorn Creek, Hum-
bug Gulch and Pot Luck City.

The first settlers of those places of course re-
garded them as only temporary settlements that
would be abandoned as soon as the surface mines
in their vicinity were exhausted and therefore
were not particular about the names they bore.

The next morning we left early for home on a
trail that led through the prosperous mining
town of Gibson ville, where we stopped to inspect
the mining operations and get dinner. We
reached home in season to join Paugus at sup-
per. We learned he had been brought to grief
the day before in an encounter with a party of
Mexicans and had declared a war of extermina-
tion against the whole "Greaser" population of
that region. He went out in the morning with
a shovel and pan to a claim in which he owned
an interest, to elean a narrow cut that drained
a part of the claim and from which the sluice
boxes used during the water season had been
removed. From the high bank, forty feet above
the cut, he discovered, as he supposed, three
Chinamen in the cut looking for gold.

He hastily descended a ladder into the claim,
unseen by the pilferers, ran to the cut and

IN THE SIERRAS 119

jumped down on the back of one of the party as
he was stooping over a pan of dirt he had scraped
up, but the fellow proved to be a powerful Mexi-
can instead of a Chinaman and was more than
a match for Paugus,for he soon got him pinioned
in the bottom of the cut and held him there
while the other two Mexicans beat him unmerci-
fully.

The culprits then escaped and Paugus, sore
and faint, climbed out of the claim and started
a party of his fellow miners out after the Mexi-
cans who vowed they would hang them to the
nearest tree if they found them ; but they did
not succeed in the search. It was a sad humilia-
tion to Paugus, for he was an expert boxer and
took considerable pride in his pugilistic reputa-
tion. We pitied and comforted him as best we
could, but could not refrain from laughing over
the joke of his having mistaken the Mexicans
for Chinamen and received the punishment he
had intended to administer to the cowardly Ce-
lestials. It was a long time before his fellow-
miners ceased to bore him about the matter.

Two days later Gale and I started out on an-
other tour of observation, going south five miles
into a heavily timbered section, where we spent
two days prospecting in a narrow gulch. We
each took a blanket and a bucket of cooked food
and slept in the open air and ate of the whole-
some store of our own larder. We found gold

120 MY ADVENTURES

in the gulch and the first day got about three
dollars' worth, but the place was not sufficiently
productive to justify us in remaining there.
The next morning we went a mile farther up the
gulch, but finding no better prospect there, we
quit our search at ten o'clock and climbed to a
high wooded ridge near by and lounged in the
cool shade till four o'clock dreaming and plan-
ing our summer campaign.

We were both fond of forest life and longed to
repeat our experience of the summer previous.
We believed with Prof. Silliman that "Every
man should have in his heart a little corner de-
voted to barbarism," and that for awhile every
year we should get oat beyond the pule of socie-
ty and relax from the strain of business cares
and civil restraint and indulge that latent spirit ;
not the barbarism of the brute or the uncul-
tured savage, but a barbarism tempered by a
recognition of personal responsibility and uni-
versal brotherhood — that of an isolated heathen
people of southern Africa, spoken of by an early
explorer, who were Christians without Christ,
humane without human precept or example — a
spontaneous development of moral perfection.

Before we left our resting place we had pre-
pared a program for the next four months. It
provided for a prospecting tour thirty or forty
miles north-east into a wild region, then remote
from any mining town and where little prospect-

IN THE SIERRAS 121

ing had been done. We knew Paugus would ac-
company us, and for a fourth man Gale thought
he could enlist an agreeable friend of his, an
Ohio man, who had an interest with him in a
hydraulic claim. We returned that evening and
submitted our plans to the other two men who
readily consented to join us ; and in two days
more we had completed our preparations and
were on the trail.

We took about the same outfit we carried the
summer before, packing it upon one stout mule
and taking a colored stable boy with us to drive
the mule back. We traveled about twenty-five
miles the first day, crossing two mountain ranges
on a narrow rough trail and following for five or
six miles a stream between two ranges which we
finally forded with great difficulty, wetting a
part of our load. That night we stayed at a
small mining camp of a dozen cabins and supply
store.

The second day we crossed another range and
then ascended a small stream for a distance of
about ten miles through a heavy growth of pine,
cedar and fir. Here we found in a beautiful
spot a solitary cabin of neat appearance, and on
entering it found it vacant. Tacked to the in-
side of the door was the following note, written
in a round, business-like hand:

122 MY ADVENTURES

November 16th, 1855.
"A party of three of us have spent a pleas-
ant summer here and been moderately successful.
As we do not expect to return, we hereby be-
queath to the first honest miner who may desire
to locate here, tnis habitation and all the appur-
tenances hereunto belonging, including the con-
tents of the two sacks suspended from the
rafters. W. H. Curry."

We concluded we would remain here for a
week or two at least and prospect. As the stream
was shallow and without heavy stone we could
work over quite a large area daily and should
not need a derrick. The colored boy was or-
dered to unpack and care for the mule, and the
rest of us%set about putting the cabin in order.
We soon had it dusted and thoroughly cleaned
and the three bunks bedded with soft fir boughs.
A fourth bunk was needed which Paugus soon
supplied. The "appurtenances" referred to in
our bequest were two sheet iron kettles, two fry
pans, six tin plates, tin dippers and pans, one
shovel and two picks. The two sacks suspended
by cords from the rafters we cut down and found
one contained about fifteen pounds of loaf sugar,
and on top of that a can of about one pound of
tea and a package of coffee, all in good condi-
tion. The other sack contained about one peck
of beans, also well preserved.

By dark we were well established in our quar-
ters and all in a merry mood. Mr. West, our

IN THE SIEREAS 123

Ohio companion, had been out and discovered the
spot where our predecessors worked the summer
before and found the sluice boxes they had used
were still in fair condition, as they had been
piled together on the bank of the stream. That
was another bit of good fortune and a matter of
congratulation.

The ranges between which we were located
were not so high as those enclosing Jim Crow
Canon, so our days were longer than they were
the summer before. We had about six and a
half hours of sunshine and about ten hours of
daylight.

The next morning we started the eolored man
on his return and commenced work in the bed of
the stream at a point that looked most favorable.
We spent that day building a dam across the
stream and digging a ditch along the bank for
a distance of three or four hundred feet, large
enough to convey all the water past that space
and enable us to work the bed without interrup-
tion. The next day we set our sluice boxes and
washed most of the day, and on cleaning up at
night were gratified to learn that the yield though
not large, was much better than we had hoped
for; so we resolved to spend the season there,
and went to rest that night with a feeling of
perfect contentment.

Our work was heavy and we applied ourselves
very closely to it from eight a. m. to five p.m.;

124 MY ADVENTURES

but we were strong and well and enjoyed the
labor. In most kinds of business a man knows
about what compensation his labor will bring
and has no exhilarating hope beyond that; but
in gold mining there is an element of chance
that always keeps a man hopeful of great suc-
cess a little way ahead, and that hope inspires a
buoyancy and enthusiasm that helps materially
to sustain his physical capabilities.

Stfnday came and we were glad to rest, for we
had all overtaxed our strength during the past
week and were unusually tired. After dinner
Paugus started out in search of wild plums, at
we were all longing for some kind of fresh fruit;
but he soon returned and reported that he had
discovered from the summit of the range west of
us, an Indian smoke rising from the stream we
were on and not more than one mile north of us.
Gale and West had also strolled out to look for
plums, so I consented to accompany Paugus up
the stream for a reconnoissance of the Indian en-
campment.

We proceeded cautiously, closely scrutinizing
both banks of the stream as far ahead as we
could see, and at last, on rounding a bluff that
had obstruoted our view for some time, we dis-
covered not fifty rod 3 off a single tepee in front
of which were two Indian children standing by
a fire, but no men could be seen. We moved back
and climbed up the side of the bluff till we could

IN THE SIERRAS 125

peep over and get a clear view of the tepee, and
then lay down and watched the place for half
an hour, during which time no one but the two
children appeared.

We then decided that the party probably con-
sisted of one family that had strayed away from
the tribe to trap for the summer, and concluded
to advance and interview them. We approached
within a hundred yards before the children dis-
covered us. They rushed like frightened deer
into the tepee, but in a moment came out and
sprang behind a large pine that stood near the
opposite side of the tepee and from that shelter
watched us. They were badly frightened in
spite of our effort to appear friendly, and kept
nervously motioning us to go in to the tepee and
calling l!Twa, twa," (Go in.)

So I drew aside a skin that covered the en-
trance and discovered an old Indian sitting on
a robe with one leg stretched out before him
heavily wrapped in buckskin and with an ex-
pression of intense suffering on his face that en-
listed my sympathy at once. He looked at me
sharply and said "Come, come." So I walked
in and gave him my hand and asked him if he
was sick. He could not speak much English,
but told me with great effort, in few words and
many signs that hi3 wife died when he came into
the mountains with his two children — a boy
about twelve and a girl about ten years of age —

136 MY ADVENTUEES

to hunt ; that a large stone he was prying up on
the side of the bluff, to get at a raccoon he had
wounded, slid on to hie foot bruising it badly,
causing him great suffering ; and that he was
afraid they would starve before he could hunt
again.

I made him understand that I was mining near
by with three other men, and that we would care
for him and his children till he was able to hunt.
I told him to tell his children that we were
friends and would dress the wounded foot and
bring them something to eat. I sent Paugus
back to our cabin for our medicine case and
some bread and ham, and while he was gone I
examined the. Indian's foot and found the top
badly bruised and the whole foot and leg to the
knee greatly inflamejd. I warmed some water
and bathed it carefully. Paugus soon came with
the medicine case and a bucket of bread and ham
and doughnuts and a quantity of lump sugar for
the children. In the case was a small sack of
flax-seed meal and with a part of that I made a
poultice and applied it to the foot, and in half
an hour the pain subsided and he fell asleep.
They had a small skillet in which Paugus cooked
some of the ham and gave each of the children
a generous slice on a piece of bread, and an hour
later when the Indian woke he cooked another
mess which the old man ate with a relish.

By that time the children had in a great meaig-

IN THE SIEERAS 127

ure recovered from their shyness and exhibited
in every look and movement the most sincere
gratitude. They could not speak English, but
could readily indicate by signs and facial ex-
pressions most of their simple thoughts. After
making them as comfortable as possible we left,
promising to come to them again in the morn-
ing.

I found him comparatively comfortable next
day. The poultice had reduced the inflammation
and allayed the pain, and the look of despair he
wore the day before had disappeared. The chil-
dren had prepared him a breakfast of broth
made from dried venison and the ham and
bread we gave them, and were eating when
I arrived. When they saw me coming they
dropped their spoons and ran to meet me and
pranced around me with all the fondness and af-
fection of a grateful dog. I gave each a hand-
ful more of the loaf sugar and several cookies, all
of which they ate hurriedly before finishing their
meal of broth and bread.

For two weeks we kept them supplied with
food, and at the end of that time he was able to
hobble about and care for himself. He then
moved his tepee down near our cabin, and though
too stoical to plainly express as much, it was
evident he did so in order that he might see
us daily and if possible make some return for
our kindness. The morning after he moved,

128 MY ADVENTURES

though still lame, he left his tepee before day-
light and went two miles up the stream to the
mouth of a small brook, where he had discovered
deer came to drink and feed, and lay in ambush
till they appeared and shot a large fat doe, the
best part of which we found on our doorstep
when we rose, and we had broiled venison steak
for breakfast fit for a king.

From that time on we were not without veni-
son longer than a day or two at a time, and
three or four times he brought us fish for which
he had gone twelve or fifteen miles east.

The children, too, were eager to please us and
kept constantly before our door a pile of dry oak
limbs and pine knots for our fire and brought
from a spring near by most of the water we
used. They were bright and apt for Indians
and Gale and I amused ourselves a great deal ev-
enings trying to teach them English and to tell
them simple stories in language they could un-
derstand. Gale succeeded much better than I
did and soon had a vocabulary of words and
signs by which he conversed with them quite
readily.

It was made up of a mixture of English and
Indian words interspersed with signs and grim-
aces, and the children very soon became familiar
with it. Soon after they located near us West
and I went to a mining camp twelve miles dis-
tant for groceries, and I bought two showy belts

IN THE SIERRAS 129

for the children to wear over their buckskin
frocks and about twenty yards of cheap scarlet
ribbon with which we made bows, neckties,
bracelets and streamers and decorated them like
gypsy queens. That delighted them more than
anything else we had done for them, and it was
amusing to see them strut in their fantastic re-
galia. Later we bought them bead necklaces,
rings and a score of other tinsel decorations.
*■" They were a source of constant amusement
and profitable study, and we did not regret the
loss of time and money spent for them. The old
man said to me one day with a good natured
chuckle, pointing to the children, "You make
hims bad," meaning that we were making them
too proud with our gifts of finery.

Early in the fall Togie, the boy, having
learned we had searched in vain that whole vi-
cinity for wild plums, made a wide circuit east
of us one day in search of fruit and game and
returned late in the evening with nearly a
bushel of delicious plums, two rabbits and a
groupe, having packed the whole lot and his gun
over three miles. He was about exhausted when
he reached our cabin, but after he had rested
awhile, I had him take a cool bath in the stream
and then gave him a bountiful meal from our
own table, including a cup of coffee, of which he
was exceedingly fond. The grouse we broiled
for breakfast next morning, and the plums we

130 MY ADVENTURES

cooked and shared with them. He brought us
another sack of the plums the following week
and two large fat grey squirrels of which we
made a delicious stew. Tiny, the little girl, (we
gave her that name because she was very small
for a girl of ten) sometimes tramped all day
with Togie through the woods and over the
mountains looking for game and favorite roots
and berries and usually without eating anything
from early morning till late in the evening. She
carried his game and kept his courage up with
her bird-like chirping.

The old man spent most of the time some dis-
tance from home trapping and hunting deer, but
never failed to return home at night. Twice we
sent him to our trader for groceries, giving him
a written list of what we wanted to hand to the
trader and money with which to pay the bill,
and he brought us the right change and the re-
ceipted bill each time and seemed very proud of
the responsibility and pleased with the confi-
dence we reposed in him.

The middle of November arrived, bringing the
premonitory clouds and damp winds, and we be-
gan to prepare for our return to our winter
home. The trader who had moved our effects
there in July was notified by letter to send his
man and mule the following week to take them
back ; and in the meantime we cleaned up our
last "ground sluice" in the bed of the stream

IN THE SIERRAS 131

and stored in the cabin such tools as we did not
care to take away. We had been quite success-
ful for the last three months, and resolved to
return to the place the following summer, there-
fore took particular pains to so dispose of our
sluice boxes that they would not be crushed by
the snow and to store the tools.

Our Indian neighbor was surprised and really
grieved to learn we were going so soon. He was
having unusual success trapping and intended
to remain there two or three weeks longer. I
tried to persuade him to leave when we did and
not take the risk of being caught in the first
snow-fall, but he answered, "Me go next moon ;
this moon no snow." He and the children were
anxious to know if we would return the next
summer, and on learning that we intended to do
so, he assured us that they would meet us there.

The morning we left they all came to the
cabin looking as solemn as a funeral procession,
and sitting on the ground in front of the door,
they watehed in silence our preparation for the
journey. We gave them the provisions we had
left, including several pounds of sugar, which
was eagerly appropriated by Togie and Tiny. We
finally finished our packing, and started the
driver on the trail with the load, and saying
good bye to our neighbors, we followed, leaving
the children both crying and the old man,
stoical as he was, wearing a look of profound

132 MY ADVENTURES

sorrow. They stood and watched us until we
reached a bluff a few hundred yards from the
cabin from which we were to descend out of their
sight, and there we stopped and waving our hats
above our heads, gave them a farewell salute
which they returned.

>We were all good walkers, and taking a brisk
pace we soon passed our packer and left him to
take his own time. At noon we stopped by a
clear, cool spring between two mountain ranges
and ate a luncheon we had brought, knowing we
would be near no town at that hour. After eat-
ing we lounged on the grass for an hour, resting
our tired limbs, and then resumed our winding
way up the side of the high range, each with a
little less vigor than he had displayed in start-
ing out in the morning. We had gone but a
short distance when we were surprised by the
sudden appearance of a herd of six deer that
bounded across the trail not over seventy-five
feet ahead of us and disappeared in a cedar
thicket on our right. Paugus involuntarily drew
his revolver, but a better prompting ttayed his
hand, and they gUded into the security of the
thiclet unharmed. It was the first herd of wild
deer I had seen in the state, and the sight pleased
me not a little.

At sundown we reached a small mining town
about ten miles from Camp Warren, where we
decided to spend the night. We had traveled

IX THE SIERRAS 133

about thirty miles and were in condition to en-
joy our rest ard the bountiful meals which we
were assured the good German host and hostess
would provide. TTe found the town in a fever
of intense excitement. Most of the three hun-
dred miners of the place had assembled in front
of a store near the hotel, and it was evident
fnm their noisy, restless mood that they were
contemplating a serious matter of some kind.
Or inquiring of our landlord as to the cause of
t; t excitement, we were told that a stranger in
the place had just been detected in the act of
robbing a sluice box and that he was now being
tried for the offense in the store by a jury of six
men appointed by the miners and that he would
probably be hanged.

I went to the store hoping to gain admittance
and witness the trial, but finding the room
densely packed I waited on the outside for the
verdict. It was soon announced from the store
door, and was, in substance, that the prisoner
had been found guilty and sentenced to the pun-
ishment of forty lashes and banishment from the
town. This was received by the frenzied crowd
outside with a general cry of disapproval, and
shouts of "Hang him! He shall be hanged!
Bring him out !" rose thick and fast, and the
crowd pressed closer to the door, clamoring
loudly for the prisoner. One of the foremost in
the mob held a coil of rope with a slip noose on

131 MY ADVENTURES

one end, and swinging it over his head said
loudly, "This is what he shall have instead of
lashes."

Several determined looking men stood in the
doorway holding back the mob which was fast
growing more furious and could not,it seemed,be
restrained many minutes longer. The horror of
the situation appalled and terrified me and I fled

from my position in the front of the mob to a

place of safety across the street and watched

the mad scene.

CHAPTER VIII.

At this stage a man of cool, determined ap-
pearance who was evidently a leader of great
influence in the town, sprang out of the store
window on to a platform elevated a few feet
above the crowd, and mounting a box, address-
ed the mob and soon had their attention. He told
them that in appointing the jury they had virt-
ually agreed to abide by the verdict it rendered,
and a refusal now to do so would be highly dis-
honorable and insulting to the jury they had
appointed, and that he would not answer for
the future safety of any man or set of men who
might interfere with the execution of that
verdict.

The mob seemed shamed into submission and
fell back, and the prisoner was led out into an
open space opposite the hotel, stripped to the
waist and tied to a tree. Then a man who had
been appointed to administer the penalty ad-
vanced holding a broad leather strap which had
been split at one end into narrow strands until
it resembled an ugly cat-o'- nine-tails and with
that dealt slowly, but with great force, blow
after blow, till the blood trickled from a dozen
gashes and the poor fellow, though he uttered

135

136 MY ADVENTURES

not a word, moaned and writhed with pair,
which evidently touched the heart of the scour-
ger, for the last twenty blows were light and
fell where there were no wounds.

When the full punishment had been adminis-
tered he was released and told that within one
hour he must leave the town never to return to
it. Two men escorted him to a cabin in which
he had been staying and washed and dressed
his wounds, and though it was then quite dark,
started him for a mining camp three miles west.

The incident seemed barbarous, but the
miners were in most coniinunities compelled to
take the law into their own hands and adminis-
ter severe punishment for offenses of that kind.

The officials in most of these mountain coun-
tries were a rough set who had little regard for
justice, and who usually managed to rob the
criminals that fell into their hands of all they
possessed and then released them without further
punishment.

An incident similar to that I have related oc-
curred in Camp Warren a short time before I
located there. A miner who had previously
borne a good reputation in the place, while un-
der the influence of liquor, addressed obscene
language to a giri ten yt^ars old, and her father
had him arrested ar.d thrown into jail in Span
ish Flat.

His fellow miners of Camp Warren knew he

IN THE SIERRAS 137

had saved up about five thousand dollars all of
which would be filched from him by the county
officials if they were permitted to retain him in
custody. So a formal miners' meeting was held
and a resolution passed providing for the forc-
ible removal of the prisoner from the custody of
the county officials to Camp Warren and for an
impartial trial by his fellow miners. They
learned that the prisoner would be arraigned for
trial that afternoon, and three men volunteered
to go to Spanish Flat and kidnap him in the
court room, awe the officials with drawn re-
volvers, and spirit him off to Camp Warren.

The plan was executed without a single mis-
hap and the prisoner arraigned before a court of
his fellow miners, tried, found guilty and sen-
tenced to receive thirty lashes on his bare back
and be banished from the county. The trial
and punishment occupied only about thirty
minutes; two miners then escorted him to La
Porte, where he drew his money from bank and
started at once southward.

The miners knew that effort would be make at
once to arrest and punish the three men who
had committed the grave offense of releasing a
prisoner from the custody <>f the court, and
therefore sent spies t>> Spanish Flat to watch
the movements of the deputy sheriff, who was
the chief executive ol the place. They soon
reported that he was raising and arming a

138 MY ADVENTURES

posse of about seventy-five men with which to
attempt the capture of the three offenders. Col-
onel Finn, the Mexican war veteran, organized
a posse of about one hundred to oppose the
arrest. The sheriff soon appeared with his
armed force, made up of gamblers, Spanish
packers and a few miners who had been im-
pressed into the service.

The Colonel drew his men up in double line
across the street, and when the sheriff had ad-
vanced within about one hundred feet he called
a halt and demanded the three offenders. Col-
onel Finn responded in a spirited speech refus-
ing to permit the arrest. He was followed by
Creed Haymond who afterwards became one of
the most prominent lawyers of San Francisco.
Mounting a stump he made an eloquent speech,
admitting that he was guilty of flagrant viola-
tion of law, but claiming that the attendant
circumstances amply justified the act, and
closed with the remark that unless his fellow
miners consented to his arrest he would shoot
down like a dog the first man that laid violent
hands on him, emphasizing the remark with a
significant flourish of his revolver.

The sheriff then asked his men if they were
willing to attempt the arrest by force, and
nearly every man answered "No!" Without fur-
ther parley he sneaked back to Spanish Flat
accompanied by the gamblers and Mexicans,

IN THE SIERRAS 139

while the impressed miners remained and joined
their fellow laborers of Camp Warren in a grand
jollification. No farther attempt was ever
made to arrest the men.

We reached Camp Warren the next day at
noon and soon had our cabin in order and a
warm dinner ready. Our packer arrived three
hours later. The most of the miners had re-
turned and were busy with their preparations
for winter.

It was amusing to hear them relate the stories
of their strange adventures, and I never tired
listening to them. They had all been engaged
in mining, some in tunnel mines, some at river
mining, and many spent the summer as we did
prospecting far back on the secluded little
streams where they came in contact with roving
bands of Indians, grizzly bears and mountain
lions, and nearly every party had some thrilling
experiences to recount.

The next afternoon a terrific hurricane passed
over the mining camp accompanied by a deaf-
ening roar of thunder that shook the surround-
ing hills like an earthquake. The surcharged
clouds seemed to have lodged on the peaks
above the camp and to have levelled their bat-
teries on every side upon the helpless populace
below. A bolt of lightning struck an immense
sugar pine ut the edge of the town, entering it
at the top and following the heart down to the

140 MY ADVENTUKES

ground, scattering the trunk over an acre of
space in small fragments not much larger than
firewood. It was the most remarkable demon-
stration of electrical power I had ever witnessed.

Five cabins were set on fire by the lightning
and several men injured, but no one killed. Two
friends of mine in a cabin only three or four
hundred feet from that I occupied had a narrow
escape. They were eating supper, one at each
end of the table about five feet long. A fir
sapling about ten inches in diameter and about
ninety feet high that stood near them was blown
down across the cabin, cutting the fragile roof
and thin walls and lodging across the center of
the table between the two young men, scatter-
ing the dishes and food over the room, but
without injuring either one of them in the least.

I was watching the progress of the storm
from a window and saw the tree fall and rushed
out and scrambled with much difficulty to their
cabin expecting to find them injured if not
killed, but found them still sitting in their
chairs complacently laughing over the odd sit-
uation.

I decided that instead of going to the valley
or remaining there to burrow for the winter, I
would look for a location where I could
mine either by the tunnel method, under
ground, or on a stream below the snow
line. My cabin mates were all interested in the

IN THE SIERRAS 141

hydraulic mines of Camp Warren and were anx-
ious that I should buy an interest with them ;
the proposition was a strong temptation to me,
for the thought of separating from them was
unpleasant; but believing that I could do better
elsewhere I started out in search of such a loca-
tion as I desired. I was influenced, too, by a
strong desire to witness all the different modes
of mining, and experience that novel mountain
life in all its various phases.

I first visited a small camp a little south of
Camp Warren, called Secret Diggings, where
the water supply was ample most of the winter ;
but I found nothing there in the mining line
that tempted me. Adjoining the mining district
quite an extensive lumbering business was car-
ried on. Several large mills are employed the
year round cutting up the immense sugar and
pitch pines that thickly studded the wide ex-
panse of country around the place. There I
first witnessed the marvellous process of hand-
ling and converting into merchantable material
those giant pines. Trees six feet in diameter
were quickly felled and cut into sections from
twelve to twenty feet in length with a heavy
cross-cut saw, operated by a portable steam en-
gine.

The logs were lifted from the ground under
high trucks by windlass machinery and drawn
to the mills by oxen. For cutting these immense

142 MY ADVENTURES

logs circular saws were used, two together, one
above the other, so two saws, each six feet in
diameter, thus adjusted, would cut a six foot
log. The men conducting this business, I
learned, were experienced lumber men from the
lumber region on the Penobscot river.

From that place I went south-east to the Yuba
river, a distance of fifteen miles, passing several
unattractive mining camps and stayed over
night in a French mining settlement, where I
found it a difficult matter to make any one un-
derstand my English. I went thence up the
Yuba river five miles to Goodyear's Bar, a pros-
perous mining camp of fifteen hundred inhabi-
tants at the mouth of Goodyear's Creek. The
bar was a flat elevation about ten feet above the
river, and comprised about sixty acres. The
town was built on the bar while river mining
was extensively carried on at that point and be-
fore it was known that the whole bar was also
rich in the yellow ore. But when the discovery
was made claims were immediately located over
the whole town site, each with fifty feet frontage
on the river and extending back clear across the
bar.

Most of the claims had stores or cottages on
them, many of which were surrounded with or-
namental plants and shrubbery; but as under
the laws of the state the mining business took
precedence over claims for any and all other pur-

IN THE SIERRAS 143

poses, the occupant of a valuable lot or vege-
table garden had no recourse in the law. About
eight feet of gravel and boulders covered the
bed rock underlying the bar, and with water
brought from the river in ditches the gravel
was being washed through flumes into the river,
the boulders being left in irregular piles on
the bar.

Stores and residences were left resting on piles
of boulders and the whole scene looked desolate
enough.

Just above Goodyear's Bar, on the river, I
found a party of about three hundred Chinese
miners working over ground that had been
worked before by Americans and evidently do-
ing well. In nearly all the gold bearing dirt
and gravel there was more or less cement and
clay that would not pulverize and give up the
gold it held at the first washing through a sluice
or flume, but would crumble after exposure to
the air awhile ; consequently in many places, the
"tailings" or waste that had passed thro igh the
separating process once, j hided a rich profit on
a second washing. Those three huudred men,
I learned, were of the lowest class of laborers,
and had been brought to California by a com-
pany of Chinese capitalists under contract to
serve the company for a term of five years in
payment for their passage, the company agree-
ing to house, feed and clothe them for that term.

144 MY ADVENTURES

They were fed almost wholly on rice and re-
fuse meat at a cost of about ten cents a day
each, and crowded into canvas tents or slab
shanties at night as thick as they could be
packed. It was abject slavery of the most atro-
cious character.

There I first witnessed the novel entertain-
ment called the "hurdy-gurdy dance" which
was of frequent occurrence in most of the
smaller mining towns. The entertainers were
small nomadic parties of Italians or Bohemians,
consisting usually of two or three boys and as
many girls from fifteen to twenty years of age
in their native costumes. The boys each played
some musical instrument and the girls, who were
almost invariably quite pretty and very modest
and quiet, were excellent dancers.

On going into a town they arranged with
some hotel keeper for the use of his dining room
evenings for a week or two which they usually
got without charge, as he was always glad to se-
cure any attraction that would fill his bar and
billiard rooms. As soon as supper was over and
the dining room cleared the boys started the
music, the miners flocked in and the dancing
commenced. They were required to pay the
girls fifty cents for each dance of from ten to
fifteen minutes duration ; and as the dancing
continued four or five hours the girls each
earned from eight to twelve dollars a night.

IN THE SIEEEAS 145

The dearth of amusement and the monotony
of the secluded life led many to patronize the
entertainment to whom, under other circum-
stances, it would have offered no attraction.

From there I went north up Goodyear's Val-
ley inspecting the mining operations on the
creek fur the distance of five miles. The valley
is about a third of a mile wide, and then had
several valuable little vegetable ranches, on all of
which the desolating work of the miner had
begun. One ranchman who had nicely im-
proved a rich patch of forty acres, from which
he was selling vegetables for fifteen cents a
pound, told me that he was offered ten thousand
dollars for the place, but as gold had been dis-
covered on it, he could not then sell for any
price and would soon lose it.

Five miles from the Yuba river the mountains
on each side closed in close to the creek, termi-
nating the valley. There I found four old ac-
quaintances from the East mining. They were
succeeding fairly and urged me to locate there
for the winter, which I finally decided to do. I
at once wrote to my former partners in Camp
Warren asking them to join me in a mining
venture there. Three days later I received a
reply from Gale saying that he had made other
arrangements for the winter and could not leave
Camp Warren, but that West and Paugus would
be with me in a few days.

146 MY ADVENTURES

They came and we located claims near my
other friends, built us a neat frame cabin and
were soon well settled and at work. The wet
season set in and the mountains around us were
soon fleeced with snow, but the valley remained
bare and its temperature comfortable.

From our location we could see, one and one-
half miles north, near the top of a high range,
the picturesque little mining town of Monte
Cristo nestling in its frosty garb under the lofty
brow of Table mountain range. Seen from the
valley in its high aerie just under the clouds,
with only its rows of dark roofs visible above
the snow, it had a weird, strange appearance.
The mining there was all under ground. Tun-
nels five feet wide and seven feet high were run
into the mountain from one thousand to two
thousand feet, where a deposit of rich gravel
was found, which was conveyed to the surface
in cars about the size of a single horse cart.
The track on the bottom of the tunnel had a
slight incline, and when a car was filled the
carman would mount a platform behind it, grasp
the brake and shoot out of the tunnel with the
velocity of a swallow, into a shed or tunnel
house where the load was dumped.

From the dumping place it was washed
through sluices with water brought to that high
elevation in a ditch from a stream ten or fifteen
milts north. A few years later, a spur of the

IN THE SIEERAS 147

range on one side of the town, of five or six
acres, having been completely undermined and
left resting on posts, settled and during a heavy
rain broke from the range and slid down the
steep descent to a bench below, burying several
cabins and families.

I visited the place in February and found it
buried in about twenty feet of solid snow.
About ten feet had fallen on the high lands of
that part of the country and the north winds
had driven it down the range to the turn or
elbow on the brow of which the town was located
and there piled it up, filling the main street full
to the roofs of the two-story houses. As snow
fell about half of the time during the winter
months and the north wind prevailed almost
constantly it was useless to try to keep the
streets open. Tunnels were made along the
sidewalks and across the streets, and shafts
from those to the surface to admit light and air.
But in spite of that the town was an exceeding-
ly busy and prosperous one.

During the long evenings the tunnels bril-
liantly lighted with lamps and reflectors,
swarmed with miners and busy traders and
seemed like a gay Arctic carnival. All winter
the denizens of this town could look down into
Goodyear's Valley, a mile and a half below them,
and with the naked eye see the ranchmen dig-
ging and sacking potatoes. The ground did

148 MY ADVENTURES

-5

not freeze much in the valley and the potatoes
were dug no faster than they were ordered by
the customers; so they were digging them
almost daily all winter. In March I gathered a
large bouquet of wild flowers near our cabin
one Sunday morning and took them up to an
acquaintance in Monte Cristo who was still
buried deep in the snow.

At the northern extremity of the valley and
between our location and Monte Cristo was a
valuable little ranch with fine buildings and all
the necessary improvements for a pleasant rural
home. Soon after I located in the valley I
called upon the proprietor and found him a very
pleasant, intelligent gentleman from Portland,
Maine, who made a small fortune mining and
returned to Maine and brought his family out
and located permanently on the ranch. He had
a son about my age who had the summer before
graduated from an eastern college and returned
to spend the winter with his father. He was a
brilliant scholar and a very genial, companion-
able fellow, and I diligently cultivated his
acquaintance for the advantage his companion-
ship would be to me. I spent much of my
leisure time with him that winter and profited
not a little by bis society. He loaned me many
books, among them, I remember, "Chesterfield's
Letters to His Son," Wordsworth's poems and
a series of discourses by Channing.

IN THE SIERRAS 149

Our mining was unusually hard, as we were
constantly handling heavy boulders, but in spite
of that, we passed a very pleasant winter and
were well remunerated for our labor. Gale came
over and spent holiday week with us making
the gala season doubly pleasant. Our trader at
Goodyear's Bar was able to secure us a turkey
for Christnas which, with canned fruit, fresh
vegetables from the ranch near by, and a goodly
variety of pastry, made us a royal feast. My
young friend, Harper, from the ranch and five
or six of our neighboring miners joined us in
the evening. Harper entertained us with read-
ings from a journal he kept during his college
years, and Gale and I contributed comic recita-
tions, after which all joined in singing "Home,
Sweet Home," and old "America."

One rainy evening while we were taking our
suppers a dignified old gentleman of clerical
appearance came to the cabin and introduced
himself as "Elder Stokes" and asked if he could
enjoy our hospitality for the night. We assured
him he could if indeed our plain accommodations
would be to him enjoyable.

We prepared him a supper, and I made as
comfortable a bed for him as possible in my own
bunk and improvised a temporary one for my-
self. After he had eaten a hearty meal and
dried his clothes before our open fire, he in-
formed us that he was from San Francisco

160 MY ADVENTURES

where "he had been serving tke Lord and the
Methodist church for the last five years as local
missionary," and that believing his divine mis-
sion called for a larger field of service than San
Francisco he decided to extend his field of work
to the mining districts.

We found him to be a meek, simple minded
religious fanatic who had probably been living
for years on the Methodist church in San Fran-
cisco and that in order to get rid of him they
had made him up a small puree and sent him to
the mountains to evangelize among the miners.
Before we retired for the night he read a portion
of Scripture and prayed about forty minutes.
The next morning after we had taken breakfast
and were ready to go out to our work he repeat-
ed his lengthy petition and then accompanied
us to the diggings.

After watching us at work for awhile he
sauntered off down the creek and we supposed
we were rid of him, but in the evening he re-
turned and resumed his place among us with an
air of perfect assurance and contentment that
amused us. We were glad, however, to have
him feel at home with us and to do all we could
to contribute to his comfort, for we pitied the
man, knowing that he probably met with only
jeers and rebuffs in most of the mining settle-
ments he visited.

We were compelled, however, to request him

IN THE SIERRAS 151

to abridge his prayers, that we might get to bed
earlier and go to our work earlier in the morn-
ing. He complied with the request, cutting
them down to about ten minutes ; but every
night, after his short prayer with us, he went
out behind the cabin and prayed fifteen or
twenty minutes so loud as to annoy us; and
finally West good naturedly called him to order
again, telling him that while in the low altitude
and business eonfusion of San Francisco it
might be necessary to address the Lord in a very
loud voice, here in this elevated, quiet region
heaven could be reached with a whisper even
and advised him to try it and save the energy he
was wasting in loud speech.

He took the reproof meekly and moved his
altar farther from the cabin. We were all raised
Methodists and entertained due reverence for
religion, but wished to be reasonable in our ser-
vice.

One evening while I was making a call upon
friends on the creek a mile be^w our cabin, a
man who was mining near us came for me in
great haste and said that West, while stoning
a coyote that had been barking on the opposite
side of the creek, had fallen over the bank on to
a pile of stones injuring himself severely. I ran
nearly the whole distance home and found West
on a pallet before the fire writhing and groaning
piteously. He was attended by Paugus and six

152 MY ADVENTURES

or eight of our nearest neighbors who had ap-
plied liniments of various kinds to ttie bruises
without any apparent effect.

Just outside of the door knelt Elder Stokes
by a big stump, with his stentorian voice ele-
vated to the highest pitch, pleading for West's
deliverance from suffering.

I found that the only serious injury West had
received was a severe bruise and sprain of the
right hip. I sent a man out for a bucket of ice-
cold water in which I wet heavy flannel cloths
and applied them to the hip renewing them
often for fifteen or twenty minutes when the
pain ceased, his exhausted nerves relaxed and
he sank into a quiet slumber.

As I was covering him with a blanket Paugus
came in with another bucket of cold water for
my use. The old man's trumpet tones were
still ringing loud above the roar of the stream
and the murmur of the wind in the pine vault
above us, and Paugus, realizing that West
should not be disturbed, turned to me with a
look of serious concern and exclaimed, "What
shall I do with the Elder?" I replied sharply,
"Silence him at once if you have to gag him."

He caught up the bucket of cold water and
rushing to the door just as the old man was
shouting for the twentieth time, "Lord bless
our afflicted brother," dashed the whole con-
tents on the Elder's head and shoulders and

IN THE SIERRAS 158

cried, "Hold up, Elder, the blessing has come;
West is better." Then dropping his bucket, he
sprang out to the old man, who was still on his
knees gasping and wheezing and too shocked
and dazed to realize what had happened.

Paugus lifted him on to his feet, led him in-
to the cabin and wiped his face and neck with a
towel, remarking to the Elder as he rubbed him
vigorously, "I knew you had got pretty well
warmed up and that without any assistance it
would take you a long time to shut off steam
and cool down and that a dash of cold water
after your winning heat would bring you out
all right. I learned that when I had my colt
Terror on the race track down in Maine. After
every heat I gave him a sprinkling with cold
water and then rubbed him dry and in fifteen
minutes he was as bright as a dollar again."

Paugus was a mystery to the Elder, but he al-
ways seemed so frank and sincere, and was, on
the whole, so kind that the Elder readily forgave
all that seemed amiss in his treatment. West
suffered no more pain from his sprain, but was
very lame for two weeks and confined to the
cabin most of that time and the Elder, who in-
sisted upon keeping him company, bored him be-
yond endurance, and he begged us to help him
get rid of the old fellow; so we told the Elder
of a mining town fifteen miles east of us in which
missionary work was needed and advised him to

164 MY ADVENTURES

open a campaign there at once, which he finally,
after much hesitation and evident reluctance,
consented to do. We made him up a purse of
ten dollars, bade him God-speed and heard of
him no more.

About the first of March I received a letter
from one Dr. Parker of Camp Warren, saying he
had located claims for nine of his friends, in-
cluding myself, in a new mining district adjoin-
ing Whiskey Diggings; that he considered the
claims very valuable, as an adjoining claim had
been thoroughly prospected and found rich; and
that he wanted I should meet him the following
week in Whiskey Diggings and assist in organiz-
ing a company and arranging for the opening of
the claims.

He assured me that in case I was not pleased
with the prospect his plan presented I could
readily sell my claim for several hundred dol-
lars, as there was quite a rush to the new dis-
trict and a ready demand for claims near the
new ground then being worked.

The distance was about twenty- five miles, and
as the country nearly the whole way was still
covered with eight or ten feet of snow,there was
no visible trail ; but the snow was so compact
that a pedestrian could make pretty good time
on it without snowshoes. I decided to go and
started at five in the morning, that I might be
eure of time enough to complete the trip that
day and without hurrying.

IN THE SIEREAS 155

I was familiar with the most prominent feat-
ures of the region my route spanned, and had in
my mind various landmarks by which I could be
guided safely. Ten miles north of Monte Cristo
I came to a stream between two ranges that had
become so swollen by the melting snow that it
was impossible for me to cross it there; but fol-
lowing it up for fully a mile and a half I found a
fordable point and made the crossing by wading
in the cold water to my waist. I was fortunate
enough to find a dry pine stub near at hand from
which I tore wood and bark enough to make a
hot fire, by which I partially dried my clothes
and got thoroughly warmed. About the middle
of the afternoon I witnessed a very novel scene
for that latitude. I was descending a range
when I discovered half a mile ahead in a little
hollow of eight or ten acres, on which there
was no timber, as many as forty or fifty streams
of blue smoke, at various points in the hollow,
issuing from the snow.

No cabins or human beings were visible, and I
was puzzled and even startled by the discovery.
My course led through the hollow, and I was
afraid to advance without first solving the mys-
tery ; so I sat down and studied the strange phe-
nomenon trying to determine whether the hollow
was the crater of a smoldering volcano, or
whether some nomadic band of Esquimaux had
been driven that far south by the severity of the

156 MY ADVENTURES

winter and burrowed there ; and soon I seemed
to have confirmation of the last conjecture, for I
saw two men suddenly rise out of the snow and
after moving on the surface for a distance of
two or three hundred feet, as suddenly drop out
of sight again. This added to the mystery, and
my curiosity was so severely taxed I could not
hesitate longer and pushed forward to investi-
gate.

CHAPTER IX.

j
On reaching the hollow I learned that it was

the location of a mining camp of about fifty

cabins, and that the snow had drifted in from

the surrounding hills burying the camp to the

depth of about twenty-five feet. The cabins

were all built of logs and with heavy roofs that

could not be crushed by the snow. The small

cuts down to the door and windows were covered

at night to keep the drifting snow out. They

had stored in the fall in sheds adjoining their

cabins a winter's supply of fuel, but the cabins

were so small and well protected from the weather

that comparatively little fuel was needed.

Two very intelligent young men gave me a his-
tory of the camp and invited me down to their
den, as they called it, where I dried my feet by
an open fire and drank a cup of hot coffee. I was
soon on my way again and reached Whiskey
Diggings about sundown.

The next morning I reported to the Doctor and
accompanied him and six of the other men for
whom he had located claims, out to see the prop-
erty, which was located about one mile from
Whiskey Diggings. The claims fronted on a
ravine and extended back fifteen hundred feet to

157

158 MY ADVENTURES

the summit of a high ridge under which there
was a vein of gold-bearing quartz gravel about
five hundred feet wide, as had been demonstrat-
ed by the adjoining company, who had tun-
nelled nearly through the ridge and were getting
a very profitable yield. We found that to open
the claims would require three or four months of
hard work by six or eight men and an expendi-
ture of two or three thousand dollars in cash, as
a main tunnel would have to be run in for a
distance of ten or eleven hundred feet, a car
track laid, cars and a tunnel house built before
any profit could be realized ; but we decided to
make the venture and that evening organized our
company of eleven members and arranged to
have operations commence at once.

The Doctor and four other men were to re-
main on the ground and have the necessary sur-
vey made and the tunnel started and a tunnel
house built as soon as possible. Three more of
us were to join them in about ten days. After
a stay there of three days, I started on my re-
turn to Goodyear's Creek ; but instead of taking
a bee line across the trackless country, as I did
in coming, I concluded to go via Camp Warren,
though the distance was about ten miles farther,
as on that route I would probably find a snow
trail all the way and have no streams to cross.

I was accompanied by two members of the
company we had organized, who were returning

IN THE SIERKAS 159

to Camp Warren. They told me of the most
striking wonder of the state, a peculiar geologi-
cal formation that had been named "The Sylvan
Temple," and took me half a mile out of our
course to see it ; and I did not regret the extra
travel and length of time, for I found it indeed
one of the wonders of that wondrous land.

It was situated on the edge of a high lime-
stone bluff and consisted of a mass of several
hundred stone columns from ten to twenty feet
long, about two feet indiameter,and each a clear
cut, well defined octagon. They were all stand-
ing on end, but completely detached from the
bluff. To me it was a more striking natural cu-
riosity than the famous Giant's Causeway, for
the columns were more uniform in size and per-
fect in their octagonal form than are those of
the Causeway ; and I wonder that so little has
been written about it. A brief mention of it in
a LaPorte paper in 1859 is all I have ever seen
in print concerning it.

A little farther on I was shown a large oak
standing close by the trail on which two Mexi-
can highwaymen were hanged three years be-
fore for killing a Camp Warren miner. They
learned while loafing about Camp Warren that
the man hud sold a valuable mining claim and
was to go to Gibsonville next day to invest in
mining property there.

They went out on the trail, a mile from Camp

160 MY ADVENTURES

Warren, on horseback and secreted themselves
in a thicket, and when the miner came along one
of them threw a lasso over his head and started
his horse suddenly, dragging the man till he
was dead. They then took from his pockets his
money and a valuable revolver and went on
north.

A traveler going the other way met them on a
trail only a short distance from the scene of the
murder and discovered the body of the murdered
man as he passed the thicket in which itlay,hav-
ing been led to examine the thicket by finding a
man's hat and pocket handkerchief on the trail.
He hurried on to Camp "Warren and reported the
occurrence, and ap:sse of horsemen started at
once in pursuit of the murderers.

Three days later they captured them in Quincy
and recovered the money and the revolver which
bore on its silver mounting the name of the mur-
dered man. They were taken back to the scene
of the murder, tried by a jury of the friends
and fellow miners of their victim and hanged.
The civil authorities did not interfere nor take
any official notice of the matter.

I stayed in Camp Warren that night with
Gale and the next day returned to Goodyear's
Creek. After spending a week more with West
and Paugus I sold my interest and started for
my new field of operation. I went to Camp
Warren the first day and was surprised to learn

IN THE SIEEKAS 161

from Gale that our old friend Forty-nine had ar-
rived from the East five days before accompa-
nied by a wife, and that "he had settled in La
Porte and was to engage in mining again. I
concluded to remain there a day and call on them.
I found him much improved in appearance by his
rest and the brushing up he had received in home
society ; and he had evidently drawn a prize for
a wife. She was a plain, practical and highly
intelligent woman about his age whom he had
known from infancy. I called upon them in the
morning and Gale and I dined with them in the
evening. I returned to Whiskey Diggings the
next day and took up the new work of tunnel
mining. I had been made president of the com-
pany and my first work was to contract for tim-
bers for the tunnel — posts, caps, sills and flag-
ging for the tops and sides of the tunnel — and
for track iron and cars. I was a novice in the
work, never having done any tunnel mining, but
our competent foreman soon posted me in the
mysteries of the new method.

One of my partners and myself built us a
commodious frame cabin and woodshed and fit-
ted it up with comfortable home-made furniture
and a good cooking range. About twenty five
other cabins were built during the spring on
our possession and adjoining claims; and as
most of the residents of our little camp were
men of considerable culture we had a pleasant

162 MY ADVENTURES

society. Four of the eleven members of our
company were college graduates and most of
the other members were men of some culture
and refinement.

The Doctor was a widower and had two
children, a girl fourteen and a boy eleven years
old. A month later he brought them there from
La Porte and we were all proud to have a young
lady in the camp. It gave our community
quite a civilized air and made us all more
thoughtful about our personal appearance and
general deportment.

We worked two shifts in the tunnel, one by
day and one by night, and made rapid progress
for a distance of four hundred and fifty feet.
There we found soft rock and had to do some
blasting. Twenty five feet farther on we struck
a vein of blue, flinty limestone in which the
work was very expensive and progress slow.
Back of that we found the channel and pushed
forward rapidly again in a quartz gravel deposit.
There we were ninety feet below the surface in
what had evidently once been the bed of a
stream.

For three hundred feet we followed a smooth,
hard bed rock in which we found round pot-
holes from which we took well preserved pitch
pine knots and a black sediment in which we
found fossilized twigs and oak leaves as perfect
in appearance as when they fell from the trees.

IN THE SIEREAS 163

I tried to preserve the leaves, but after a few
minutes' exposure to the air they crumbled to
ashes.

Near the middle of this subterranean channel
we found a pine tree, about three feet in dia-
meter lying on the bed rock, as perfect in ap-
pearance as those growing on the surface but
completely carbonized. I had a log cut out of
it the width of the tunnel, and taken out to the
tunnel house on a car, intending to preserve it
if possible : but in a few days it crumbled to
small fragments. That whole range under
which those extraneous fossils were buried was
of course the result of a volcanic upheavel that
sent huge streams of gold bearing quartz out
over the surface, sweeping down the giant for-
est in its course and burying it in many places
to the depth of hundreds of feet.

All the gold of that Pacific slope region evi-
dently originated in the mother rock far beneath
the surface incrustation, termed there the bed
rock, in an apparently formative state, except
where the mother rock has been exposed by the
upheaval and the external erosion of ages.

When the tunnel had been extended about
eight hundred feet the air was so foul that it
was a difficult matter for workmen to breathe
or to keep candles burning, and we were com-
pelled to suspend work at the head of the tun-
nel until we could arrange for a free circulation

164 MY ADVENTURES

of air there. That we effected as follows : At
a point three hundred feet from the mouth of
the tunnel we ran a side tunnel in six feet and
from that dug a shaft up to the surface, a dis-
tance of seventy feet. Into this side tunnel we
fitted a small furnace from the mouth of which
a tin pipe extended to the head of the tunnel,
through which the air supplied to the furnace
had to pass ; and when there was fire in the
furnace there was of course a draft of fresh air
going into the head of the tunnel and back to
the shaft through the pipe.

The raising of the shaft was a novelty to me.
I had seen men sink shafts, but never before
saw them commence at the bottom and go up.
From this main tunnel side tunnels were run
each way to the limits of our claim every fifty
feet, after "pay dirt" was reached. The fifty
foot space between those side tunnels was
"blocked out;" or in less technical parlance,
three feet of the gravel above the bed rock was
taken out and stout posts wedged in to keep
the earth above in place. The dirt was shoveled
out to the side tunnels and loaded into cars that
ran out to the main tunnel and thence to the
dumping place outside. In blocking out the
men had to do the work on their knees or sitting.

The last of June I went on horseback to
Downieville, twenty miles east, on business. My
horse was a blooded animal kept by our livery

IN^THE SIERRAS 165

man for his own use and seldom let to his cus-
tomers. He was a model of beauty and intelli-
gence and fleet as a deer. He bore the honored
name of Hero, and was so called because of the
heroism he displayed two years before in an en-
counter with a highwayman while carrying an
express messenger from Downieville to Forest
City.

The highwayman intercepted them on a nar-
row trail in a gorge and discharged a rifle at the
messenger within two hundred feet of him. The
horse, startled by the appearance of the man,
suddenly threw up his head and received the
ball in his neck, and though it made a danger-
ous wound from which the blood flowed pro-
fusely, he bounded forward without any urging
from his rider and jumped onto the highway-
man, crushing him to the ground and then sped
away to Forest City, two miles distant, carrying
the messenger and eight thousand dollars worth
of gold dust through safely.

He was very weak from loss of blood, but a
surgeon extracted the ball and in a few weeks
he was ready for service again. The highway-
man was so badly injured that he could not
escape and was captured by officers sent back to
look for him.

I was proud of the privilege of riding him and
great reason before I returned to be thankful
that I had the good fortune to secure him.

166 MY ADVENTURES

I transacted my business the evening I arrived
there, and returning next day had one of the
most thrilling adventures of my mountain life.

In going I had taken a circuitous route
through La Porte and Camp Warren, but return-
ing took a more direct though solitary route
which led through no mining settlement of any
considerable size and was traveled very little.
It took me through a deep narrow glen, four
miles from Whiskey Diggings, in which there
was located a party of twenty or thirty Mexi-
cans ostensively engaged in mining on a small
stream that ran through the glen.

They all lived in a large two-story board
cabin in the lower part of which there was a
kitchen, a bar room and a gambling hall. A
Mexican had been murdered there two years
before and a little later two German miners had
been drugged and robbed in the place; so it was
regarded as a dangerous location, and as the
occupants were rarely seen mining, it was gen-
erally thought to be merely a rendezvous for
Mexican outlaws.

I approached the place from a high range,
and when so near that I could look down upon
the cabin, I discovered two saddled horses
hitched to a post before the door ; but no men
were in sight. The trail ran west close to the
cabin door and across the shallow stream and
then turned south and followed the glen down a

IN THE SIERRAS 167

level stretch of a mile, where it turned west
again into a notch in the next range.

Feeling a little timid about meeting the Mex-
icans, I left the trail a few rods from the cabin,
thinking I should be able to make a cut across
behind it, under cover of a thicket of scrub oak,
fording the stream below it, and reach the trail
on the opposite bank unobserved ; but as I crossed
the stream the clatter of my horse's steel shoes
among the boulders rang out on the still air be-
traying my presence and bringing to the cabin
door half a dozen dusky Mexicans, two of whom
called to me in good English telling me to come
back and rest and have some good whiskey and
cigars with them ; and one of them added with
great emphasis, "Very fine refreshments. Ev-
erything free here today."

I replied, "Thank you, but I am in a hurry
and can't stop." They urged me again, but I
had reached the opposite bank and my horse
had started down the trail on a slow lope, so 1
waved my hand back and bowed my thanks and
turned from thorn.

A moment later I looked back and the two
were hastily unhitching their horses and prepar-
ing to mount. I knew then they were to follow
me and with no good intent. I did not quicken
my pace, however, till I reached a point a few
rods ahead where the trail turned a little to the
right and then ran along the edge of the glen for

168 MY ADVENTURES

three quarters of a mile hidden by a clump of
bushes from that part of the glen above the
turn. There I threw myself forward in the
saddle and called sharply, "Now, Hero!" and
we were off like an arrow.

When they made their appearance at the turn
in the trail I ^.was nearly a fourth of a mile
ahead of them, but they were coming like the
wind with a dense cloud of yellow dust rising
behind them ; and as their horses were evidently
fresh while mine was somewhat jaded, I was
frightened for a few minutes, fearing they might
overtake me before I came in sight of Whiskey
Diggings.

I slapped my knees against Hero's sides and
called again to him louder and sharper still, and
his pace gradually quickened till he seemed to
fly. He could see the pursuing horses now and
seemed to take in the situation fully. I was
confident then they could not gain on me and
knew I was safe if Hero's wind held out.

When I reached the turn into the notch in the
range there was a rise of eight or ten rods from
the glen and he bounded up that like a cat and
at the top of the rise threw his head on one
side, taking a glance back at our pursuers, and
gave a heavy snort of defiance that could have
been heard for half a mile. Just then two pistol
shots rang out on the still air in quick succes-
sion, sending a nervous thrill through my frame

IN^THE.SIERRAS 169

and for a moment filling me with a sense of
utter despair. The shots sounded so loud that
I thought the men were close behind me ; but on
looking back I found I had actually gained a
little on them and that the distance between us
was too long for an accurate pistol shot.

Hero plunged into the cool shade of the nar-
row notch with undiminished speed, filling the
pass behind us with a cloud of dust that I knew
would effectually shield us from the view of our
pursuers. In five minutes more we were de-
scending from the notch pass into Whiskey
Diggings.

I reported my adventure, and a deputy sheriff
who lived in the place took a posse of three men
well mounted and armed and went back to
Spanish Camp to look for the two horsemen,
but did not find them. I was able to describe
to the deputy sheriff the horses the men rode,
one as a tall sorrel with a white face and the
other as of lower, heavier build and of a stone
gray color. He drew from his pocket five let-
ters received from officials at five different
points south of there where the men were
wanted, each giving the same description of
the horses.

Two weeks later they were caught at Onion
Valley and taken in irons through our town to
Nevada, where they were tried for robbing the
safe of a mining company and sent to the
penitentiary.

170 MY^ADVENTURES

They had never been known to rob individuals
on the road and may have pursued me simply
for amusement and without intending to harm
me ; but I am glad I chose to keep out of their
way. After that I never rode any other horse
than Hero as long as I remained in the place ;
and I seldom went down to the vicinity of the
livery stable without taking to him a lump of
sugar, a cookey or a bit of fruit and giving him
a few friendly pats.

A few miles east of our place was a pleasant
little mining settlement called Glen Camp, sit-
uated in a narrow glen among towering peaks
and hedged on every side by a dark expanse of
giant pines. It was noted for the intelligence
of its population and some romantic incidents
in its history a little of which is worthy of
recital.

Ihe diggings of the camp were owned and
operated by two companies of ten members each
and these, with twenty-five or thirty salaried
laborers, comprised the population of the camp.
The men, both employers and employees, were
nearly all intelligent young New Englanders of
steady habits; and among them were several
graduates of eastern colleges who had exchanged
their classics for the pick and shovel.

They had all braved the dangers and hard-
ships of the then long and hazardous journey to
the gold fields with the sole purpose of acquir-

IN THE SIERRAS 171

ing means for the accomplishment of some
laudable plans for the future and therefore re-
joiced in their isolation and freedom from such
social restraints as might detract from their
zeal in the pursuit of that end. And when it
was announced that one Dr. Parks, a non-
resident partner in one of the companies, was to
move to the camp, bringing with him a daugh-
ter sixteen years of age, there was a general
murmur of remonstrance against the unwelcome
innovation, and for a week half indignant groups
discussed the matter with serious concern ; and
a move was finally made to raise a common fund
for the purchase of the doctor's interest in the
company, and eighteen men at once pledged one
hundred dollars each for that purpose.

About twelve hundred dollars more was re-
quired, and a meeting of the younger denizens
of the camp was held to arouse the boys to a full
consciousness of the impending danger of fem-
inine intrusion and the necessity of adopting
the proposed means to avert it.

One Tom Grant, a humorous lad twenty-two
years of age, made a stirring speech, reminding
his fellows that constant feminine surveillance
would seriously impair their personal rights and
privileges n:.d necessitate a more extensive so-
cial and domestic economy; that they could no
lonb't r enjoy the luxury of the nightly bath in
"Grand Pool," near the center of the camp; no

172 MY ADVENTURES

longer dispense with the dreaded tonsorial ser-
vice; no longer patch their clothes with clippings
from their old felt hats or flour sacks, nor in-
dulge in the undignified laundry service by the
glen stream ; and no longer pass the exultant
"Comanche yell" around the camp circle to
herald some unusual success of the day by either
company.

Tom's eloquence secured twelve more contri-
butions of one hundred dollars each, swelling
the total to three thousand dollars, the amount
required for the purchase of the doctor's interest
and the preservation of their liberty. Dick
Somers was appointed collector and custodian
of the fund and authorized to communicate with
the doctor at once and consummate the arrange-
ment as early as practicable.

The next day the older members of the com-
pany/having learned what had been done, called
a meeting of the members and employees and per-
suaded the boys to drop the matter, after inform-
ing them that the by-laws of the company pro-
vided that if a member decided to sell his share
the company should have the refusal of it before
it was offered to outside parties; that the doctor
was a mining expert whose varied knowledge in
that line would be of great value to the com-
pany; and that he was an excellent physician
and surgeon and would on that account make a
desirable acquisition to the community. But

IN THE SIERRAS 173

they abandoned the move reluctantly and de-
clared their intention to have no friendly inter-
course with the doctor and his daughter.

The couple arrived the following week with a
pack train of five mules loaded with their goods,
and several members of the company hastened
to welcome them and assist in unpacking their
goods and arranging them in order in their
spacious cabin ; but none of the disaffected boys
of either company appeared on the scene, and
for several weeks they maintained an air of cool
indifference toward the doctor and scrupulously
avoided going near his cabin.

The daughter proved to be a beautiful girl of
refined tastes and pleasing manners and possessed
of an unusual amount of tact and practical
common sense. She lost her mother when but
eight years of age and had ever since then been
her father's housekeeper and sole home compan-
ion in a small mining camp where she seldom
met one of her own sex, and under the wise
tuition of her father developed all the higher
and nobler qualities ot mind and heart, free
from the vanities and frivolities peculiar to
most girls of her age. Having been raised
among the miners, she had imbibed much of that
resolute, daring spirit that characterized them,
without copying any of their coarser traits.

Ralph Gray, a young member of the company,
who had made the acquaintance of the doctor

174 MY ADVENTURES

and his daughter the day they arrived and as-
sisted them in putting their home in order, had
become a frequent visitor there and was most
enthusiastic in his praise of Miss Parks ; so much
so that a dozen or more of those who had re-
solved to ignore her became exceedingly curious
to see her, and were one by one led by Ralph
to Miss Kitty's modest shrine and shorn of their
prejudice; and every convert became a devoted
admirer and defender of her whom they had
sworn to ignore.

Tom, however, who was a leader and general
favorite among the boys, resolutely held himself
aloof from the family, refusing even the Doc-
tor's invitation to visit them; but he, too, was
destined for sacrifice at Miss Kitty's altar. He
was fond of hunting, and one Saturday after-
noon as he was returning from a tramp on the
range that walled the glen on the east, with his
gun and a brace of grouse on his shoulder, he
suddenly came upon Miss Kitty, who was seated
upon a grassy knoll at the edge of the glen with-
in sight of her home arranging in artistic order
a lap full of wild flowers she had been gathering.
He emerged from a dense growth of underbrush
within four or five paces of her before they dis-
covered each other. Her large brown eyes and
flushed face were turned ^toward him with a
startled expression that seemed to demand an
apology which his natural gallantry promptly

IN THE SIERRAS 175

suggested; so instead of passing hurriedly on
with simply a bow of recognition, as he was at
first inclined to do, he lifted his hat and begged
her pardon for the intrusion and was about to
move on when she responded very pleasantly,
calling him by name, and added: "I see you
have been hunting, may I see your game?"

"Certainly," he replied, advancing and laying
the birds on the grass by her side as he added,
"It is not a very creditable showing for an after-
noon's hunt, but I am not a good shot."

Taking up one of the birds and stroking its
glossy plumage she remarked, "The grouse is a
beautiful bird and it does not seem quite right
that we should find a pleasure in pursuing it and
ruthlessly taking its life. I have shot them my-
self, but never without experiencing a pang of
remorse and shame — remorse that I had unnec-
essarily taken an innocent young life and shame
that I could feel a ssnse of pleasure in the act."

"And yet," he remarked, "self-protection is
the first law of all animate being; the stronger
feeds upon the weaker. Through all the suc-
cessive stages of animal life, from the minutest
insect up to man, 'Life is ever fed by death ;' and
if that is really a law of our nature can it be
wrong?"

"Yes," she replied, "wrong in its excess.
The natural prompting of some uncivilized races
is to kill and feed upon one another, and of ma-

176 MY ADVENTURES

ny semi-civilized peoples to kill one another, in
obedience to that law of self-protection, for
trivial offenses, but every civilized people re-
gard obedience to such natural promptings a
crime and it can be nothing else."

"I will acknowledge, Miss Parks," he said,
"that you have the best of the argument and
tkat a higher civilization than ours of the pres-
ent day will doubtless recognize your Utopian
view of the matter and cleanse the hearts and
hands of our race of the blood of the innocent."

While uttering these last words he had been
carelessly gazing into the top of a tall fir that
stood a few rods from them, whither his atten-
tion had been directed by the fall of a shower of
fragments of cone which he discovered were be-
ing scattered by a large gray squirrel that sat
in plain view near the top of the tree ; but with-
out first calling Miss Parks' attention to his
discovery, he added: "But as that happy era
has not yet arrived, I should be pardonable, I
hope, for shooting that squirrel yonder, which
would make a very desirable introductory dish
for my dinner."

"Yes," she replied, "the act committed under
the incentive of hunger might be pardonable."
With this implied assent he raised his gun, took
deliberate aim and fired. The squirrel started,
changed its position slightly and resumed its
nibbling of the cone it held. Tom was embar-

IN THE SIERRAS 177

raseed and apologized for his failure by saying
that the charge was probably too light to carry
the fine bird shot that distance.

He reloaded, advanced a little nearer and fired
again with the same result. He turned, petu-
lantly throwing the gun down on the grass, and
remarked, "I told you I was not a good shot."

"But that is a long shot for a good marksman
even," she said apologetically, "and in your
haste you did not notice that you were at a great
disadvantage in having the bright sun in your
face. Reload and pass around to the opposite
side of the tree and you will doubtless make a
successful shot."

He reloaded, and offering the gun to her, said,
"You spoke of having killed grouse, will you
not try a shot at the squirrel? I am feeling
keenly the disgrace of two failures and dare not
hazard a third shot."

"Yes, your misery would have company, I
see, and being a novice in the art myself, I sym-
pathize with you and cheerfully take the risk of
a trial." Taking the gun from his hand, she
moved a short distance into the shade of a tree,
took quick aim and fired, and much to Tom's
chagrin down tumbled the squirrel. He con-
gratulated her warmly, and gathering up their
flowers and game, they started down the glen to
the camp together.

Tom's capture was the signal for a general

178 MY ADVENTURES

surrender and a proud recognition of Miss Kit-
ty's triumph. By unanimous consent she was
styled "The Daughter of the Camp" and held in
brotherly affection by all. They vied with each
other in constant effort to contribute to her en-
joyment. The choicest game and wild fruit and
the most beautiful wild flowers, as well as the
most desirable reading matter when available
were, all shared with Kitty.

And all this attention was given and received
with so much unaffected modesty and frankness
that the relation seemed beautiful and all its at-
attendant influences refining and exalting. Ev-
ery man of the camp seemed to entertain toward
her a proud feeling of ownership and tender
brotheihood which hallowed and justified the
frank intimacy between them.

One day a man who had been for a few days
in the employ of the other mining company re-
turned from an adjacent trading post intoxicat-
ed and stopped at the doctor's cabin and asked
for a drink of water, which Miss Kittie brought
to him, and after drinking he caught her by
the arm and insisted upon kissing her. Her
screams quickly brought to her assistance sev-
eral of the men, who captured the culprit and
held him a prisoner till evening, when a meet-
ing of the two companies was called and the
prisoner tried and sentenced to receive thirty
Ia3he3 on his bare back and be banished from

IN THE SIERRAS 179

the place. The whipping was at once adminis-
tered, and he was then given one hour in which
to settle with his employers and leave camp, an
injunction he promptly obeyed.

Another striking incident in evidence of their
loyalty to Kitty occurred the following spring.
A friend and former partner of the doctor who
had amassed quite a fortune in mining specula-
tions and had in various ways put the doctor
under obligation to him, came to the camp fre-
quently to visit the doctor and his daughter ;
and after having influenced the doctor with
some tempting propositions, thus strengthening
his feeling of obligation, he gained his consent
to marry Kitty.

The betrothal was consummated before Kitty
was consulted about the matter, and on learn-
ing from her father that she had been bartered
to a man twenty-five years her senior, whom
she never liked and must now despise, she was
almost heart-broken. She loved her father
dearly and would cheerfully make any reason-
able sacrifice whatever to please him, but she
felt that in asking this he was both wronging
her and doing himself a great injustice and
that she was therefore justified in resolutely re-
belling against his authority.

She refused Mr. Sanburn, her affianced, an
interview, and at the doctor's suggestion he
left the camp for a few days, during which

180 MY ADVENTURES

time the doctor was expected to gain her con-
sent. As soon as he had gone Kitty hastened
to an elderly lady acquaintance living one mile
away, and of her sought sympathy and advice ;
and from the husband the boys learned the
whole story of Kitty's sad plight. The news
spread rapidly and excited intense indignation.
About twenty of her most loyal friends consult-
ed together and decided to interfere in her be-
half, dismissing the objectionable suitor and
preventing further importunity.

Ralph Gray, who was recognized as the most
ready scribe among them, was instructed to
draft a letter to Mr. Sanburn, stating, in sub-
stance, that having learned of his suit for the
hand of Miss Parks and of its unfavorable re-
ception by her, "we, the undersigned, in defense
of Miss Parks and the honor of Glen Camp,
protest against any further advances on your
part, and hereby warn you not again to appear
in Glen Camp nor in any way occasion Miss
Parks further annoyance." It was an elaborate
manifesto over which Ralph worked half the
night, writing, re-writing and copying; and the
next morning the letter was read to the secret
conclave, approved and signed "The boys of
Glen Camp," and mailed at the nearest post
town.

Mr. Sanburn well knew the import of this
warning and was not again seen in the camp,
nor was his suit ever renewed.

IN THE SIERRAS 181

Though Kitty received no direct intimation
of the action taken by the boys, she knew by
the subdued, sympathetic spirit of their deport-
ment towards her that they knew of her trouble
and would if necessary, if they had not already
done so, interpose in her behalf ; and the thought
gave her a feeling of security and compensated
in a measure for her loss by the impairment of
her father's affection.

Some of the boys were with her nearly every
evening, reading to her or playing checkers and
chess, of which she and the doctor were very
fond. Dick Somers and Ralph Gray, in partic-
ular, were frequent callers at her home, as they
had volunteered to supplement the doctor's
tutorage with instruction in vocal music, rhetor-
ic and English Literature ; and though to a
casual observer she seemed to evince no prefer-
ence for any one of her many devoted knights,
those two had a larger share of her confidence
than was awarded to any of the other friends,
and they had, perhaps, become more warmly
attached to her than any of the others.

When a little later Ralph decided to sell his
interest and return to New England, he felt a
pang of regret at the thought of saying a last
good bye to Kitty. California had no railroad
connection then with the East and no prospect
of any for many years to come, and the distance
between the two sections was so perilous that he

182 MY ADVENTURES

did not expect to ever return to the Pacific coast.
He spoke to her but once of his purpose to go
and then only briefly. Her only answer was
"We shall miss you very, very much, Ralph."

He was to leave Saturday afternoon and to go
to the nearest stage station, ten miles distant,
to spend a day with some friends, and Dick
Somers, Tom Grant and several of the other
boys were to join him there the next day and
see him off Monday morning. When ready to
start he went to the doctor's cabin to say good
by to Kitty and found her alone with Dick play-
ing chess. He could not trust himself to delay
in the least and without taking a seat reached
out his hand and said in as cheerful a tone as
he could command, "Good by, Kitty." She
could not speak in reply, but with childish im-
pulse threw her arms about his neck, kissed
him and turned away sobbing violently; and
Ralph, with swimming eyes and an aching heart
rushed from the room and was soon on his way
to the stage station.

He had a warm brotherly affection for Kitty
which would have developed into a stronger
passion had it not been held in check by the
consideration that he must spend years yet in
studious preparation for a profession before he
could marry; and he did not believe that Kitty
was in love with him and regarded her grief at
their parting as the result of only a sisterly

IN THE SIERRAS 183

feeling she entertained for a dozen or more of
the boys of the camp.

A.t the stage station the next day Dick called
him aside and with an air of deep concern that
alarmed him a little, said, "Ralph, we have
been friends a long time and I feel a deep in-
terest in all that concerns you. You have
promise of a bright future, and I want to see
you make no mistakes to cloud your way and
mar your happiness. You and Kitty love each
other. Marry her and take her east with you,
or continue your mining by proxy and pursue
your studies in this state, where your advantages
on the whole would be as good as in the more
crowded East. Would not that be the wiser
course, the better course for both of you?"

"My dear Dick," he replied, "I thank you
with all my heart for your sincere coucern for
my welfare; but I think the situation in my
case is not so serious as you imagine nor de-
manding the extreme treatment you suggest. I
do not think that I really love Kitty, and I think
she entertains for me only that sisterly affection
she feels for ail the boys of the camp who have
contributed so much to her happiness during the
last two years.

"Whea she came to us she had seen little of
society and knew little of the world, and we have

I been a new revelation to her, opening to her
precious mind a new world of thought and

184 MY ADVENTURES

ambitious longing, and that resource has become
an indispensable necessity to her, and she there-
fore feels an instinctive dread of separation
from us.

"Even if I loved her I could not think of mar-
rying her, for I have much to do before I can
assume such a responsibility. But, my dear sir,
it is you who deserve that prize and not I.
Unlike me you came here for a stay of no defi-
nite length and will probably settle permanently
in the state. She is very fond of you, and if you
do not love each other now you will before you
have played chess together six months longer.
I have a brother's love for both of you and
should rejoice if such a consummation of my
wishes could occur."

"That all sounds well, Ralph," replied Dick,
"but she cares little for me, and I can hardly
hope that she ever will; but let us dismiss the
subject and rejoin our friends."

The next morning Ralph handed Dick a pack-
age of books to send back to Kitty as a parting
gift, and as he did so, whispered, "Don't neg-
lect your chess, my dear fellow." Then bidding
the boys good-bye he took his seat in the coach
and was soon tossing down the rugged mountain
range toward the distant valley below at almost
railroad speed.

A year later Ralph received a letter from Dick
commencing, "My dear Ralph: I have been

IN THE SIEREAS 185

diligent at chess and have won. The prize will
be mine on the twentieth proximo."

The first of July, Gale and Paugus made me a
visit, the mining season having closed at Camp
Warren. They came equipped for a long pros-
pecting tour, and insisted that I take a rest
from my labor there and accompany them. I
had been very closely confined to my work for
four months and much of that time under
ground, where the air was bad, and needed
much the rest and recreation such a change
would afford; so I finally consented to join
them, as the company could easily spare me for
that length of time.

We decided to go about forty miles north east,
through a rough, unoccupied region, frequented
only by Indian trappers, to Feather River and
thence east over the high Black Butte range to
Honey Lake and Beckworth's Valley, stopping
only occasionally to prospect. We were anxious
to see the lake and feast a few days on fresh fish
and to visit the famous Jim Beckworth and his
Indian colony. I had read Beckworth's life and
was familiar with his wonderful career as trap-
per in the Rocky Mountains, Indian fighter with
Kit Carson and other noted mountaineers, and
chief of the Crow nation, and had a strong de-
sire to see him and hear from his own lips more
of his strange life.

We bought a stout young donkey in Whiskey

186 MY ADVENTUKES

Diggings that we knew would thrive on the wild
grass and browse he could find by the way, and
on him packed our blankets, a few light cooking
utensils, a set of tools for prospecting and pro-
visions enough to last us a week or ten days, and
took up our march eastward through a wooded
gorge and over a trackless mountain range on
the summit of which we made careful observa-
tion and prepared a rough chart of our proposed
route, noting such landmarks as it would be
necessary to keep in view. At noon we rested
an hour on a small stream and made coffee and
ate our luncheon, while the donkey refreshed
himself on wild clover by the stieam. That
night we slept on a bed of boughs under a low,
bushy fir. Paugus rose early next morning and
stole away without waking Gale and myself,
but half an hour later we were aroused by the
crack of his rifle, and he soon came back with a
plump rabbit which he dressed and cooked for
breakfast.

That day we spent two or three hours pros-
pecting on a stream between two ranges, but
with poor success. About four o'clock we dis-
covered from the summit of a range an Indian
smoke a mile or two ahead and turned out of our
course a little to avoid a small valley from which
it rose. We camped that night about three
miles from the fire we had discovered and took
a cold supper, as we thought it advisable not to

IN THE SIERRAS 187

make a smoke to indicate our location to Indians
who might have seen us during the afternoon
and then be lurking in that vicinity with felon-
ious intent. We were not afraid of being mur-
dered by them, but knew they might attempt to
rob us of our donkey and outfit. We made our
rough bed in a dense cluster of low evergreens
and tethered the donkey about four hundred
feet from us in a grassy swale. We were unusu-
ally tired and slept soundly.

We rose soon after daylight appeared and
Paugus went to the swale to change the location
of the donkey and soon returned with the start-
ling information that the lariat had been cut
and the donkey taken away. On investigating
we found that the lariat, which was made of
strong rawhide, had been cut with a sharp knife
close to the tree to which it was tied. We de-
cided that he had been stolen by Indians from
the encampment we discovered the day before
and resolved to besiege the place and re-capture
him if posssible.

Our arms consisted of one rifle, three revolvers,
one bowie knife and two stilettoes ; and Paugus
declared that thus armed we could successfully
combat a band of forty redskins; but Gale and
I were not so confident and decided that it
would be wiser to accomplish our object by
strategy or careful diplomacy than to resort to
force, however small their number might be,

188 MY ADVENTURES

We finally resolved to take the trail of the
thieves, and if it led to the encampment we had
discovered, to boldly approach the band and make
a peremptory demand for the donkey of the
chief, assuring him that if the restoration was
not made immediately we would pursue them
with a large party of our friends and punish them
severely.

Gale, who had acquired some knowledge of
their language, was to act as spokesman. Fearing
that they might move their encampment that
day, we decided to go as early as possible and
therefore took a hasty breakfast, and after con-
cealing our baggage among the branches of two
scrub oaks, we took the trail of the enemy, mov-
ing as rapidly as possible.

The donkey had evidently made considerable
resistance, for the trail showed that he had
strugged violently every five or six rods
for the first half mile. There were evi-
dently two or three Indians in the party
and they must have sprung suddenly upon the
donkey and muzzled him at once, otherwise he
would have brayed frantically, and aroused us.
The trail for half a mile led east, away from the
Indian encampment, and we began to fear that
the culprits were stray Indian tramps who would
give us a long chase ; but the trail soon turned
south, following a low range for a mile, and then
turned west toward the encampment. Then we

IN THE SIERBAS 189

knew this circuitous route had been taken to
mislead us. In half an hour more we sighted
the encampment from a low range overlooking
the location ; but here we lost the trail. The
ground was very dry and hard and covered with
soft wire grass on which a party could move
without making any perceptible impression.

We could discern but four lodges and con-
cluded the band was small and that we could
safely hazard an approach. From a thicket near
their lodges we counted eleven Indians and five
ponies, but could see no donkey. We decided,
however, to confront them and charge them with
the theft and boldly and persistently demand
restoration.

Paugus was very nervous, and I was afraid
that when we got into the encampment, if the
Indians were in the least uncivil, he might lose
his self-control and say or do something rash
and therefore cautioned him to keep cool and
quiet and trust to Gale's good diplomacy, which
he promised to do.

CHAPTER X.

We advanced within a dozen rods of the en-
campment before they discovered us. Most of
the Indians were engaged cooking venison for
breakfast and seemed to take little notice of us,
giving no other response to our pleasant greet-
ing than the characteristic hoarse grunt. Gale
asked for the chief and was directed to a tall,
stern looking fellow who stood by a lodge en-
trance watching us.

Gale asked him if he understood English, and
he replied, "Me unstand some." Then Gale
stated our grievance, and told him that the don-
key must be restored to us at once. The chief
shrugged his shoulderrs and said, "Me no steal
him, my men no steal him; Mexican man steal
him."

Gale then bristled up until he looked as sav-
age and determined as a brigand and told him in
a mixture of the two languages, supplemented
and emphasized with many violent gestures, that
we had tracked the thieves from our camp to
the ridge near his encampment and knew the
donkey was concealed somewhere near there and
that if he was not restored to us we would go to
Feather river and come back tomorrow with a

190

IN THE SIERRAS 191

company of miners and take their ponies and
blankets away and punish them severely.

The chief had been among the miners enough
to know that Gale meant what he said and that
we could execute the threat if we chose to do
so, as the miners were always ready to defend
one another against Indian and Mexican marau-
ders, and the speech had the desired effect. He
said, "Me see," and going to his lodge entrance
summoned, with several gutteral grunts, five of
the other Indians to his side and a consultation
of several minutes followed, when the chief re-
turned to us and said in a mixture of Indian
English, which was quite unintelligible to Pau-
gus and myself, but whioh Gale translated, that
two tramp Crow Indians who had joined hie
band stole our donkey and had him concealed in
the wood near the encampment, and that he had
ordered him brought to us.

Paugus was so pleased at this happy turn in
the affair that he produced a lcng plug of his
favorite smoking tobacco and presented it to the
chief, and relaxing his firm hold upon the rifle,
he rested it on the ground for the first time since
reaching the encampment and resumed his usual
calm appearance. An Indian soon appeared
with the donkey, and Paugus, supposing he wa§
one of the Crow tramps who had stolen him, took
the lariat from his hand and then gave him a
vigorous kick as he turned to leave.

192 MY ADVENTURES

The offended young Indian sprang back a step
and drew his knife, uttering at the same time a
defiant whoop that brought the whole band
around us. I was behind Paugus, and spring-
ing forward, I caught him around the body, pin-
ioning his arms, and threw him over my knee on
to the ground and sternly commanded him not
to get up. Gale at the same time sprang between
the Indian and Paugus, and though half a dozen
knives gleamed in his face, and a spiteful mur-
mur of disapproval arose from every Indian, he
was calm and possessed.

He hastily explained Paugus' mistake and
made a satisfactory apology; and while Gale
was making his speech I informed Paugus, in an
undertone, that he had kicked the wrong Indian
and must apologize and make him some present
to restore good feeling. He got up, and with a
very sorrowful expression, repeated to the chief
Gale's explanation and gave hie last plug of to-
bacco and a fancy Dutch pipe to the young In-
dian he had kicked, as a peace offering, and all
was quiet again. The two Crows, they told us,
had disappeared when they found we were after
the donkey.

Bidding the band good bye, we returned to
our baggage, and were soon on our way east
again. That night we spent at a small mining
camp on Feather river. Adjoining the hotel at
which we stopped was an express office in which

IN THE SIERRAS 193

the gold dust taken out in the vicinity was mar-
keted, and I stepped in to make inquiry about
the river mining there, and while waiting on
eight or ten miners who were disposing of dust,
I was impressed with the seeming carelessness
with which the miners handled the precious
metal. While I was there a miner poured from
a buckskin bag into the agent's iron pan about
fifteen hundred dollars' worth of dust, remark-
ing that it was taken out in recently discovered
diggings on a tributary of Feather river.

Several men sauntered up to the counter and
curiously fumbled at it as though it were so
much wheat, and one wag, who seemed to be a
lounger in the office, carried the pan off across
the room to a window and sifted the gold
through his fingers, examining it closely, while
the owner, unconcerned, talked with the agent.
Gold dust was so common and theft so promptly
punished that such a thing as pilfering was sel-
dom thought of.

From that point we went to Honey Lake,stop-
ping only to prospect two or three hours on the
shore of a small pond east of Black Butte range,
where Paugus shot a large canvass back duck
which we broiled for supper. Honey Lake we
found a beautiful body of water. We built a
brush shanty and a small raft and spent two daya
there hunting and fishing.

Paugus secured us another duck and two fat

194 MY ADVENTUEES

rabbits ; and we caught fish enough for three or
four hearty meals. We had replenished our
stock of provisions at the Feather river mining
camp, and with the addition of fish and game we
fared sumptuously.

From the lake we journeyed over to Beck-
worth's Valley, which we found most delightfully
situated among the green foothills of the tower-
ing Black Butte range and watered by a clear
stream that afforded an ample supply of water
for the irrigation of the rich grain and vegetable
fields of the little valley. Beckworth located
there on a tract ceded to him by the government
after tiring of his wild life in the Kocky Moun-
tain region, where he spent over forty years
trapping and conducting campaigns against va-
rious Indian nations and serving as chief of the
then powerful Crow nation.

He had persistently fought the Crows until
they were scattered, impoverished and disheart-
ened, but finally took up their %cause and led
them in many successful campaigns against their
enemies, recovering their lost possessions, col-
lecting their scattered numbers and restoring
their former power and valor. For this service
they made him chief and general dictator, and
he married one of their number and remained
with them about fifteen years.

At the end of that time the nation was in a
decline again, as a consequence of a curtailing of

IN THE SIERRAS 195

their rights and privileges by the aggressive
whites who were fast invading their territory
in their mad search for gold, which had been
discovered at various points within their limits ;
and desiring a more quiet and secluded location
in which to spend the remainder of his days, he
took his family and about fifty of his most faith-
ful adherents of the tribe and emigrated to his
possession in California.

The colony occupied about twenty block houses
in the largest of which we found Beckworth
seated in the doorway smoking. He received us
rather coolly,but was evidently pleased to see us,
and on learning that we had come a long dis-
tance out of our way to see him he insisted that
we accept of hi6 hospitality while we remained
in the valley. He was then about sixty years
old and looking somewhat worn and broken, but
his large muscular frame seemed still sound and
capable of great endurance.

His long hair and dark swarthy complexion
gave him the appearance of an Indian, and I had
supposed that he had Indian blood, but he as-
sured us that he was of French and English ex-
traction. We stayed with him from ten in the
morning until six in the evening, taking dinner
with him and listening to a graphic account he
gave of his adventurous life in the mountains.
Just before we left he took us over his planta-
tion, as he called the cultivated portion of his

196 MY ADVENTURES

domain, and showed us some fields of fine vege-
tables, a herd of about one hundred fat cattle,
about two hundred sheep, a hundred ponies and
immense flocks of domestic fowls.

His three half-breed sons were managing the
work of the place, which was done wholly by
his submissive subjects, while he, with his pa-
triarchal dignity, enjoyed the fat of the land,
hampered by no social or political restraint, and
subservient to no law but his own free will.

We declined hig invitation to spend the night
with him and went to a thicket on the west side of
the valley and camped. I felt inclined to remain
in that vicinity for a week or two fishing, hunt-
ing and enjoying the bracing air and beautiful
scenery ; but Gale and Paugus had decided to
return via our mining location of the summer be-
fore, where the old Indian and his children were
doubtless looking for us, and spend the remainder
of the dry season mining there.

So I decided to accompany them that far and
see them well settled before returning to
Whiskey Diggings, as it would take me only ten
or fifteen miles out of my way. We started next
morning and went that day as far as Feather
river, where we stocked with provisions again
and bought a few mining tools and some trinkets
and confectionery for the Indian children.

We reached our destination on the stream
about sundown and found our Indian friends

IN THE SIERRAS 197

there and overjoyed to see us. The children
were wild with delight and jumped around us
like two doting puppies. Togie at once took
charge of the donkey, and when told by Gale
that he could have him to ride all summer if he
took good care of him he screamed with delight.
We soon had the cabin in order and our supper
prepared. Little Tiny had built our fire and
brought fresh water, while Togie was tethering
the donkey ; and the old man aided by gathering
boughs for our bunks. He and the children had
before our arrival prepared a large pile of dry
wood for us.

I stayed there a week and saw Gale and Pau-
gus well established, and then bidding them a
reluctant good bye, I started on my return home
to Whiskey Diggings. Togie insisted upon ac-
companying me for an hour or two, and though
he took his gun, he would; in spite of my pro-
test, carry my knapsack also. After we had
gone about ten miles I sent him back, though he
was anxious to go much farther. On parting
with him I gave him my pocket knife, which he
had greatly admired and coveted, and the gift
pleased him exceedingly.

I moved on along down the mountain range,
leaving him watching me with swimming eyes
and a sad face. After a walk of five minutes, I
reached the edge of a thicket, where I was to
lose sight of him, and turning I waved a last

198 MY ADVENTURES

good-bye with my hat, to which he responded
and then turned his face homeward.

I stayed at a small mining camp that night
and reached home the next afternoon very tired,
but with my general physical condition very
much improved by my long tramp and month of
pleasant recreation.

I found all going well in the mine and my
partners in high spirits, for they had found ex-
cellent prospects in both the main and side tun-
nels and were impatient for a return of the wet
season, that we might make a better test of the
value of the dirt they were taking out.

During my absence one of my partners had
built and furnished a commodious cabin and
brought his young wife there from Sacramento ;
and a few days after my return we were all in-
vited there to a six o'clock dinner, which was
made a very enjoyable affair for us. We were
all charmed with Mrs. McKay, the hostess, and
congratulated ourselves upon our good fortune
in having another amiable lady added to our
little community.

The rainy season opened the last of November
and the water supply lasted about four weeks,
at the end of which time it was cut off by the
cold weather and the heavy snow-fall; but dur-
ing the time it lasted we washed the dirt that
had been taken out and were rewarded with
quite a generous yield. We put on more help

IN THE SIERRAS 199

for the winter, that we might get out as much
dirt as possible for the spring washing.

Paugus eame up from Camp Warren to visit
me the first of December, and I persuaded him
to remain and help us during the winter. He
and Gale had succeeded well on the stream
where I left them and had left the old Indian
and his children there the middle of November.

The snowfall was unusually heavy that win-
ter, and we were pretty closely confined. We
found some needed recreation, however, in
coasting and deer hunting on Norwegian snow-
shoes. Paugus and one cf my partners each
captured a deer just before Christmas; so we
were able to have roast venison for our Christ-
mas dinner. Later Paugus and I, just after a
heavy fall of snow, ran down and captured alive
two calves about six or eight months old, which
we kept in a pen in our wood shed until they
were full grown, when we slaughtered them and
shared them with my partners.

I recall an amusing incident that occurred the
day we slaughtered the deer, which was, however,
more embarrassing than amusing to Paugus. We
dressed the deer on the snow a dozen rods or
more from the cabin, and just before noon Pau-
gus left me and my other cabin mate and went
to the cabin to prepare dinner. We had placed
the day before on a rack just outside the back
door a fifteen gallon keg of the "San Francisco

200 MY ADVENTURES

Golden Syrup," a great deal of which we used
instead of sugar as it was highly refined and of
a very agreeable flavor.

Paugus, finding the syrup cruse empty, went
out to replenish it from the keg, but the syrup
being thick and cold, it ran from the faucet very
slowly at first, and Paugus, being in a hurry,
left it setting under the faucet intending to re-
turn for it before the cruse was full ; but he got
busy with his cooking and forgot it, and as my
partner and I came up the snow trail toward the
back door three hours later we met, about fifty
feet from the cabin, a golden stream of the syrup.
We understood at once what had occurred, and
stopping, called to Paugus who came out, and
taking in the situation, made a most laughable
demonstration of grief, begging us to dock him
a month's salary, pull out his hair, shoot him, or
anything whatever to expiate this heinous crime.

The keg had found freer vent after Paugus
left it and drained to the bottom. The joke got
out among the boys and Paugus was teased
about it for a long time.

That spring we had water earlier than usual
and washed our winter's hoarding and did some
hydraulic prospecting on the side of a gravel
ridge near our claim, having been led to do so by
the fact that a company had recently opened a
hydraulic claim on the same ridge, half a mile
south of us, that was paying well and from

IN THE SIEKRAS 201

which they had taken a clear lump weighing
forty-two ounces. But we were not successful
enough to justify us in continuing the experi-
ment long.

After the close of the water season I took an-
other vacation and visited fifteen or twenty min.
ing camps south and east of our place, to make a
study of the various modes of mining and the
multiplicity of appliances used. There had been
a very heavy influx of population to that part
of the state for the last two years, and as many
had brought their families and built tasty homes
those larger mining towns began to assume quite
a pleasant and home like appearance.

In all these towns I found a pitiful class of
listless, helpless young men who had been raised
in the eastern cities in idleness and had gone to
California with the idea that they could amass a
fortune in the mountains without either capital
or manual labor; and having neither the "skilled
hand nor willing spirit" for manual drudgery
they wandered listlessly about looking for some
means by which they could make money without
work. Hundreds of those, being unable to earn
a living or to get help from their eastern friends,
committed suicide or dropped into the giddy
whirl of hopeless dissipation and soon reached
the end unheeded and unmourned.

I had a personal acquaintance with many of
that claBS and for two, in particular, I entertained

202 MY ADVENTUKES

a warm friendship and assisted them financially
until I found such assistance was no kindness.
They were college graduates and the sons of
clergymen and had no bad habits when I made
their acquaintance ; but they finally became dis-
heartened, lost their self respect and entered up-
on a career of dissipation. One of them was
finally killed in a wrangle in Marysville and the
other died a drunkard in a charity hospital at
Sacramento.

On that round to the neighboring mining
camps I stayed over night in a small camp lo-
cated at the foot of a wooded range and there
heard for the first time the dismal roar of the
mountain lion.

About ten o clock at night several of them,
who were probably passing along the range, dis-
covered the lights of the camp and set up a
frightful roaring that continued for half an hour
or more, startling the whole camp. There were
many in that part of the mountains and we
tracked them often, but they were seldom seen
or heard.

I took in Camp Warren on my round and
spent a day with Forty- nine and his estimable
wife and several days with Gale and Paugus,
who were just closing up their work for the sea-
son, the water supply having given out. I was
with them on the Fourth of July, and we went
to LaPorte together that day and heard a very

IN THE.SIERRAS 203

eloquent oration by Hon. E. D. Baker, of San
Francisco, who wag afterwards killed at Ball's
Bluff while leading a forlorn hope against a wing
of the Confederate army.

The Frazer river gold excitement was high
then and Gale had decided to sell out his inter-
est at Camp Warren and go to that Eldorado of
the far North. I was sorry to bid him farewell,
for we had spent much time together and our
common joys and common sorrows of the time
had bound us closely together. Paugus also
took a final leave of Gale and returned to Whis-
key Diggings with me to help in our tunnel op-
erations. *

The important gold discoveries made in Ore-
gon and British Columbia that year resulted very
favorably to California, for while the heavy exo-
dus took away some of our best men, it drained
the state of a large class of adventurers, greatly
to the advantage of the mining sections of the
state, in particular.

I had an interest with three other men in an
undeveloped claim near Monte Cristo into which
we were running a tunnel, and I decided to
spend a part of the spring and summer at that
place and accordingly joined my partners there
the first of May.

The claim was on the west side of Monte
Cristo range and directly under the craggy
brow of Table Mountain.

204 MY ADVENTURES

The tunnel had been run into the mountain
about two hundred feet, where hard rock was
encountered, and as the work in that would be
very expensive, we decided, the day after my
arrival, to partially suspend operations for a
time, doing only three days' work each month,
the amount required by the laws of that mining
district to keep valid our title, that we might,
before incurring further expense, get results
from a test being made on a claim half a mile
north of ours in the sanie range.

That night sparks from a cooking stove we
had in our shanty started a fire in the dry man-
zanito brush above us and burned over about
two and one-half acres, leaving the rich, mellow
marl soil bare. Just above the burnt patch was
a spring that would afford water enough for irri-
gation, and we conceived the happy thought of
planting the patch in vegetables and raising
enough for our own consumption during the next
fall and winter instead of paying the traders
fifteen cents a pound for them. So we procured
the necessary seed and tools and soon had the
whole place planted in potatoes, cabbage, tur-
nips, radishes, onions and tomatoes. Then we
built without much labor a small reservoir at
the head of the patch in which we stored the
water from the spring and dug a narrow ditch
across the end into which we could turn the
water from the reservoir and from which we

IN THE SIERBAS 205

could pass it between the rows of vegetables to
trickle in evenly gauged little streamlets down
the steep descent to the lower side of the patch.

My partners had a claim about two miles from
there on Goodyear's Creek to which they moved,
leaving me alone to do the required amount of
work on the tunnel to keep good our title and to
care for our little ranch. I remained there
nine weeks alone except on Sunday when two
of my partners always came to see me. I worked
about five hours a day irrigating, hoeing and do-
ing a little work on the tunnel claim adjoining
and spent several hours daily hunting and read-
ing and writing ; and the change from my heavy
confining work of the fall and winter before was
a much needed and restful one.

My shanty had but three sides, the front being
open. That, however, I used only for a sleep-
ing apartment. My kitchen and sitting room
were in front of that in an arbor built of poles
and fir boughs and shaded by a dense clump of
fir and pine. There I did my cooking, ate my
meals and wrote.

One night about an hour after I had retired
to my bunk I was aroused by some unusual
noise, and opening my eyes I discovered a man
in the front part of the shanty leaning his head
forward as if listening to my breathing, and
there was moonlight enough to enable me to dis-
cover by his dress that he was a Mexican. For

206 MY ADVENTURES

a full minute I did not move a muscle but waited
to divine, if possible, his object. He took a slow
cautious step toward me and then leaning for-
ward listened again. He had no weapon in his
hand and I could see none in his belt and was
convinced that his motive was theft and that he
wai endeavoring to approach near enough to
find my clothes.

My stiletto was under my pillow and a loaded
rifle on the ground under the edge of my bunk,
but I dare not reach for either,knowing that if I
did so he would probably spring upon me and
disarm me before I could free myself from the
bedding and make much resistance.

I quickly resolved upon another means of de-
fense which I knew would be more effective just
then than a display of my weapons and that was
the terrifying Indian alarm whoop which had
been taught me by a Crow Indian and which I
had practiced until I could make the double-
toned explosion resound like a frog horn.

The lower classes of the Mexican people are,
almost without exception, very superstitious,
nervous and cowardly, and very easily unnerved
by any sudden and mysterious surprise. Drawing
in my breath and nerving myself up for the effort
I suddenly exploded my vocal battery and fol-
lowed the discharge with a rapid succession of
whoops till the very overhanging pines seemed
to echo the hideous sounds.

IN THE SIERRAS 207

At the first whoop he sprang backwards about
six feet and stumbled and fell lighting upon his
hands and knees, then sprang upon his feet and
bounded like a deer into the bushes and disap-
peared down the mountain side, and I could hear
in the stillness of the night the loose shale rattle
under his feet at every bound for a third of a
mile off. At my first outburst I caught my rifle
and as he disappeared down the rough descent,
discharged it into the tree tops, to make the
affair as imposing as possible.

He probably belonged to a party of Mexican
packers whom I heard about five o'clock that
afternoon shouting to their mules on a trail half
a mile below me and who were probably camp-
ing not far off. He had probably discovered my
shanty as they passed along the trail and came
back from their encampment to steal. I reloaded
my rifle and went back to bed and slept soundly
the rest of the night.

A week later I had another nocturnal surprise
even more startling than that I have related. I
had often wondered that the overhanging lime-
stone bluff that surrounded the flat apex of Ta-
ble Mountain above me was not, while being
shaken by some terrific thunder storm, dislodged
and sent tumbling down the mountain side
sweeping everything before it ; and one night,
after retiring with that thought on my mind and
falling into a half unconscious doze I was

208 MY ADVENTURES

aroused by a loud rumbling sound like thunder
and a violent shaking of my bed. I sprang from
my bunk terrified by the impression that the
overhanging bluff had indeed dislodged and was
coming towards me. Then the rumbling and
quaking was repeated still heavier and pro-
longed for eight or ten seconds, rattling the dry
splits on the roof of the shanty and nearly
throwing me off my feet.

I was half paralyzed with fear; but before the
sound had died away I recognized the strange
phenomenon as an earthquake, having experi-
enced several lighter ones, and was relieved of
the terror that had possessed me.

I went to the front of the shanty and gazed
up the mountain to reassure myself that I was
not to be crushed by a crumbling bluff, and could
discern in the dim starlight, up against the eas-
tern horizon, the familiar outlines of the still
towering walls. It was several hour3 before I
could compose myself sufficiently to sleep.

I was aroused next morning by the barking
of a dog, and springing up discovered at the
foot of the bed my friend "Duke," a small mas-
tiff that belonged to one of my partners. He had
attached to his collar a package which on ex-
amination I found to contain a letter and a
weekly paper from his master. The letter read
as follows ;

IN THE SIERRAS 209

"Did you survive the shock of last night? We
were badly frightened for a moment. It must
have done much damage in the cities of the
state. Send Duke back with a note stating
what you would have us bring you in the way
of eatables next Sunday. I send with this the
last weekly Era. Yours, Bruce."

Duke took breakfast with me and then I sent
him back with a list of what they should bring
me on Sunday and a request that they send to
me next morning a pound of steak and a half
pound of sugar, as my stock of those articles
would not last till Sunday. I fastened my note
to his collar and started him back, but he re-
turned twice, after going a few rods, to express,
by prancing around me and licking my hand, his
sorrow at leaving me alone, and finally took a
brisk trot down the trail with a dignfied bearing
that showed he realized the responsibility of his
mission and was proud of it.

The next morning he returned with the arti-
cles I had ordered and remained with me till
Sunday. In fact he was with me nearly all the
time after that and did most of my marketing.
I soon had radishes, lettuce and onions ready for
the table, a fresh bunch of which Duke carried
twice a week to my partners and really took
great delight in the service.

He took a special interest in the irrigating
process. When I raised the reservoir gauge and

210 MY ADVENTURES

let the water out he would follow the head of
the stream into the ditch and across the head of
the patch barking as if to hasten its flow till the
ditch filled and gave out its hundred little rivu-
lets that went leaping down the mountain side
to feed my thirsty crop, then he would sit down
and watch the scene, giving occasionally a low
growl of satisfaction.

Our vegetables grew with astonishing rapidity.
In that warm marl soil, kept moist by daily irri-
gation, they were forced up like mushrooms and
most of them matured within eight weeks from
the time of planting. One variety of the pota-
toes grew a month longer, developing a most
wonderful growth. I cut vines from them that
measured over eight feet in length, and took
them, with a potato that weighed two and one-
half pounds and a radish that weighed a frac-
tion over five pounds to a druggist in Monte
Christo who kept them on exhibition all the fall.

The potato yield was enormous, a veritable
elephant on our hands. We needed, to store for
our own use, only about eight or ten bushels
and our crop amounted to fully three hundred
bushels.

I went back to Whiskey Diggings, but re-
turned in about a month and assisted in harvest-
ing and marketing the potatoes. After storing
what we required for our own use and giving
them to many of our friends, we sold about two

IN THE SIERRAS 211

thousand dollars' worth. Most of these were
conveyed in sacks on mules to the purchasers by
two Mexican packers we had employed ; but I
delivered fifteen or twenty loads myself to the
nearest customers with a small white mule, who,
though as docile and innocent in appearance as a
lamb, tried my patience severely and was a con-
stant source of amusement to me.

All pack mules are cunning enough to expand
their lungs when the pack saddle is being fas-
tened on them, so increasing their normal girth
that it is impossible to draw the surcingle tight
enough to keep the saddle in place without re-
cinching after the load is put on and the mule
has shrunk to its normal size ; and it must be
done quickly then, or they will prevent it by a
second inflation.

My white mule, however, was exceptionally
cunning and had acquired an inflating capacity
that was really marvellous. It was, therefore,
almost impossible to bind her load securely ; and
whenever the girth got a little loose and she
thought it possible for her to dislodge her bur-
den she would deliberately pitch herself off the
trail at the first suitable point, and gathering
her legs under her, roll down the mountain side
like a log till she had so disarranged her load
that it would have to be taken off and repacked.

One afternoon as I was urging her along the
side of a mountain range on a trail that ran a

212 MY ADVENTUEES

few rods above a board flume that conveyed
water along the range to Monte Cristo, she per-
formed one of her acrobatic feats that proved
quite disastrous. We were at a point where the
descent below the trail was very steep, and when
my attention was diverted by a horseman I saw
approaching on the trail in front of me, she
threw herself off the trail head first as if bent
on suicide, with her head between her fore legs,
and rolled like a ball, making four complete
revolutions and finally landing on her back
across the flume, one side of which was crushed
out letting a heavy stream of water on to her
head as it hung down below the flume.

The horseman having witnessed the strange
feat, galloped up and came to my assistance. I
supposed her back and neck were both broken,
but on reaching her found her blowing like a
porpoise to keep the water from her nostrils and
trying to raise her head above the stream. We
quickly unbound the load and rolled her off the
flume, and to our astonishment she got up, shook
herself, and bounding over the flume, scrambled
back to the trail not a whit the worse for the
hazardous tumble. The potatoes though were
so badly damaged that I had to take them back
and exchange for a fresh load.

The displaced flume boards we pried into po-
sition and braced them with stones, partially
checking the waste of water, and I returned in

IN THE SIERRAS 213

the evening with hammer and nails and com-
pleted the repairs.

After our crop was harvested and disposed of
I returned to Whiskey Diggings to spend the
winter. The season was an unusually severe
one, but we managed to spend it very pleasant-
ly in spite of our close confinement and hard
work.

We organized a reading and debating club of
thirty members and sent to San Francisco for
one hundred dollars' worth of books, which, with
our club meetings, deer hunts and snow shoe
coasting, filled our leisure hours and made tol-
erable our gloomy surroundings.

Our club meetings were especially interesting,
and as the debates led to much careful thought
and research we derived lasting benefit from
them. We discussed state politics, the Chinese
question, the slavery question, the Kansas ques-
tion, then of absorbing interest, and many other
matters of general concern.

The following spring was a very busy one
with us. We had kept up the work under
ground without intermission and deposited in
the spacious tunnel house and yard an immense
pile of gold bearing gravel and sand, the washing
of which occupied the whole water season of
four months.

I had then begun to tire of that rough life in

214 MY ADVENTURES

spite of the fascination it had for me, and re-
solved to return to New England and spend a
few years in reviewing my studies and fitting
myself for the profession I had chosen.

I had found that adventurous life profitable to
me in many ways. It had brought me in close
contact with a representative element of every
civilized councry of the globe, extending my
knowledge of the world and liberalizing and en-
larging my views of life, and had also materially
improved my physical condition. I therefore
felt well satisfied with the return I had received
for the privations and hardships endured.

And yet to sever those ties of pleasant associ-
ation never again to renew them,to leave forever
those mountains and forests and streams that
had been in all these years of my seclusion a con-
stant joy and inspiration to me, and to say a
last farewell to the sturdy companions who had
so long shared my joys and sorrows, all cost me
a severe pang of regret that time has never quite
assuaged ;but as in fancy I wander back through
the dim maze of intervening years and Linger
among those still vivid scenes I melt to tears
over the boyish memories they revive.

Paugus decided to accompany me back to New
England, and one bright June morning we took
passage together at LaPorte on the " Flying
Dutchman," as the fast mail coach was called,

IN THE SIERRAS 216

and at a speed of ten miles an hour glided down
rough mountain ranges, through shaded gorges
and across silent vales nestling among the hills,
on to the broad plains of the Sacramento, to
take on again the dreaded trammels and burden
of conventional life.

THE END.

&

JUN 15 r.