Silverland

SILYEELAND.

SILVEELAND.

BY THE

AUTHOE OF "GUY LIVINGSTONE," &c.

iv

Difficile est, propriS communia dicere.

LONDON :
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.

1873.

LONDON :

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

SILVEELAND.

CHAPTER I.

ON a certain afternoon in last October, we drove
seawards over the Cornish uplands. It was the
seventh day of the week, and over all things there
brooded a very Sabbath calm ; we were out of ear-
shot of the stream-ripples in the dell ; even the
leaves were silent in the covert-belt where we
sprung the first woodcock of the season yester-even ;
there was never a wave or rustle in the ferns and
grasses fringing the high field-banks ; and the air
was still as a dream.

Ere long, the silence was troubled with a sound,
vague and faint from distance at first, but waxing
in volume and distinctness, till it might be likened
to the beat of a mighty drum, heavily muffled —
such an one as used to be smitten long ago in the

B

939865

2 SILVERLAND.

courtyard of the Great Khan when the battali
Tartary was set in array. Said my companioi
answering the question of my eyes, —

" The ground-sea is on to-day. There will
trouble with the nets, before morning/'

I did not wonder that he said it gravely ; for,
as the hop-bins are to those whose ensign is the
White Horse of Hengist, and the wine-vats to
the Rhinelander, so are the pilchard-seines to every
true Cornishman bred and born within hail of the
coast.

Soon, we came to a narrow gorge, trending shore-
wards so steeply, that at sight thereof an up-country
horse might have sweated from, fear ; but our hardy
moorland galloway scuttled down it without break-
ing his trot, till we halted on the wide stretch
of ribbed brown sand underlying the cliff-walls.
A sight awaited us there — to me, at least, wonder-
ful and strange.

On the ocean — we were looking over the At-
lantic, remember, with never a rock or islet nearer
than Cape Race — there was no more sign of storm
than in the air ; for the sullen heave and welter
in the offing was not discernible from where we
stood. Only two or three thin white lines of foam,

SILVEKLAND. 3

following each other regularly, showed that there
was stir in the waters where they began to shoal :
but each great billow, on reaching a certain point,
upheaved itself with a motion, slow and solemn,
yet inexpressibly suggestive of strength, till it was
reared like a wall betwixt us arid the low westering
sun ; and then, curving ponderously, fell with a
dead massive shock, that seemed to make the very
sands shake and quiver. And the sound. Well — I
have listened to many voices of the sea ; to the hiss
of the under-tow, ravaging pebble ridges; to the
rattle of the surf, grinding great boulders as the
mill grinds corn ; to the crash of waves repulsed
from granite bulwarks ; to the thunder of billows,
penetrating into the bowels of the land through
caverns that have never seen the sun : but,
before or since, I have heard nothing like this
sombre monotone.

After a while, we considered what manner of
turmoil it must have been in mid-ocean, of which
those rollers were but the faint outward ripple ;
and, speaking of the humours of the Atlantic,
I called to mind a certain storm wherein I was
buffeted some eight years agone — the storm that
proved the sea- worthiness of the Monitors, off Cape

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4 SILVERLAND.

Hatteras, with fatal issue. And so we fell to talking
of men and scenes, encountered in that same luckless
journey ; and to my comrade's question, " Would
you like to see them all again ? " I made answer,
carelessly, as one is wont to speak of any scheme
utterly vague and impracticable, —

" I should like it of all things."

The subject dropped then ; and, during a fort-
night of better wild shooting than has often fallen
to my lot, it was not again recurred to. Turnips
thrive right well on the light upland soil ; and
the birds — plentiful enough for reasonable desires-
will actually lie, even in late October, to steady
setters ; furthermore, snipe and fowl are not among
the myths of North Cornwall. Therefore, as you
may guess, I carried away grateful memories when
I set my face eastwards : but the memory of
those words spoken on the sea-shore, was not
among them. I was much taken aback when, in
the January ensuing, my host appeared before me,
and quoth lie,—

" Have you forgotten what you said, that Sunday
afternoon down in Trevenna Cove ? I must start
within a fortnight for the West — for the very far
West. Am I to go alone ? "

SILVERLAND. 5

Albeit I fully endorsed his purpose when I heard
the nature of his errand, I fell into a great per-
plexity. Travel across the Atlantic and the
Kocky Mountains in mid- winter, with all possible
advantages of convoy thrown in, is not tempt-
ing ; and, under ordinary circumstances, I should
surely have declined with thanks, and without
parley. But there are comrades — and comrades—
you see ; and, since the worthies who went out with
Pendragon to war, I think there has not breathed
stauncher backer, in field, feast, or fray, than he
who stood looking on me, then, with wistful eyes.

So I said I would think about it.

Now most men — and many women, for the matter
of that — know what such a concession comes to.
Thus it befell that, on about the sunniest morning
of a darksome January, Tressilian and I — his is a
name of travel, of course — stood on the deck of the
good ship ' China,' outward bound.

Fair weather kept us company all down the
Channel ; and we made smcli good way, that,
rounding Eoche's Point early in the forenoon,
we were forced to anchor for some hours, wait-
ing the mails. The tardy steam-tug took us on
shore, too late to visit any of the beauties of the

6 SILVERLAND.

harbour. There is nothing to see, immediately
around the railway station ; and we saw it tho-
roughly. Some half-dozen passengers — full of
wassail, as it seemed, though the day was yet young
— drove up and down on low-backed cars, out-
yelling their charioteers. Watching such enthu-
siasts, you begin to understand, how the swings
and merry-go-rounds at fairs and races are filled.
Eight years had brought no changes to the dull
squalid landing-place ; there was the same beggar
with his hoarse blessings, ten for sixpence, that
sounded so like malisons, — the same harridan,
proffering sickly shamrocks, — the same colleen.,
with dusky elf-locks, and broad blue eyes a fleur
de tete, cackling treasonable ditties in a subdued
treble, as though in fear of instant arrest ; albeit
she is probably subsidised by our indulgent rulers,
to ensure the emigrant's latest sniff of Irish air
having a flavour of faction. The farce does not re-
pay a second visit ; and we were well content to set
foot on the c China ' once more.

The clouds began to bank up as we weighed
anchor, and there was menace of foul weather in
the watery moon. Before we passed Cape Clear,
the good ship had given us a foretaste of the ' lively '

I

SILVERLAND. 7'

qualities for which she is renowned ; and, when
dawn broke on the morrow, a sullen ?grey sky
brooded over a leaden sea.

My experience of nausea is entirely vicarious ;
nevertheless, I am acquainted with no such detest-
able winter quarters as the mid- Atlantic. There,
you soon realise that ( unrest in rest ' is not such a
paradox after all. Without any pretence to sea-
manship, there are many who feel a kind of perj
sonal interest in a battle with winds and waves,
under sail ; but you can hardly throw your heart
into the efforts of mere machinery. The log — sup-
posing you have no bets on the result — resolves
itself into a question of knots and hours : if the
ship has made extra good time, she has done her
duty — no more ; if otherwise, the British grumbler,
keeping well out of earshot of the Captain,
asserts himself very freely. An ungracious, un-
christian frame of mind ; but what would you
have ? The struggle with garments and bath, at-
tending each rising up and lying down, — the
struggle over meals, when the dishes, despite their
leading-strings, tumble about in an idiotic infantile
fashion, — the struggle with an atmosphere innocent
of fresh air, and laden with the stale odours of

SILVERLAND.

baked meats, — the struggle with the sloping slip-
pery deck, when you make a pretence of taking-
exercise, — the eternal tremor and grind of the
screw, that seems to vibrate through nerves and
brain at last ; all these minor miseries make up
rather a high trial of the 'old Adam.' A practical
divine, I believe, once estimated that "an even
temper was worth 500/. a year." According to
this tariff, and from this source alone, Tressilian's
income ought to be about 2000/.," paid quarterly.
But even he succumbed to the malign influences,
ere long, in the form of a mild melancholy, which
would have been quite touching, if one had had any
compassion to spare.

The monotony of ' strong head winds from the
west ' may, occasionally, be broken by a real tem-
pest ; and this diversion we did not lack. On the
sixth forenoon, during a treacherous gleam of sun-
shine, the mercury began to fall, faster than it had
ever done during our captain's long experience of
these seas.

Then, with a sudden flaw,
Round veered the gusty ska^Y ;

and, at nightfall, we were running at full steam-
power, and with every stitch of canvas set that

SILVERLAND. 9

could safely be carried, before a furious south-easterly
gale. The deck being impossible, and the saloon
intolerable, I was 'bouning myself to rest,' seated
on our scanty couch, when there came a lurch of
lurches. At the moment, I was about as helpless as
Agamemnon when he was stricken by the felon
blow — being indeed entangled «z>i XITWI; and,
being hurled bodily across the cabin, I was only
brought up by the woodwork of the opposite berth,
with ' serious damage to figure-head.' An hour
later — lying swathed in wet bandages, stupid, and
still half stunned — I was aware of a shock, a crash,
and a quiver of the ship from stern to stem ; and
my servant, entering hastily, told us that "the
saloon was knee-deep in water." Since, some years
ago, lie first followed my fortunes, I had not seen
his sedate countenance seriously perturbed ; and,
with a certain satisfaction, I now noted a ruffling
of its serenity. Though we were going all sixteen
knots, one of the billows ravening in our track had
got more way on yet ; and, tumbling inboard over
the quarter, stormed the saloon through a shattered
panel ; crushing in the roof of the wheel-house to
boot, and knocking a quartermaster or so completely
out of time. However, the gale, as if satisfied with

10 fclLVERLANI).

having proved its power, began thenceforth to abate ;.
and, though we never saw the sun, or rode on a
level keel, till we had left the Newfoundland banks
far behind, the Atlantic refrained from further
violence.

Our fellow-voyagers were a very level lot : the com-
mercial element, of course, largely predominating ;
for few, at this season, travel for their pleasure.
Yet we made some pleasant acquaintances — notably
that of an American ex-minister, who, in long
sojourn in the sunny South, had nearly lost his
nationality. The slow soft voice, languid gentleness
of manner, and thorough insouciwwe, savoured far
more of Castile than Kentucky. Also, he had lived
in close intimacy with the luckless Maximilian ; and,
though loth to broach the subject, he told us enough
to revive regrets for as good and gallant a gentle-
man as any that have died fur Ehr und Reclit.

The passenger-list held another name, known to
all who have perused a certain famous 'Diary/
Here was the irrepressible Wigfall — whilome Con-
federate senator and general ; now, as a sardonic
Yankee put it, " loafing around on the mining
tack ; " but still

Impiger, iracundus, inexoralnlis, acer,

SILVEKLAND. 11

as when he bearded our Arch-Special under Fort
Sumter's guns. This ' outrage/ perchance, brought
him evil luck ; for the world seems to have gone
hardly with him since, and amongst his own country-
men he had little honour. Some of these last looked
on that inroad of the sea as a kind of judgment on
his rebel talk, that then chanced to be in full swing.
Nevertheless, an honest heart, I warrant it ; and
none of us Britishers wished him other than good
speed down in Colorado.

At the close of Atlantic voyages, certain ceremonials
are seldom omitted, unless from stress of weather. All
these were duly performed, — the chorus-singing — the
mock trial (the criminal was represented by an ' Is-
raelite indeed,' the like of whom I have not seen off
the stage) — the lottery of the pilot-boat's number—
the vote of thanks and confidence to the Captain ;
albeit this last was more than a mere formality.
Early on the fourteenth morning we sighted Sandy
Hook.

CHAPTER II.

THE low shores were deeply fringed with snow
and rime ; the bare branches on the ridge of Staten
Island stood out sharp against a steel-blue sky ; and,
crossing the New Jersey ferry, we encountered more
than one ice-floe driving seaward from the Hudson.
Thus, we began to realise that there might be germs
of truth in those rumours of trouble in the far West
which, on the landing stage in the Mersey, sounded
like idle words ; and these misgivings were strength-
ened that same evening.

We were scarcely housed at ' The Brevoort/-
cosy, and full of Apician appliances as of old, — when
two or three of the kindly folk, for whom we brought
letters, came to make us welcome. From these we
learned that, for fully three weeks, no pioneers had
been found strong or bold enough to force the en-
trenchments within which the Erl King held his

SILVERLAND. 13

own against all comers, laying embargo even on the
mails. The limits of the blockade were ill defined :
men spoke of it vaguely as stretching westwards
from Cheyenne — the most formidable obstacles lying
along the Laramie plains, and on the slopes of the
Wahsatch range. Provoking news, certainly, for
those who were bound to press forward ; yet the en-
forced delay lacked not solace.

I think, one ought to be unfettered by any busi-
ness or mission, to thoroughly appreciate the hospi-
talities of the Empire City. It is so pleasant to
believe, that there is nothing venal or official in the
frank and free courtesies proffered at every turn.
I do not speak of banquetings and junketings alone ;
though a dinner at the Manhattan Club, prepared
by an artist whose salary might have lured Ude
across the Atlantic — were that Chief still in the flesh
— is a joy to be remembered ; but of the considera-
tion and indulgence shown even to the prejudices of
the stranger.

This, remember, was an exceptional time. The
controversy concerning the Alabama claims was
in its first bitterness ; the ultra-Eepublican press
teemed with warlike leaders ; and the sporting
editor of the Herald had backed up his sensationals

SILVERLAND.

with a wager of 3000 to 2000 dollars on cartels
being exchanged with England within six short
weeks. Nevertheless, in not one of the clubs
whereof we were incontinently made free — in not
one of the houses in which we were made welcome,
—did we hear aught to disquiet the most patriotic
Britisher ; and we all know with what promptitude,
especially when on foreign soil, act tit sua cortum
Taurus. And we communed with lawyers, whose
opinions carry weight, not in the courts alone ;
with senators, who seldom lack heedful audiences
when they catch the Vice-President's eye; with
soldiers, whose renown dates back beyond the civil
war; and with more than one editor, never sus-
pected of Anglican proclivities. Furthermore,
Tressilian, in his legislative capacity, was a tempting
mark for argument.

That cloud lias happily vanished, like others that
seemed pregnant with storm ; but, if the tempest
had broken loose — setting commercial interests
wholly aside — I verily believe there would have
been heaviness at more true and wise hearts on
that side of the Atlantic than on ours.

It is unfair to read the American aristocracy —
using the word in its original, not in its applied and

SILVERLANI). 1 5

conventional sense — by the light of journalism or
platform-oratory ; especially on the verge of a
General Election. And even for the 'tall talk'
there is some excuse, when you remember what an
infinite variety of personal interests are at stake1.
Perhaps, the candidates for the Presidency them-
selves are not more keenly alive to the result, than
the postmaster of Muddy (Jreck. or the collector at
Poverty Flat. Like the ring in the wedding-cake,
the omnipotent ' dollar ' lies at the core of almost
every < and convention. 'Needs must when

the devil drives/ applies not to Transatlantic
politicians alone ; and, at such a season, Mammon
rs himself with a will.

A very brief stay in Xe\v York will convince you

that the temptations to money-making must be quite

-rrong as when — licctr «x7 ^asWx — was penned.

Paris, Naples, and Vienna would hardly be selected

for purposes of retrenchment ; but, in comparison of

-tliness, the Empire City wins, with something in
hand. It needs time, experience, and ingenuity to
procure any article, necessary or superfluous, at a
moderate price ; excepting, perhaps, oysters, apples,
and scats in street-cars; P>ut these edibles alone
will not satisfy all constitutions ; and, if a man

16

SILVEELAND.

could lodge on the tramways, he must still be
clothed in civilized fashion. The tariff at some
hotels and boarding-houses does not sound so-
exorbitant ; but liquors rule fabulously high ; and
' quenchers/ at fifty cents, will tell at the year's end.
After careful calculation, you realise that a dollar
about represents an English shilling — rather an up-
setting of one's ideas of exchange.

At every turn, you meet evidences of overweening
wealth and luxury. Taking up the * Ledger ' — a
serious journal, specially adapted for the perusal of
families and schools — you find its proprietor proffer-
ing sums that might have bought Favonius, before
a leaf dropped from his chaplet, for any trotter that
can beat Dexter's time ; and this is no gambler,,
remember, but a decent 'sponsible burgess, setting
his face against public matches and wagering like
a very flintstone. Calling in Fifth Avenue, you
learn that the morning dress, that does ample justice
to the svelte figure, is fresh from the Eue de la Paix ;
and that your hostess " thinks it almost the cheapest
plan, on the whole/' Fancy an economy, with
"Worth as its fountain-head ! Dining at Delmonico's
—excellent well, no doubt — if allowed a glimpse of
the bill, you will find your share of meat, drink, and

SILVERLAND. 17

tobacco amount to about eight sovereigns sterling.
For the transit from the club to your hotel — a brief
bowshot for a practised archer — whilst the night is
yet young, your hackman demands a couple of
dollars or so, without a shade of compunction on
his ignoble face, or a twinkle of mirth in his lowering
eyes. [Parenthetically, I wish someone, well versed
in acclimatisation, would explain why the Irish car-
driver, who had ever a jest — albeit somewhat mild
and stale — on his lips, and would liever have earned
a crown at a meet of the 'Ward' than a pound-
note at a prayer-meeting, is transformed, by a few
gulps of American air, into a covetous, sullen savage,
with rather less notion of humour or amenity than
attaches to his Parisian compeer.] If you ' plunge '
at all in gloves, on the Jerome Park, or other
race-track, and the good things come off wrong,
you will find your account not much easier
to settle than after a disastrous Newmarket
meeting.

To be sure, the money that circulates so rapidly
is oft-times lightly won ; for the audacity of our
' bulls' and c bears ' pales before the ordinary operations
of Wall Street — not taking into account such crises
as the Black Friday, or the recent conflict over

18

SILVERLAND.

Erie's. I doubt if the financial history of the worl
can match, at least in rapidity and subtlety of
construction, the stupendous fortune now owned by
Vanderbilt, of whom more hereafter. But — taking
all in — New York, enticing as it may be for brief
sojourn, is scarcely the abiding-place for a pauper
troubled with a conscience.

The papers, at that time, were still redolent of the
Fisk tragedy ; indeed, scarce a day passed without
a legal wrangle about the assassin's impending trial.
But Society seemed somewhat weary — perhaps, some-
what ashamed — of the subject; only a very few
vouchsafed contemptuous pity to the dead, such as
might have been felt in old times when a knavish
court-buffoon had come to a violent end.

About the City and Custom House frauds, how-
ever, and the like misdemeanors, people were
thoroughly in earnest ; and the public was not apt
to err on the side of clemency. At any rate, the
huge mansion has a fair chance of being swept, if
not garnished ; and, whilst the ' other seven ' are
barred out, the motley household may hope to liv<
cleanly.

Our courteous hosts backed their invitations with
warnings, against the folly of trusting to the tender

SILVERLAND. 19

mercies of the Union Pacific ; and, as a purely un-
commercial traveller, I was moved to tarry amongst
these convivial prophets. But the chiefs of our
company, in their austere virtue, decided otherwise.
So, on the sixth night we set our faces towards
the West.

The party had been gradually augmented, till we
counted eleven in all ; the latest addition being a
bride, whose matronhood was not a full week old.
Would even Mrs. Malaprop have approved of such
a honeymoon as awaited this intrepid couple ? The
other notables comprised a Professor of great re-
pute, studious and careful, yet brisk and gay of
demeanour withal under each and every trial; a
Senator, who, before he represented his State, had
been a luminary of Western law ; a Lieutenant, B.K,
with whom we had formed alliance on the voyage
out ; and last, though certainly not least, the eminent
person who for the next two months was to be our
guide and guardian. Very soon, in honour of his
wondrous talent as director and purveyor, he was
dubbed ' Commodore ; ' and many titles, civil and
military, on that side of the Atlantic, are less justly
earned.

I once sojourned at Homburg, in a right pleasant

c 2

20

SILVERLAND.

company, now scattered widely over the earth — anc
beneath it, for that matter. For first and foremost
was a famous inditer of prose and rhyme ; and,
years ago,

Multis ille bonis flebilis, occidit.

Like most men of that grand stamp, he was merry
as a school-boy in his holiday ; and, wasting not his
substance at the tables, was free to enjoy to the
uttermost the varied entertainments. Partly in jest,
partly in earnest, he was wont to avow a grateful
and implicit trust in the Administration, who pur-
veyed so liberally for their guests. One morning, a
comparative stranger required his opinion as to
weather prospects. Folding his hands meekly,
' with a child-like and bland-like smile/ answered
the Professor, —

" I cannot say. But I shall be content with what-
ever my ' good gentlemen ' are pleased to provide."

Into some such beatific frame of mind, before we
had been long under the Commodore's tutelage,
both Tressilian and I subsided; taking no more
thought of the morrow, so far as transport and food
were concerned, than if we had been a couple of
errant sparrows. The traveller, indeed, who would

SILVERLAND. 21

grumble at a Palace Car, so conducted, had
best bide at home. It is the very sublimation
of the old vetturino system ; omitting the venal
element and preliminary fight over the contract.

We left the streets of New York ankle-deep in
mire ; but it was mid- winter again when, on the
following forenoon we stood over against Niagara.
A white haze, denser than the thickest spray-mist,
veiling the Fa]ls nearly to their crest, clung to the
cliffs on either hand ; through which, rank above
rank, glimmered the giant ice-spears. The view
upwards from the Suspension Bridge was somewhat
blurred and dim : but there was reality enough in
the awful turmoil immediately beneath it and
below. The encroaching shore-ice seemed rather
to provoke than allay the fury of the current, that
in a few seconds ground huge bergs into clots of
seething foam ; and this side of the great picture
was assuredly more marvellous than when I looked
on it last under a July sun.

The stunted woodlands were all a-glitter, and
rime lay thick on the hungry tilths, but not a deep
drift appeared anywhere; and one or two of our
party, arguing from the average of Canadian winters,
began to hope that rumour had exaggerated the

22 SILVERLAND.

difficulties farther west. At Detroit, however, which
we reached about midnight, I fancy the last of these
illusions vanished.

The passage of the St. Clair river — the strait
betwixt the inland seas of Huron and Erie — wTas
decidedly sensational. By dint of incessant driving
to and fro at the top of her thousand horse-power,
the steam-ferry had maintained her right of way ;
but, before our train had been run aboard in a
double section, the floes had closed in ; and, as her
mighty bows grided through, there arose an angry
roar of tormented ice ; whilst great splinters and
fragments leapt up against her sides, like prairie
wolves besetting a buffalo bull.

A faulty axle — the first of many such disasters-
caused us to miss the Western train at Chicago ; so
that we were constrained to abide there the third
night. The delay was easy to endure ; for what we
saw that afternoon was worth a greater sacrifice.

On one side of the picture was the sorry image
of a fair city, lying in a ruinous heap ; but on the
other was such a presentment of commercial courage
and energy, as, I believe, lacks parallel in this world
of ours. From amongst hillocks of shivered stones,
from amongst tottering walls riven and distorted by

SILVERLAND. 23

the strange fantasies of fire, from ghastly hollows
of foundations laid bare, went up the diligent
sound of trowel and hammer ; nor was the frost,
that keeps most masons at home, any hindrance
to these sturdy craftsmen. We saw one six-storied
block of good substantial brickwork, that was roofed
within eleven weeks of the digging of its founda-
tions. One of the proprietors of the Sherman
House — a hostel which has few superiors in the
West — averred to us that his old home was still
blazing, when he completed the purchase of the
building in which we found good entertainment;
and, on the first night after the flames abated, he
was able to shelter therein some three hundred
homeless heads.

I was told — not by a native, but by one of the
few strangers who watched Chicago throughout her
terrible ordeal — that, for just one day after the
actual panic had subsided, people sat down, sul-
lenly, face to face with the utter ruin. Thence-
forward, a healthy elasticity was almost universal —
each man setting his hand to his appointed work, in
the spirit of the steadfast Consul who 'never de-
spaired of the Eepublic/ Assuredly, ere long, the
Queen of the West will lift up her brow, vauntingly

24 SILVEllLAND.

as heretofore ; though, for years to come, it mus
bear seams and scars.

There was pointed out to us one strange caprice
of the Destroyer. In the very centre of the quarter
that suffered most severely, stands a dwelling of fair
proportions, built entirely of wood, with a tiny grove
around it meant rather for ornament than shelter.
When the flames came near, the family fled, like their
fellows ; and returned, when the tyranny was over-
past, to look upon the ashes of their homestead. It
bore neither scorch nor scathe ; the foliage of the
limes was scarce more shrivelled than is usual in arid
autumn ; and there the house still abides — opposite
a stately stone church, riven and blasted from spire
to threshold, — such a wonder as, perchance, has not
been matched since the time of the Three Children.

When time is of such vital importance, it is un-
fair to criticise too severely builders' handiwork ;
yet one would have thought that people, still half
crushed by such a disaster, would have been more
careful to avert its recurrence. If pitch and asphalte
are excluded, there is still too much of flimsy brick-
work, too little of iron and stone ; and, were I
director of an insurance office, I should not, even
now, be over-anxious for business in Chicago.

SILVERLAND. 25

The waterworks, however, which, with great
damage, barely escaped min, have been greatly
strengthened and enlarged ; the supplies, drawn
through a tunnel running far out into Lake Michi-
gan, are quite inexhaustible ; and, after such a warn-
ing, even supine officials are not likely to be taken
unawares.

Amongst other signs of reviving commerce, is a
tolerably brisk trade in relics. No stranger is suf-
fered to depart without investing in one or more of
the miniature bells made, nominally, out of the
metal of that one which went on tolling in the
Court House, till it was half molten. In almost
every Western town and hamlet, you hear their
tinkling ; and the original must have multiplied
itself, in the miraculous fashion of

Peter's nose, and Bridget's toes,
And Apollouius' hair.

Early on the morrow we embarked on the ' Ar-
lington/ which, for the next two months, was to
be more or less our home. The interior of these
Palace Cars, I suppose, has been often enough de-
scribed,— the saloon, bright with polished woods,
gilding, and harmonious colours ; opening into state
rooms that you may turn into hermitages if you

26

S1LVEKLAND.

will, — the cosy tables, so temptingly spread at meal
hours, — the compact caboose, more wonderful in its
faculties of production and reproduction than any
conjuror's hat, — the sleeping appliances of sliding
seats and descending panels, from which arise a
double tier of couches decorously curtained, more
than spacious enough for the repose of ordinary
mortality. But it needs long and actual experience
of these institutions, to do full justice to their
merits.

We were, perhaps, exceptionally favoured. Pur-
veyors like the Commodore are rare ; and one
might not always find such amiable and amenable
officials as the conductor of the Arlington, or
waiters deft and zealous as his sable subordinates.
Nevertheless c Henry ' — meekest and merriest of
created beings by nature — was, when the devil of
drink possessed him, too often overcome by an insane
desire of ' putting a head ' on the world in general,
and on his coloured brethren, in particular. He had
repented tearfully, and, at our intercession, had been
forgiven seven times at least, when the Commo-
dore, refusing again to temper justice with mercy,
left him in ward amongst the Mormons. I trust
that the wife, whose letters or silence were the in-

SILVEBLAND. 27

variable excuse for his backslidings, has, long ere
this, taken the simple sinner back to her ample
bosom.

Smoothly, if not swiftly, we swept on through
the rolling corn-lands of Illinois ; and there first
began to realise the marvels of Western agriculture.
The rail traverses, we were told, one maize-plot of a
thousand acres, in a ring-fence ; and it was easy to
believe this ; for, on either hand, far beyond ken,
bare stalks peered above the shallow snow. Fur-
ther south in the State, there is farming on a yet
more colossal scale ; but we saw quite enough, to
feel assured that the reports which have reached
Europe fall rather short of the truth.

The price of land varies, of course, in proportion
to its remoteness from town or rail — perhaps from
twenty to twenty-five dollars an acre would be a
fair average, after Chicago is left some score of miles
behind. In Iowa — scarcely inferior in its fertile
resources — prices are still more moderate. Taking
this tariff, and allowing that it is worth something
to abide a little while longer under the old Dominion,
I admire rather the energy than the wisdom of the
settler who prefers hewing his way, inch by inch,
through a Canadian clearing, to the trenching of

23 SILVERLAND.

soft prairie loam, where neither stock nor stone wil
blunt a ploughshare. A year ago, one of our party
watched an Iowa farmer breaking up virgin soil :
the first furrow ran straight, for hard on a league,
before the team was turned.

Crossing the Mississippi at Burlington, we rolled
on, without notable let or hindrance, till Council
BluEs towered on our right. A pile-bridge, chiefly
supported by Missouri ice, took us into Omaha,—
a dreary depressing town enough ; though, they say,
its future looms large, and it can boast already of
having made the fortunes of George Francis Train.
Here we halted another night for repairs ; and, hence-
forward, time-tables became things of the past.

To English ears a snow-blockade may sound a
small matter, of lighter interest than a single grave
casualty. Do you know what it means out
here ?

It means nothing less than utter stagnation of
commerce, involving ruin to many, privation and
distress to all — a moral twilight, during which none
can commune with his fellows, save by use of the
overtaxed wires, that often prove faithless to their
trust. Figures in these parts are not always to be
swallowed ' unsalted ' ; but, after careful inquiry, we

SILVERLAND. 29

could not believe that the estimate of eight million
dollars, set on the merchandise locked up in this
fatal spring, was much exaggerated. On the hard-
ships, perils, and sore sickness — mortal in not a few
cases — endured by those who were actually- in thrall,
I have not space to dwell; yet, if you had tra-
versed a car, in which forty human beings had
been cabined for over a week, with every outlet
barred against the cold, cooking their scanty victuals
on a couple of greasy stoves, and sleeping almost
pell-mell, you might have thought this last item not
the lightest in the heavy score.

And with wThom is reckoning to be made ?

The scope of Western malison is so extensive, that
it may be doubted if the Directors of the Union
Pacific have deserved all the strong language levelled
•at them of late. There is, of course, the excuse of
the exceptional season ; but this will scarce suffice.
The clemency of nine winters, gave the authorities
no right to reckon on perpetual immunity ; and the
troubles that have crushed them ought to have
been foreseen when the first sleeper was laid. So
say their accusers, with no mean show of truth.

It was 'shapen in wickedness/ this unlucky
line ; for its chief promoters were deep in a certain

30

SILVERLAND.

Credit Mobilier, which, after a brief, unhealthy
blaze, flickered out with an ill-savour of dishonesty.
So, as the vast subsidies poured in — forty-five
millions from government, besides land grants, and
large monies raised on bonds — they flowed through
the hands of one Direction into the coffers of the
other, in the guise of accommodating contracts.
Then, naturally, came the question, how to accom-
plish the absolutely necessary work at the least cost,
preserving a fair outward seeming. °

A rail over the Eocky Mountains.

Hath it not a brave sound, even in these days of
engineering Anakim \ Bierstadt's famous picture
conjures up a chaos of torrents, cliffs, and canons ;
and we marvel at his hardihood who first brought
level to bear thereon. The great painter is doubt-
less accurate to a leaf and a line ; but his brush was
wielded in the inner heart of these hills. Travellers
through many lands become familiar with disillu-
sions : yet cannot I recal such an imposture as these
same Kocky Mountains, approached by railway from
the east. From Omaha to Sherman, is all against
the collar ; but the rise is so gradual, that there
seems no change in the dull champaign, adust or

* Vide Appendix A.

SILVERLAND. 31

hoary according to the season ; you are always
looking at the same rim of low steep cliffs on the
far horizon — at the same muddy creeks, welter-
ing through stunted willows. You mount nine
thousand feet above sea-level, without encountering
as much broken ground as lies round Aldershot ;
and the grades, with a very few exceptions, would
be child's play to a skilful engineer.

The Directors might have defied King Winter, if,
at the beginning, they could have hardened their
hearts, like their rivals of the Central Pacific. The
cost of forty-three miles of nearly continuous sheds,
even with timber felled on the spot, rather dwarfs
that of the flimsy plank-fences, hardly stiff enough
to stop a clever hunter, let alone snow- waves sweep-
ing over scores of miles. An official, high in autho-
rity, averred to us that, for less than half a million
of dollars, cuttings might be deepened, embankments
raised, and bulwarks fortified, so as to make the line
comparatively safe. Therefore, to some extent, out
of their own mouths these men are judged.

There has been a change of direction of ]ate ;
and Vanderbilt is said to control the road. Under
the iron sceptre of this truculent old despot, much
may perchance be amended. When abuses have

32 SILVERLAND.

come to a certain pass, there is much profit in
tyranny.

We reached Cheyenne, 500 miles from Omaha,
without grave mishap ; and, during the mid -day
halt, made our first acquaintance with Western
jewellery. Some chains and bracelets, of delicate
fragile workmanship, would have seemed more
in place at Genoa, or in the old Palais Eoyal, than
here, on the skirts of the wilderness. But, side by
side with these, were ponderous gimmals, on which
might fitly have been inscribed—

For the Amal, Amalric's son
Smid, Troll's son, made me.

The miner, who has made his ' pile,' has grand
Gothic tastes, in more ways than one ; and likes to
see the ruddy metal glitter royally, both on his own
person, and on that of his lawful — or lawless — love.
Some of the watches, heavily chased in solid gold,
would have outweighed any ship's chronometer.
But the chief temptation to us Britishers were the
moss-agates — quite the loveliest of their kind I
have ever seen. The fairy sprays are so perfectly
defined, that it is hard to believe real vegeta-
tion is not shrined in the crystal. Luckily, the
best specimens were unset ; so, after much embar-

SILVERLAND. 33

rassment of choice, we were able to please our
fancies at no ruinous cost.

As we were about to start, a train came in which
had been blockaded, for some days, near Sherman.
There was scant time to talk : but the Eastward-
bound travellers seemed strangely sullen and taciturn.
A week later we should not have wondered at such
churlishness. There was some sardonic laughter
when one of our company asked, in his simplicity
— " If there was a chance of our getting right
through ? "

" You'll hear all about it at Laramie," the other
conductor shouted through his grimy, unkempt
beard. And so we went each our own way.

That night's halt was at Sherman, the very
highest point of the Union Pacific line. Our Pro-
fessor's barometers, carefully collated, made us 9150
feet above the sea-level. Crossing a deep rugged
ravine, early on the morrow, near the Black Hills
(the rocks were the very reddest of granite), we got
our first and last taste of all the e savage grandeur '
we had looked to find hereabouts. And so, through
ever deepening snow-cuttings, we crept on to
Laramie — long familiar to us by name.

Six trains lay in port here ; and on the morrow

34 SILVEELAND.

the whole Imge caravan set forward — the intelligent
Superintendent " hoping that, with luck, we might
fetch Ogden within the week." But he looked almost
too intelligent as he spoke ; and there was some-
thing ominous in his courteous advice to such as had
letters to post, " not to hurry themselves." More-
over, we discovered that the provision-train in at-
tendance carried a full month's provender.

Constantly slackening speed, often stopping, not
seldom backing a furlong or so, our carriage sides
grating and rasping along the high snow-walls, we
made a kind of progress, till, at sundown, some
forty miles from Laramie, we came to a full
halt.

On the period of rebuke and blasphemy ensuing
it is not pleasant to dwell ; though it was certainly
an ( experience ' in its way.

There could be no fear of privation in a Palace Car,
chartered and commanded by the Commodore. The
prairie-hens, and other delicacies laid in at Chicago,
held out bravely ; there was wealth of all manner of
drink, simple and compounded; and, whether by day
or night, our sable servitors were ' all there/ Steady
whist, at dollar points, was usually available ; varied
by occasional plunges in the perilously fascinating

SILVERLAND. 35

"Poker/ On one occasion, I remember, we sat
down — ' just to while away an hour before turning
in : ' we were still c whiling,' when, almost simulta-
neously, through the curtained window of our state
room peered in the pale winter sun, and the scan-
dalised face of the" bride. There was no lack of
light literature on board ; furthermore, two or three
of our company had stories of personal adventure
to narrate, with a real ring in them, which they told
graphically.

Here, I first began to understand the intense
bitterness of feud which prevails, and, in spite of
preachers and politicians, must prevail along the
Indian frontier. The chief spokesman on this sub-
ject, though he had, of necessity, been out more
than once on the foray, seemed, by nature,
little prone to take offence, or think evil of his
neighbour : no wild roysterer, or vaunting Draw-
cansir ; but a gentle, domestic being, whose thoughts,
even in his schemes of profit, turned oftenest, I
am sure, towards the pleasant homestead, just
without the hum of San Francisco, where his
young wife sat alone. Directly this theme was
broached, the man seemed utterly transformed ; his
quiet face would flush darkly, whilst an evil light

D 2

36 SILVEELAND.

came into his eyes, and liis discourse — contrary to
its usual tenor — was larded with strange oaths.

" There's only one good Indian ; and that's a
dead one" — was the essence of his simple creed ; and
I believe it to be shared by many, not really harder
of heart than the mass of the humanitarians.

There is not a little of the ' platform ' about all
this philanthropy, you must remember; and it is
tainted occasionally by the spirit of lucre to boot.
The chief ' sympathisers ' stand, perhaps, above
suspicion ; but Indian agents, unless they are belied,
are less scrupulous than the average of public func-
tionaries ; and it may be doubted if the full tale of
the subsidies — chiefly of goods — voted annually,
ever reaches the Redskin. The fraud, not the good
intent, is set down in the account ; and * Spotted
Dog,' or l Flying Cloud,' or whatever other name
the chief rejoices in, leaves the Agency with more
malice than gratitude at his sullen heart.

To judge the question fairly, you must clear your
mind of the Mohican ideal. It would be easier
to find Phyllis and Corydon in our Black Country,
than Uncas or his sire in Nebraska or Arizona.
Possibly, the virtue of stoical endurance does
still abide with the dregs of the race ; but their

SILVERLAND. .37

brute courage seems a thing of the past : of late
years instances can scarce be quoted of Indians con-
fronting armed whites, unless at absurd numerical
odds. Does it avail to speak of honour to negociators
whose diplomacy is founded on broken treaties ; of
chivalry to warriors who count babies' curls and
girls' tresses among their scalp-locks — the last, per-
haps, shorn from heads bowed to the dust with the
agony of shame ; of mercy or charity to those whose
outrages are wreaked on the dead ? For mutila-
tion is carried to a science ; so that eyes, versed in
these ghastly characters, can tell, looking at a
corpse, whose hands have been busy in the massacre.

I shall have occasion hereafter to record testimony
bearing on the question, whose bias must have
inclined rather Indianwards. But it is evident
that moral, no less than physical levers, must have
a fulcrum; and where are you to find one in natures
such as these 1

In no one point of their home-policy ^does the
American Executive seem to have evinced so much
weakness and inconsistency as in their dealings with
the Kedskin. When the appeals from the frontier
can no longer be ignored, or when some deed of
unusual atrocity has made even distant ears to

38

SILVERLAND.

tingle, they send out a few squadrons, supported
by a regiment of infantry and a battery of light
guns, commanded by some Indian-fighter of renown,
who has instructions to act 'vigorously/ It may
be that the brigadier somewhat exceeds the letter of
his orders (for in this infernal warfare the barbarities
lie not all on one side) : but, at any rate, suppose the
savages reduced to that state of salutary awe which
is their nearest approach to peaceful citizenship. In
nine cases out of ten, before this influence has had
time to solidify, appears on the scene a sort of Mode-
rator— usually a civilian, — with powers utterly
nullifying those of his military colleague. It is
the old story, on a very minute scale : few Eepub-
lics, founded since the Christian era, have been
found liberal enough — unless the crisis be imminent
— to allow their generals to act with unfettered
hands. Now, the Indian cunning displays itself.
In his progress, the Commissioner sees faces inno-
cent of war-paint ; if fresh scalp-locks hang in the
wigwams, they are not flaunted at the belt of the
sententious chief, always ready with his stale, cut-
and-dried professions of amity towards the ( Great
White Father ; ' and an odour of peace — not to say
ot sanctity — pervades the land. When this is reported

SILVERLAND. 39

at Washington, there is triumph, amongst the hu-
manitarians ; and largesse of woollen stuffs and
guns cements the treaty, which is to throw all others
into the shade. Before the first are worn out, the
last-named gifts are in full play. And then the
' fighter ' comes to the front again ; and the whole
dreary farce is repeated, for the fiftieth time.

In a paper, not a fortnight old, I read the account
of the massacre of an entire family, in which the
grandame, and the baby in the cradle, perished
alike ; with General Sheridan's remarks thereon.

" When a white man robs," says this plain-spoken
commander, " we send him to the penitentiary ;
when he murders, we hang him. When a Kedskin
commits both these outrages, we give him more
blankets. At this rate, the civilisation of the Indian
is likely to progress but slowly."

He writes very much to the point, as it seems to
me. On the other hand, if Indian amalgamation
be ever so impossible, there is no need to cry for
ever, Delendi sunt. Drink, disease, and debauchery
would play havoc with a nation in its prime — to say
nothing of one in the last stages of decrepitude.
There is no law more inexorable than that of races :
by this law, I believe, these savages are doomed,

40 SILVERLAND.

even as are the Australian aborigines. Human
efforts, or errors, may possibly retard, but they will
hardly avert the end ; and it seems more imminent
in the first case than in the last.0

There were presented to us, moreover, other curious
lights and shadows of frontier life ; for the Commo-
dore had spent much of his youth up in the mining
camps, and bore token thereof in the shape of a
scar on his broad chest, through which the life
had nearly flitted, whilst his antagonist escaped
not so easily. And the Senator had practised
at the Western bar, in times when matters rolled
not smoothly, as now-a-days, in the groove of dull
decorous routine ; when pleaders did not confine
themselves to mere wordy warfare; and when judges
were almost forced to follow the example of the
famous Lord Norbury, who was ever ready to ac-
count for his decisions ' elsewhere/ and carried his
pistol-case on circuit as regularly as his wig-box.

Our friend must have had some queer cases to
conduct, and some queer clients to boot. Though
the sympathies of the country trended chiefly north-
wards, during the latter part of the Civil War, Cali-
fornia and Nevada were turned into a kind of

* Vide Appendix B.

SILVERLAND. 41

Debateable Land, by the frequent incursions from
Texas ; so that party-feud was added to other ele-
ments of discord. How many and various were
these, it is not hard to imagine, when you realise
what a strange congeries of nationalities were
crowded together in a comparatively narrow com-
pass ; and remember that each man's hand was not
more against the rest of the world than against his
brother Ishmaelites, with whom he had, perchance,
but one passion in common — the lust of gold. ' Take
no thought for the morrow,' was the prevalent
motto, of course ; and it applied to life no less than
to lucre. Listening to these stories of blood and
broil, I wondered less at the desperate recklessness
of the chief actors therein than at the wild-cat tough-
ness of their vitality : howsoever maimed by shot or
steel, the power of rending seemed to abide with
them, so long as they could crook a talon or gnash
a fang.

The last exploit of one famous Mohock, with
whom the Senator had been brought, once or
twice, professionally in contact, may be worth
recording ; it was narrated to the latter by an eye-
witness.

Captain Hewson (I am rather vague as to the

42 SILVERLAND.

heroic name) reckoned, with pardonable pride, over
a dozen victims of his knife or pistol — only death
wounds counted, remember — and, though scarred
like any vieux de la vieille, the strength and sleight
of his hand rather waxed with years. On this
especial night he was not ( on the rampage ; ' but
was consuming a pacific whisky-skin, his feet
tilted on the high stove-fender, when there
entered the drinking-booth a stranger, likewise of
inoffensive demeanour. The new-comer peered
round keenly, as though in search of some one ;
then he walked straight up to the stove, and
without uttering a syllable, shot Hewson through
the breast as he sate, and, turning, fled away swiftly.
The murderer — for this was no homicide even by
border-law — had just time to lock himself into an
inner chamber, when Hewson hurled at the door,
which yielded to the shock ; he issued forth again
in ten seconds, leaving a corpse behind riddled with
five bullets. Steadily and silently — pressing his
hand hard on his side — the victor strode back to his
seat through the admiring crowd, and replaced his
feet on their old resting-place. Then —

" Pull my boots off," quoth he, " and look d — d
sharp about it. My old mam " (meaning the mother

SILVEKLAND. 43

that bore him) " always said I'd die with 'em on.
I don't mean her to crow/'

He was dead, almost before his bidding was done ;
and the autopsy, with which such rare merits were
honoured, revealed a wound through the apex of the
heart.

Less truculent tales, moreover, beguiled the time.
Indeed, Western mining-chronicles would furnish
materials for more than one sensational romance ;
and it w^ould be no romance after all. It is noi^
only below ground that the lodes are ' worked ;' or
colossal fortunes would not be made and lost within
such an incredibly brief space of time. If the stones
of California Street — worn down already, though
they have been quarried within ten years, by the
tramp of eager spectators — could give tongue, they
would tell some odd stories of veins mysteriously
vanishing, and reappearing just as mysteriously when
the shares had ebbed to their lowest, and weak
holders were worn out with ' calls/ All's fair
in brokerage it appears, and — ocoupet extremum
scabies.

But — despite all diversions and distractions, alea-
tory, literary, or conversational — shall I own how
heavily hung the hours ? A dead calm at sea is

44 SILVERLAND.

sufficiently trying ; but, if you cannot pretenc
fish, you make friends with vagrant gulls ; and any
minute the dark ruffle may line the horizon, bringing
the breeze on its back ; moreover — bar the Ancient
Mariner's luck — the atmosphere carries no intoler-
able burden, and there is rest for the eye when the
sun is low.

But the sameness of these accursed white wastes
is never broken by hoof or wing ; for the buffaloes
have fled southwards long ago, and antelope and
elk keep close under the lee of the cliffs, or in the
valleys where some acrid herbage under-lies shal-
lower snow ; whilst you deprecate the wind as your
worst enemy. There is monotony even in the inces-
sant disappointment of moving forward a furlong or
so, and then retrograding, as it seems, nearly as far.
And the indoor temperature, spite of all precautions,
was at times simply stifling ; though it was light
and pure compared to that of other cars — notably
the one alluded to above. That atmosphere, as
the Commodore observed, " might have been sliced
with a bowie-knife :" it literally haunted me.
There was a little excitement, at first, in watching
the steam-plough, driven by four strong engines,
swish through a drift previously loosened by pick

SILVERLAND. 45

and spade ; but soon it became a question whether
the sight was worth the tramp through loose snow,
under a blinding glare — we were nearly the hind-
most train of the league-long caravan — then it ceased
to be a question at all.

Our comrades bore themselves bravely ; and the
women, of course, were bravest. But one and all
got beat at last. The twitter of our love-birds waxed
feeble and faint ; the Professor was as chary of his
jests as dead Yorick ; the Commodore's robust appe-
tite could only .dally with the savoury meats in
which his soul delighted ; the comely face of the
Sailor grew lined as with age ; and the Senator,
with his solemn straight-cut face, might have sate for
a doge in exile. In the last two days of durance, I do
not believe that an honest laugh was heard aboard.

On the seventh morning, we had made just six
and forty miles ; but cheering news came from the
front. Moving stealthily onward, we crossed an
eastward-bound train before nightfall, and knew
that thenceforth the road was clear. Before dawn
we reached Ogden, where the Arlington parted
with its fair freight ; and, two hours later, swept
along the shore of the Great Salt Lake, glimmering
under a level sun.

CHAPTER III.

platform was thronged when we rolle<
into Salt Lake City; and no wonder. During
three weeks neither passengers nor mails, to say
nothing of merchandise, had come through from the
East. And these good people had not only to wel-
come coming, but to speed parting guests ; for the
outgoing train carried away the Japanese ambassa-
dors and their suite.

We were not much over-awed by the distinguished
foreigners. Under European costume, even solemn
Armenians, and stately Turks, can hardly maintain
their natural dignity. These puny mortals seemed
very husks of men in their ill-fitting garments ; and
their smooth sullen faces were not improved by their
fashionable head-gear, as they flattened their noses—
in most cases quite unnecessarily — against the win-
dow-panes. Neither did the princesses quite fulfil

SILVERLAND. 47

one's idea of those born in the purple. Certainly,
they suffered by contrast with their American
chaperone — a gorgeous and majestic dame, whose
ample charms seemed to dwarf her surroundings,
including her own diplomatic spouse.

We had brief time for criticism, however. The
Japanese train moved off before we had half got
through our introductions, and the inevitable hand-
grips ensuing ; for the Commodore, the Senator, and
the Professor, met divers old acquaintances on the
platform. Salt Lake City does not shine in its
hotels ; and it was decided that the Arlington
should continue to provide us with bed and board.
So the good car was put into port there and then,
and we went forth to lionise.

When the notes of the three aliens were compared,
I think the result was disappointment. In summer
or autumn, when the frequent fruit-trees are in
flower or full bearing, and when the water, that never
ceases to ripple through the street-channels, must
have a pleasant sound, it is just possible that the
town and valley may contain certain attributes of
a ' paradise } — using the word in the original Greek
meaning. Truly, strangers, not wont to soar into
wild flights of enthusiasm, have waxed eloquent

48 SILVERLAND.

over the attractions of the bird's-eye view from the
Wahsatch. It is only of late that the place could
be reached without long wheel-travel over arid
plains and bleak hill-ranges ; and much must be
conceded to the first impressions of eyes weary of
barrenness or sated with monotony. Nevertheless,
I think it needs a strong afflatus of the Mormon
spirit to gush over the Mormon city.

There is no lack of air, nor of greenery, doubt-
less, at the fitting seasons. But one hardly
looks for close alleys and noisome courts, where
building ground may be had for the asking, and
where any man who will turn a rivulet may sit
under his own vine and fig-tree. I do not cavil at
the huge Tabernacle, wherein some twenty thousand
can sit at ease ; nor at the granite Temple that, ere
it is roofed, will swallow up countless dollars ; nor
at the President's mansion, with its gardens and
dependencies ; nor even at the pretentious dwellings
of certain leading Elders, where bad taste has run
riot at no small cost ; because these things pertain
more or .less directly to the hierarchy. Howso-
ever vain be his creed, no man can be blamed for
postponing public convenience to exigencies that he
holds divine. But it did occur to us that if some of

SILVERLAND. <49

the large monies, derived from the weekly contri-
butions in kind to the Tithing House, had been
thrown into the streets, so as to make the foul quag-
mire between the trottoirs at least fordable in wet
weather, it would have been a sage civic policy.
And those same streets are sound going, compared
to the main highways leading countrywards.

The absence of luxury, under the circumstances,
is natural enough, if not laudable ; but the absence
of ordinary comforts is not so easily accounted for
in a city whose inhabitants, financially speaking,
must be waxing fat as Jeshurun. The hotels —
judging from the complaints of their guests — must
be models of mismanagement; and, having proved
both, I would back the cuisine of most up-country
mining camps against the best restaurant of Salt
Lake ; whilst the same characteristics seemed to
pervade the entire domestic economy. It may be
alleged, of course, that the Saints — never much given
to hospitality — are, just now, leading a specially
self-contained life ; and that the Gentiles sojourning
there have rarely, if ever, troubled themselves to
mount an establishment — wishing that nought
should hinder their flitting so soon as their ' pile '
is made. Nevertheless, that so much squalor should

50

SILVERLAND.

co-exist with rapidly swelling wealth and exorbitant
prices, is certainly rather a puzzle.

In spite of all the business transacted there, Salt
Lake is far from a bustling place. Throughout the
forenoon there is a concourse on the pavement
of the main Avenue, in the vicinity of the chief
banks and telegraph offices ; but none of the eager
faces, strained voices, or hurry ing footsteps that you
would notice in Wall or California Street : the
nearest bar swallows up each group before it is well
formed ; and the loungers appear much more intent
on cock-tails and apple-jacks than on a serious
'deal.' Yet, every day, there is exchange and
barter of interests scarcely less grave than those
which are dealt with on the exchanges of New
York and San Francisco. What business may be
privately transacted in those dingy offices and
upper chambers, it would be impossible to guess.
A stranger can only record that the city supplies
few external evidences of her increasing prosperity.

Brains and capital must find fair scope there
in more than one branch of industry ; but, if no
other commerce thrived, bankers, at least, ought to
flourish like bay-trees. Imagine two and three per
cent., monthly, for monies advanced on securities,

SILVERLAND. 51

real, or nearly as substantial as ordinary mortgages.
As an eminent bookmaker observed, after reading
a feminine account of a Grand Military, in which
long odds were laid on each and every starter —
" If that ain't good enough, I don't know what is."

Things are widely changed since the primitive
days of purism, when blasphemy in public was no
venial offence, when strong liquors were only covertly
sold, and when the vierge folle de son corps dared
not show her face ever so discreetly veiled. Tongues
wag now with the large Western licence, in the fre-
quent drinking bars, in the vast billiard-saloons, and
in the bowling-alleys, where more healthful pastime
is found ; and in the streets, there is no lack — more's
the pity — of bold eyes and brazen brows. But,
though the Gentile element is already powerful, it
is far from leavening the whole -.mass ; and the
Mormon takes both his pleasure and his profit sadly
— it may be, more sadly than heretofore.

A sober sedate folk are the males, wearing, for
the most part, rather a downcast look ; yet, watching
their visages narrowly, you will be prone to doubt
if humiliation has, in all cases, brought humility,
and if forgiveness of enemies be essential to a Saint's
salvation. It may have been mere imagination ; but

E 2

52 SILVERLAND.

I fancied many countenances bore the reflex of their
Chiefs expression.

Brigham Young was in custody of the United
States marshal at that time, and on his trial for
murder in the second degree ; but it was by no
means a close arrest, and we met him occasionally
taking his walks or drives abroad.

A remarkable face, assuredly, and far from
attractive ; but a certain square firmness of outline
saves it from ignoble sensuality ; and, though
seemingly incapable of benevolence, the deep-set
eyes are rather calculating than cruel : nevertheless
it is a face that even friends must sometimes
have distrusted, and in which foes would hardly
look for grace. His photograph does not impress
one so forcibly ; but, watch the man in the flesh,
and in an unstudied pose, and see if you can help
suspecting that there is solid ground of truth in
some of the charges on which he has been arraigned.

Ill deeds, not less than good, thrust each other
out of memory ; and Western annals teem with such
crimes ; but the Mountain Meadow massacre is not
quite forgotten yet, when saintly hands were dipped
wrist-deep in Gentile blood, and knife or toma-
hawk spared neither woman nor suckling. The

SILVERLAND. 53

outrage was imputed to the Indians, of course, by-
Mormon advocates ; but the balance of proof goes
far to show that the few real Kedskins engaged in
that murderous foray were mere stalking-horses and
hirelings. It would be unfair to rely over much on
the recent ' Confessions ' of one Hickman, who
avows himself to have acted, for years past, as bravo,
or executioner, to the President and his privy-
council ; but that obnoxious persons have been,
from time to time, quietly suppressed, without
scruple as to the means, is beyond doubt ; and to
many cases, where steel or lead left no traces, the
famous Indian verdict would apply — ( Died by the
visitation of God, under very suspicious circum-
stances/

Perhaps, there is nothing in all this to cause much
horror or wonderment. Scarcely any faith — false
or true — has been founded or promulgated without
human sacrifice. The Mormon President might
allege that he at least believes implicitly in the
Creed which we contemn, and that, in removing its
opponents or detractors, he did but smite the
heretic after more merciful fashion than did Tor-
quemada or Calvin ; if fanaticism can no longer
plead exemption from human justice, he has

54 SILVERLAND.

only lived a little too late ; and, if private feuds or
interests sometimes coincided curiously with religious
zeal, I suppose to this, too, he might find historical
parallels.

In fine, I am inclined to believe there was sound
common-sense in a Gentile's reply to my query, as
to "what would ensue if the United States forces were
withdrawn from Utah, and the Mormons left once
more wholly to their own devices ? " He was well
posted in the ways of the place and people, my
sturdy interlocutor, and could hold his own in a
' free fight ' with the best.

" I don't know what they'd do," quoth he ; " but
I know what I'd do — make tracks before sundown."

However, if I differ from the sympathisers who
found in the settlement by the Salt Lake an Arcadia,
replete with pastoral and patriarchal virtues, and
void of offence against its neighbour, I cannot
withhold a mite of praise, where so much is really
due.

There is no mystery — perhaps no great difficulty —
in the process which has turned sandy wastes into
fertile tracts, sufficing all the colony's requirements,
even with the late influx of strangers. The simple
word f irrigation ' explains it all. But, if you re-

SILVEKLAND. 55

member that only within the last quarter of a
century have our English farmers developed in
earnest the watery wealth of the hill-country, it
would be churlish to deny the merit of these in-
genious and patient pioneers, who must, for the
most part, have worked by the light of nature, with
scant theory or practice to aid them ; for mechanics
and tradesfolk far out-numbered the agriculturists
among the early settlers. The rapid increase of the
city is not surprising ; for in this Western country
frame-houses sprung up like mushrooms, and brick-
stores like gourds ; but the valley, lying betwixt the
Great Lake and the lower buttresses of the Wahsatch,
ought to keep an abiding place in the chronicles of
human industry.

Whilst doing justice to the people, we will not
refuse it to the President. Allow that he is stained
with all the crimes imputed to him — luxury, avarice,
cruelty, and blacker vices yet, if such there be.
Still you cannot deny that the man has evinced
administrative talent, and tact of no mean order.
To have made such materials as he had to deal with
not only cohere but work harmoniously, as a rule,
implies more than a smattering of political economy.
Truly — howsoever unscrupulous may have been their

56 SILVERLAND.

chiefs — the mass of the Mormons have ever been
peaceful, not to say feeble folk, and the elements of
discord in Salt Lake City in the old times, before
the late bitternesses crept in, were probably less
than might have been found in any ordinary mining-
camp. Nevertheless, in such a mixture of nations
and languages there must have been constant con-
flict of feelings and interests ; and Brigham Young
contrived — if he did not utilise all these — to keep
them at least within decent control. Under his
direction, a territory, that thirty years ago was
simply valueless, has mounted almost to State
dignity ; and if, whilst adding to the common
wealth, he has filled to overflowing his own coffers,
he has but followed the example of certain Vice-
roys whom we and our forefathers have delighted
to honour. How powerful — if not for good — the
man has been in his generation, would be proved by
one fact alone. Since his health began to fail,
politicians have begun to pore more hopefully over
the Mormon puzzle ; for by his strong influence, and
stronger will, all projects of consolidation and mutual
conception have hitherto been thwarted, more effec-
tually than by the fears or prejudices of Elders,
Council, and people.

SILVERLAND. 57

It would be hard, at this juncture, to prophesy
aright concerning the immediate future of Utah.
Retrospective action against polygamy seems
utterly impossible ; yet scarcely more so, than
that it should be connived at hereafter in any
American state. Even at Salt Lake it does not
seem to have spread of late, if its roots are not
loosened in the soil. The fact that a book, like
Mrs. Stenhouse's, directly impugning the morality
and utility of the institution, from long personal
experience thereof, should have been printed and
largely sold within the precincts of the city,
speaks for itself. How would it have fared with
authoress and publisher some five years ago I
wonder ?

If polygamy be a grave breach of divine as
well as human law — the which I am far from
denying — the criminals in Utah can plead less
excuse of temptation than the average of sinners.
Putting such memories in order, I have doubted
whether Baltimore, Verona, or Aries — at fair-time —
stood highest in the beauty-scale ; but, since quitting
Salt Lake, I have never hesitated where to assign the
palm of homeliness. It is almost incredible, that
in a community numbering some 25,000 souls,

58 SILVERLAND.

where — whatsoever may be the inner restrictions of
the seraglios — the women-kind walk freely abroad
unveiled, a stranger may pass days and weeks
without encountering a face or figure worth a second
glance, or even a case of ugliness redeemed by
graceful gait or eloquent eyes — yet more incredible,
that such barrennesss of attraction should exist in
Western America.

Eude and plain words ; yet, perchance, therefore,
the more suited to the subject matter. Certainly,
unless he were morbidly uxorious, any man might be
satisfied with two or three, at the outside, of such
consorts. Of course, if you look on these hard-
featured females simply as household drudges, or
spinners of webs, there need be no limit to their
number, any more than that of slaves on a planta-
tion. But — put them in the lowest scale of help-
meets— and you will find much to admire in the
courage and obstinacy of the Mormon male.

At first, we are prone to wonder how women are
found ready to abdicate all wifely dignity, and feed
on mere crumbs of parcelled affection : after a few
strolls through Salt Lake City, we cease from thus
wondering. The sex, cynics say, is apt to wax
exceeding bold when on the verge of perpetual

SILVERLAND. 5i)

•virginity; and a fraction of a spouse — be it ever so
' vulgar ' — is, perhaps, preferable to a cipher which
cannot be dealt with by any rules of feminine
arithmetic. And the goods — if I may speak
coarsely — invoiced hither, would have been apt to
hang on hand even in that brisk Australian market
where, according to the legend, proposals were made
through speaking-trumpets, before the good ship l St.
Ursula ' cast anchor. Tout vient a point a lui qui
salt attendre — is an excellent maxim; but, surely, it
applies to old maids less than to any other order of
created beings ; and desperate emergencies need
desperate remedies. I am speaking now of the late
immigrants and converts : the native damsels are,
of course, c as young as anybody else, if not
younger.' But the same stamp of dowdy homeli-
ness seems impressed in all alike ; and even for the
'devil's beauty' you may look in vain. At the
theatre, for instance, one of the actresses — she was
of the blood Presidential, by the same token — had
to play a coquette of rather an advanced order ;
and her costume, though in nowise audacious, was
evidently intended to match the part. I have
discovered more chic in a Quakeress, clad in
hodden grey, meditating with folded hands. In

GO SILVERLAND.

fine, I am inclined to believe that considerations
of profit or policy, rather than passion, might
account for the most of these unholy alliances.

Looking at matters dispassionately, the gulf
between the present condition of the Mormon, and
complete American civism, does not seem so im-
passable. There are fanatics, no doubt, amongst
the dwellers by the Salt Lake, who would hold
out against concession to the last, with the irra-
tional courage of bigotry; but the majority are
quite alive to the advantages likely to accrue to
Utah so soon as she shall rank as a State. By
infinite sweat of brow, and toil of hand, they have
made their surroundings pleasant and fertile ; nor
would they lightly embark on another Exodus, if a
vacant Canaan were within ken. The vitality of
Mormonism is quite unimpaired ; but there are
symptoms, everywhere, of the c old order changing/
and polygamy is already rather a doctrine than a
practice. Supposing the rest of their creed be left
intact, and they be free to worship after their own
fashion, the rising generation may be apt to doubt
if the theoretical advantages of this institution are
worth isolation from the great Kepublic and com-
parative disfranchisement.

SILVERLAND. 61

Indeed, if the question were, even now, put fairly
to the vote of the entire people — Gentiles, of course,
being excluded — I believe Conservatism would go
to the wall. At any rate, though the Elders may
harangue themselves hoarse, it would be a mistake
to suppose that the popular feeling on this matter
verges on real excitement. Putting aside the
covert malice of certain visages (with which, as was
afore said, our fancy may have had much to do)—
' listlessness ' seems best to describe the condition of
those who have no immediate voice in the hierarchy
or Council, and who are not directly interested
in the new commerce which has of late, morally
and physically, almost revolutionised Utah.

But this last topic may not be broached at the
fag-end of a chapter.

CHAPTEK IV.

MINING.

That word strikes the key-note of many thoughts,
and hopes, and fears, not in Salt Lake City alone,
but for leagues and leagues around it ; and even in
England it would find sympathetic chords enow.
There is the more reason for handling the subject
warily ; and — under favour — I must needs, here,
briefly ' liberate my soul/

I have never yet puffed any man's wares for
hire ; in the matters whereof I am about to treat I
have no interest, direct or indirect, beyond the sym-
pathy that we must needs feel in the fortunes of
friends or acquaintances by whom we have been
courteously and kindly entreated ; and, up to this
moment, I have never been blessed, or cursed, with
a share, ever so humble, in any mine, native or
foreign. Quasi-anonymous assertions carry but
little weight : yet I am fain to hope that my readers

SILVEELAND. 63

will credit me thus far. If it be otherwise, this
chapter had best be skipped in its entirety.

After all, singularly little delicacy need be felt in
treading on ground furrowed by so many ploughers ;
or in touching a topic that has been pitch-forked to
and fro by savage controversialists, discussed in the
leaders of more than one public journal, and ven-
tilated in Congress. Ever since General Schenk
set the teeth, not only of his American colleagues,
but of divers diplomats, on edge, by appear-
ing on the Direction, the * Emma Silver Mine '
has been so prominently before the public, that
others, besides those who have credit and coin
actually at stake, may care to hear the truth there-
anent. This truth, without colour or ornament, so
far as I have been able to trace it, I propose to
tell.

Even if force of circumstances had not influenced
the choice, I should still have selected this mining
ensample ; simply because many persons, not at
Salt Lake alone, but in California and Nevada,
whose interests, as rival owners, were antagonistic
to the c Emma/ concurred in quoting it as the
representative of the limestone formation ; and,
furthermore, because, to the best of my belief, on

64 SILVERLAND.

this spot only have the subterranean resources
of Utah been, hitherto, satisfactorily developed and
fairly tested.

He must be a very idler, whom mere curiosity
would tempt at such a season to traverse some
thousand leagues of sea and land ; and, besides the
Sailor and myself, each and every one of our small
company had duties or business far away from Salt
Lake. They had been drawn thither by the com-
mon object of examining such mines as were attain-
able, or open to inspection, in the Wahsatch and
contiguous ranges, with a special mission to the
' Emma.' Therefore, after brief dalliance in the
Mormon Eden, the ' Arlington ' rolled forth again,
and conveyed us as far as Sandy, some score of
miles from the City; where the car was anchored
to await our return : the rest of the journey was
to be saddle- work.

There was scarce a rent or a stain on the pure
white mantle of the Wahsatch, and the air, though
not bitterly keen, was pregnant of snow, as we rode
over the barren champaign lying betwixt Sandy
station and the mouth of Little Cottonwood canon.

Not a tree or a shrub within ken ; nothing but the
eternal sage-brush, save where a few sour marsh-

SILVERLAND. 05

herbs mark water-tracks soaking sullenly and
vaguely through the loam. The soil is, probably,
neither better nor worse than that which has been
turned to such good purpose along the shores of
the Great Lake ; and nothing but irrigation, and
drainage of the simplest kind, are needed to fit it for
culture. There would be fair grazing, if you could
put ' heart ' into the pasturage ; for there is shelter
under the lee of the mountains from northerly and
easterly blasts ; and, even in this exceptionally in-
clement spring, the frost had gotten no hold of the
ground. As it is, the only animal you are likely to
encounter hereabouts is the long-eared ' buck-rabbit '
— a feeble, foolish creature, with none of the verve of
the British coney, and an easy prey to man or beast.
We saw one coursed down in about three minutes
by a mongrel lurcher, scarce out of puppyhood, who,
without invitation, had attached himself to our
party.

It was winter again, when we were fairly within
the jaws of the canon; but, for four miles or so
after entering the gorge, we made good progress over
a fairly beaten track, and began to think that the
good townsfolk had erred in predicting for us ' a
rough time.' An artist's eye might find attrac-

66 SILVERLAND.

tions here, even at this dreary season; though
the sternness of the huge cliff-walls on either
hand is enhanced rather than softened by the fringes
of stunted pines, clinging and climbing where-
ever they can find foot-hold ; and there are studies
for the geologist, in the rapid and abrupt changes
of ' formations ' wherever the rocks stand out
bare.

A notable feature in the scene are the stupendous
granite boulders bestrewing the comparatively level
ground near the entry of the cation. There they lie,
some singly, some in clusters, as if they had never
stirred since they were hurled hither and thither in
some pre- Adamite sport or broil. An unscientific
mind will almost be tempted to question how, other-
wise, they could have come there ? For, not only
is it impossible to discern the niches above from
which they were rent, but usually they differ in
grain, texture, and colour from the overhanging
cliffs. A whole chapter of glacier-history would
be needed to explain the puzzle. At any rate,
this freak of Nature has spared the builders of the
Mormon Temple infinite time, cost, and toil. By a
simple process of drilling, and insertion of wooden
wedges, slabs and blocks are detached ready for the

SILVERLAND. 67

mason's hand : neither are there extraordinary diffi-
culties of transport ; for such quarries are rarely
very accessible. This industry has founded a little
hamlet here ; and, should the projected branch-rail
from Sandy to the mouth of the canon ever become
an accomplished fact, Graniteville will soon find
place in the map of Utah.

So we rode on, cheerily enough, incessantly cross-
ing and recrossing, on the rudest of bridges, the
stream that struggles down the gorge, till we reached
the half-way hut, and halted for a frugal ' nooning/
About a furlong higher, the enemy that had, thus
far, only hovered on our flanks, showed himself
in force : the snow-wreaths we had passed were
light skirmishers ; but the drifts ahead marked a
battle set in array. It is easy to make metaphors
at leisure ; but we had neither time nor inclination
for such vanities just then ; for, as the ground rose
more steeply, the fair broad track faded into the
narrowest of trails, which it was necessary to
follow warily in single file. Here, too, veils and
tinted glasses came into requisition ; for the glare
from the unbroken white surface was intolerable.
Glancing aside, I marked a slender iron cylinder
peering quaintly over the snow on our right, and

1OJ
Y 2

68 SILVERLAND.

questioned my nearest mate — 'lie was a famous

native pioneer — as to the use and fashion

thereof.

" It's the smoke-stack of an assay-house," he made

answer.

And thus I realised, that some four fathoms' depth

of the most treacherous of all substances then Lore

up our horse-hoofs.

If the British shareholder, who is wont to
grumble at tardy or intermitted shipments of ore,
had ridden in our company that day, I think,
being a just man, he would have repented and
recanted. To me it seemed simply incredible that
the teamsters — despite their reputed recklessness-
should venture down with laden sleighs. Yet we
met four or five such before we reached Alta City-
all mining camps are c cities ' hereabouts. These
encounters were not the pleasantest incidents of the
journey. Turning aside is a necessity, of course ;
and so is dismounting, for a- riderless horse sinks to
the girths the instant he quits the beaten trail.
The leading of a floundering mustang, through loose
snow more than knee-deep, is not quite so easy as
it looks on paper ; and a stray fore-hoof left its
mark on more than one of our party ; whilst our

SILVERLAND. 69

poor Commodore, by a sudden plunge of his frigh-
tened beast, ' got a nose put on him ' that was
truly a ' caution ' to behold. However the chim-
neys of Alta City — no walls worth speaking of were
visible — received us at last ; and, leaving our cattle
to be harboured in some sub-nevadean shelter, we
crawled up a kind of snow-stair to our own
quarters, in the house of the manager of the
' Emma/

You would hardly expect to light on so cosy a
dwelling, near ten thousand feet above tide -level ;
and there was no lack of homely plenishments :
yet, even within doors, there were signs of the sea-
son. The paper on the walls was furrowed and
wrinkled, like the brow of age, by the terrible pres-
sure on the planks without ; and, after this was ex-
plained to us, I think some snow-stories, told in Salt
Lake City, came home to more memories than mine
—specially as the sky, hitherto cloudless, began just
then to darken, and the wind to moan. But, if any
man had misgivings, he would scarcely have con-
fessed them in presence of the manager. Through-
out the wild winter and wilder spring, that sturdy old
Rechabite had claven to his post ; never asking fur-
lough from his employers, or quarter from the ele-

70 SILVERLAND.

ments. Only the rugged, weather-beaten face was
very grave ; like that of one who, often confronting
danger, has not learned to despise it.

We arrived too late to visit the mine that day,
and there were no other attractions out of doors ;
so, with appetites worthy the occasion, we addressed
ourselves to the serious business of the evening
meal. They live largely, these stout mountain-
folk ; and I have fed, in populous cities, on viands
infinitely worse cooked than those set bounteously
before us. We had brought a jar or so of liquor
from the Arlington ; for, though our host neither
used nor countenanced strong drink, at few seasons
or places would a ' hot Scotch ' taste more toothsome
than early in February, in the heart of the Wah-
satch. Then came whist, and pipes innumerable,
and then bed — this last quite a triumph of pack-
ing : yet I did not hear of much broken rest.

We were afoot early on the morrow ; and the
first glance at the weather made us bless the luck,
or foresight, that had brought us hither in time. It
would have been difficult, if not dangerous, to have
ridden far in the teeth of the savage tourmente
sweeping straight down the canon, and progress on
foot would have been scarcely possible ; for, even

SILVERLAND. 71

where it had not drifted, there was large increase
of fresh-fallen snow. From our quarters to the
mine's mouth might be some 200 feet of climbing ;
but wind and limb were sorely tried before we
stood, blinded and breathless, under cover in the
main driftway.

There is no need of cage or skip here ; neither
are you entrusted to the uncertain mercies of a
man-engine : for a hundred yards or more, after
lighting candles in a kind of vestibule, you walk,
d plain pied, into the heart of the mountain
through a tunnel of ample proportions, in which a
tramway is laid. Above and below this are hori-
zontal floors, communicating through short vertical
or oblique shafts, and numbering, at the time of
our visit, seventeen in all. From the centre of each
of these floors side-drifts diverge, like the feelers
of a cuttle-fish, varying in length from 50 to
300 feet, according to the promise of the ore re-
vealed. The tramway once left behind, progress is
no longer luxurious ; but, though it is necessary
often to stoop, sometimes to crawl, at no one point
is there a shadow of real difficulty or danger.
Along many of the driftways the daintiest dame
might pass dryshod, and with no worse soil of

1'Z SILVERLAND.

garments than a feather-brush would amend. The
veriest ignoramus could not fail to remark the
absence of all the drip and slime familiar to sub-
terranean explorers. But this seemed less extra-
ordinary to the Sailor and myself than to Tressilian,
—familiar from his childhood with mining ways.
Indeed, I fancy the instances are rare where the
earth has been penetrated so deeply without the
opening up of divers hidden springs. But hitherto
the c Emma ' adventurers have encountered nothing
worse than surface-water ; though this, in inclement
seasons, may prove no trivial peril.

Most of our party looked on the surroundings
with a professional eye ; but the next matter of
wonderment to us laymen (once for all, I bracket
myself with the Sailor), was the apparent waste of
valuable hewn timber. Everywhere — recrossed and
doubled at the brink of each shaft, and at the angle
of each driftway — we saw a network of stout joists
and square beams, till it seemed as if half a forest
must have been swallowed up here. Indeed our
conceptions did not much outrun the truth ; and it
is fortunate that the wooden wealth of these hills
will be, for years to come, practically inexhaustible :
though there are grievous gaps in their ranks, they

SILVERLAND. 73

still hold their own gallantly — ' the shadowy armies
of the pine/

But there is really no waste of labour or material
here. The ' caving ' of the soil or rock is the very
bane of western miners ; and by no care or cost can
absolute insurance be effected against this disaster,
as has been proved over and over again at the
famous ' Comstock Lode ' in Nevada, where the
quartz, from the toughness of its texture, must be
far less prone to collapse than the Wahsatch lime-
stone.*

The temperature of the workings was singularly
level : the intense outer cold scarcely penetrated
beyond the vestibule ; and, if the atmosphere in
some of the extreme driftways was somewhat dense
and heavy, it was never absolutely oppressive ;
neither did the lowermost shaft exhale the hot
mephitic fumes that meet you before you have des-
cended far into most metalliferous mines.

It was rather weary work, the incessant clamber-
ing of ladders, and dodging of beams, and creeping
in single file through passages where one could
rarely stand erect. But, even to us flaneurs, each
step brought something of interest.

* Vide Appendix C.

74 SILVERLAND.

Of course, the quality can only be determinec
by assay ; though skilled miners are often sur-
prisingly accurate in their guess-work. But, when
a, simple code of signs and tokens is once mas-
tered, it does not need an expert's eye to trace ore
through a limestone formation. Almost all the
workings, examined on that and the ensuing day,
were fresh since October last ; and quite inde-
pendent of that vast treasure-chamber which first
made the mine famous, and which its opponents
characterise as an exhausted ' shell/ They diverged,
as was aforesaid, infinitely ; but each one that my
companions tested — and that the work was not
done negligently I can aver — proved more or less
remunerative. The veins would vary from a mere
thread, to a belt broadening beyond the furthermost
pick-mark ; but there was always presence of ore ;
and always, brightly or faintly, the baser soil was
tinted with those tender shades of colour that are
only laid on by the pencil of the Gnome.

I say ( soil/ advisedly ; for you can scarcely
dignify as ' rock ' matter so friable. A common
hunting knife makes deep impression ; and six or
seven tons daily might easily be dislodged by a
practised miner. Proving this, one ceases to wonder

SILVEELAND. 75

at the paucity of hands employed here — not two
score, including every official.

It is hard for an unscientific pen to set forth
these points lucidly ; but ocular demonstration
makes it easy to understand how, by simple cubic
measure and comparison of weight, the amount
of ore included in this net-work of lateral drifts
and vertical shafts can be accurately calculated.
Moreover, in this ' prospecting/ the quality of the
ore can be estimated with no less certainty than the
quantity, if it be sampled without fear or favour,
and honestly assayed.

The importance of this last condition is obvious ;
for, however just in the letter, it would hardly be
just in the spirit, to bring up the balance by the addi-
tion of rare isolated specimens, such as may be found
in almost any mine, whose proper place is on the
shelves of a cabinet. On the present occasion two or
three such — one assaying near 1300 dollars — were
purposely set aside.

Though the value of the ore thus ( exposed ' can
be so nicely calculated, certainty, or even absolute
confidence, with the most experienced miner ceases
here ; for the caprices of the veins, to say nothing
of the l pockets/ as the large isolated deposits are

76

SILVERLAND.

termed, are infinite. As a rule, however, the coy
metal seems to wax kinder from pursuit ; and the
richest ores are oftenest struck in the deepest
workings.

The rage of the tourmente was abating when we
saw light again, though heavy flakes still cumbered
the air. But, if the day had not been so far spent,
outdoor work would have been impracticable ;
for the fresh snow would not carry, and the
drift against the front of our ' stoop/ yesterday
scarce two cubits deep, was heaped up now in a
wall shoulder-high. Communication even with the
City below was not so easy ; and, I believe, our
sole visitor that afternoon was a rotund, ruddy
urchin, bearing a message from a telegraph office.

He was very self-possessed, this small envoy ; and
a largesse, that must have transcended his wildest
hopes, in no wise altered his calm stolidity. Ques-
tioned as to how he had clomb up hither, he
'reckoned, he'd squirmed along somehow/ Indeed,
to us watching his downward progress, he seemed
to make no more impression on the feathery drifts
than might have been left by a weasel or a bull-
frog.

And we, on our parts, got through the evening

SILVERLAND. 77

' somehow/ But, though there were no blue
devils in our company, the rarefied atmosphere
had begun to tell more or less on all who had not

o

been previously acclimatised. The Sailor suffered
terribly from headache ; and, for myself, I began to
understand what James of Scotland must have
endured, when

At each turn lie felt

The pressure of the iron belt ;

for I had brought a severe chest-cold out of the
blockade. I did not know till afterwards — or I
might, perchance, not have taken things so easily—
that lung-inflammation is the very pest and bane of
the mountain miners. Oddly enough, it seems
more fatal to strong men than to women and
weaklings.

The next morning broke clear and cloudless, and,
rising betimes, we completed before noon the ex-
ploration of the ' Emma ; ; so that Tressilian was
enabled to visit two other mines, or rather shafts,
sunk hard by. The most distant of these might
have been a long rifle-shot from our quarters ; but
every fathom of steep ascent through deep, loose
snow, tells heavily, as all mountaineers will aver ;
and our stalwart comrade had had rather more than

78 SILVERLAND.

enough of it when he returned about sundown,
especially as he had seen nothing to repay his toil.
The reason of this will be made plain hereafter.

Though the time had passed neither unprofitably
nor altogether unpleasantly, I think we were all glad
to get the ' route ' on the morrow. Whilst our
companions tarried to inspect yet another mine, the
Sailor and myself went down to Alta City. We were
surprised to find it such good going ; but the snow
at these heights hardens rapidly, and sleigh traffic
below had already begun. Under ordinary circum-
stances nothing would be found in Alta more
notable than in other hill camps ; but it presented,
now, a very curious spectacle. Till I stood in,
or rather on, the street of that hamlet I never
appreciated the potency of drifting snow brought to
bear on human handiwork.

I saw something like it, years ago — chamois-
hunting in the Savoy Alps — when the autumn
fall had begun, and we were glad enough to find
a night's shelter in the uppermost chalet of the
Allee Blanche, deserted long since by the cowherds.
But there, the uncouth hovel seemed to match
not ill with the desolation around ; no sign of
animal life was within ken ; and only by our own

SILVERLAND. 79

voices, or the whistle of a marmot, was the dead
silence broken. Here, there were tokens not of life
alone, but busy life, and certainly no lack of sounds.
Yet Pompeii was scarce more completely, if more
durably, entombed than Alta. Over the humbler
habitations the snow swelled half way up the
chimney-stack ; small shafts were pierced to admit
light and air, otherwise the population lived like
prairie-dogs. Into the principal store, a fair two-
storied frame-house in its normal condition, we de-
scended through a cutting abutting on a gable
window, and down a ladder fixed within. But, if
these stout mountain folk had been bred and born
within the Arctic circle, they could not have taken
things more coolly. Kound the stove of the store
in question, there was the usual smoking, chewing,
argumentative crowd ; the trade over the counter
seemed unusually brisk ; and, with large experience
of Western hospitality, I cannot call to mind
having been, within the same space of time, so often
solicited to ' smile/

We all made tracks for the plain about noon ; my
comrades mounted as before, whilst I embarked in
a sleigh also bound down the canon. I would not
wish to sit behind a more skilful or intrepid whip

80 SILVERLAND

than my Judicial charioteer : but, more than once, I
wished myself back in the saddle ; for so much
extra exercise was not good for such a cough as
was racking me. The track was intersected by
multitudinous dips and hollows, some mere gutters,
some almost ' gulches ' in breadth and depth. In
these last we would come to a full stop ; and only
emerged by dint of much snorting, rearing, and
plunging, with a shock like to dislocate the back of
the sleigh ; albeit it was expressly built for rough
usage. However, at the half-way hut we left
broken ground behind ; and glided on at top speed
over a fairly level track — the snow waxing shal-
lower and less reliable, till it softened into slush at
Graniteville. Thenceforward, we were fain to trust
to wheels.

Such wheels as they were ! The Judge's buggy
had, by mistake, been sent back to Salt Lake, and
the only spring vehicle which Graniteville could
boast was hopelessly out of gear ; so we chartered a
goods-dray to convey us across the plain. It was
a change of motion, no doubt ; very much like the
change from pitching to rolling in a heavy cross
sea. At first we made little headway ; for the
driver, a swarthy beetle-browed half-breed, would

SILVERLAND. 81

only plod along at a foot's pace — rather, I fancied,
with intent to vex his passengers, than out of mercy
to his beasts. The twilight deepened and darkened ;
and still the twinkling lights that showed where the
Arlington lay anchored at Sandy seemed no nearer.
At last, waxing desperate with aches and weariness,
I proposed a drink all round, with a special invita-
tion to our driver. Now, my hunting-bottle, hold-
ing nearly a pint, was filled, not with mild ' old
rye/ but with whiskey from the Alta store, which,
if less potent than that famous liquor which slew
men at rifle range, carried abundance of fire and
sting. The merest sip sufficed the Judge and my-
self; but the half-breed drained the flask. The
draught acted like a witch's potion. The dull black
eyes began to roll and lighten, the slouching
shoulders were straightened, the flaccid hands
gripped the reins savagely ; and, whirling the long
lash round his head, he crowded up his team with a
will. It was a weird, fantastic journey, the ^est of
it, like the hurry-skurry of a nightmare ; sweltering
through sloughs and mud-holes, splashing through
marshy pools, jolting over half-buried logs or
boulders, and taking a rivulet or so, as it seemed,
in our stride ; wrfti a running accompaniment of

G

82 SILVERLAND.

yells and thong-cracking. Kemonstrance would
have been absurd ; we could only press our feet
against the rail of the dray, and 'let her rip/
Nevertheless, there was method in the half-breed's
madness. If he did not always keep the road, he
kept his line ; and drunkard's luck brought us to
Sandy at last — more thoroughly bemired, than if we
had been riding to hounds over Naseby Field after
heavy rains.

The good old car looked cozier than ever, with
its lights, and curtains, and garnished tables ; the
cheerful countenances of our coloured brethren had
gotten^ an extra polish ; and Krug's ' dry creaming '
seemed improved in flavour. But we all turned in
betimes ; and, before we were well awake, on the
morrow, were rolling back to Salt Lake City.

CHAPTER V.

MY personal researches into the mineralogy of
Utah, I am sorry to confess, began and ended in Little
Cottonwood canon ; for when the rest of the party,
after two days' respite, went off prospecting again,
the doctors expressly forbade my venturing again into
the high snows. So I remained behind to be physicked
and blistered at their pleasure ; the Sailor, in the
kindness of his heart, electing to keep me company.

It may seem presumptuous, to speak at all con-
cerning matters in which one has such scant experi-
ence ; but Tressilian did not waste his abundant
opportunities; and on his observations I can rely, as
implicitly as if the facts had come within mine own
ken. Furthermore, where there is such conflict of
interests, an unbiassed opinion may, perchance, be
worth recording.

Though individual reports may, for obvious

G 2

8 1 SILVERLAND.

reasons, have outrun the truth — so far as the trutli
has been ascertained — I do not, in my conscience,
believe that we in England have formed an ex-
aggerated estimate of the mineral wealth of Utah.
That idea of the superior certainty of the c fissure-
veins ' running through quartz, will, probably, soon
be ranked among buried fallacies. The fluctuations
of the Stock Market at San Francisco are unex-
ampled elsewhere ; and almost all the mines, there
dealt with, lie in the granite formation. The
' fissures ? have an awkward habit of losing them-
selves in the innermost bowels of the earth, and it
may need infinite toil and cost to knit the broken
clue ; sometimes it is never recovered, or, worse
still, picked up at hazard by some neighbouring
explorer.

The silver ores of the limestone formation appear
usually, it would seem, in a network of veins, swell-
ing out at intervals into arteries or 'pockets;' and the
danger, of course, is that, the artery once exhausted,
the precious current may cease thenceforward to
flow. But it may be long before the heart of the
mountain be drained ; and, in any case, I fail to see
how a lesser risk attends mining in granite. As
for permanence of profit, a property, paying divi-

SILVERLAND. 85

clends through a couple of centuries or so, may be
considered fairly durable. Now, some Chilian
mines, almost identical in formation with those of
the "Wahsatch, with the rudest appliances, have out-
lasted this date without sig-n of exhaustion : and

O '

Germany, I believe, can supply still more forcible
parallels.

Furthermore, it must be remembered that the
cost of working quartz and limestone cannot even
be compared. In the one case, you have to deal
with a substance so hard and tenacious as some-
times only to be conquered by dint of drill — in the
other, with matter so friable that the pick must
often be plied warily lest the treasure-seeker fare
like Tarpeia.

Yet I am far from inferring that capital should
be sown broadcast in the Utah canons ; or that even
the modest aspiration of ' small profits and quick
returns' can always be realised here. It is un-
doubtedly true that, with one or two exceptions,
the mineral resources of the country have only been
prospected by a few surface workings and shafts
driven almost at random. This state of things can-
not possibly endure ; but, whilst it does endure, the
fact cuts both ways.

86

SILVERLAND.

Very few Utah mines, hitherto offered to the
public, have been so far opened up as to enable even
an expert to speak confidently as to their probable
value. It is probable, of course, that some of these
will eventually prove more remunerative than the
cEmma.' Only the development of this mine,
thus far quite unparalleled in the district, warrants
the details given above. At any rate, had it been
otherwise, I should have sought elsewhere for an
example ; or, failing this, have ignored the subject
altogether. A tinge of the gambling spirit must
ever attend the search after the 'irritaments of
ills : ' but prudent adventurers will prefer a modest
certainty to superb probabilities ; and it is next
to impossible to guess, even approximately, at
the value of a property prospected only by a
single shaft, and one or two cross-drifts or ' winzes/
For this reason, that afternoon's toil through the
Wahsatch snows was to Tressilian labour in vain ;
and to this is to be attributed the fruitlessness of
most of his later explorations.

Another point should never be lost sight of.
Whilst things remain in their present condition, the
quantity of ore must be of subordinate importance
to its quality. Even in the case of the ' Emma,'

SILVERLAND. 8/

where, in ordinary seasons, no great difficulties of
transport exist, the freightage per ton amounts to
thirteen pounds sterling when it touches English
ground; and mines more remote or inaccessible
must, clearly, pay heavier toll. Second-class
stuff, which, in time to come, may bear no mean
value, is now not worth loading on the drays;
and large masses of ore, actually exposed, may
be practically useless as treasure-trove on a desert
isle.

The one great desideratum of this country is
smelting power. Efforts have already been made
in this direction; but they are the merest tentatives;
and it were easier ( to drink up Esil' than to tackle
the mineral resources of Utah with the toy-applir
ances hitherto brought to bear thereon. Doing
ample justice to American skill and energy — I
question whether this grave problem can be
worked out, without help from our side of the
Atlantic. I hear from reliable sources that there
are smelting secrets, and, as it were, sleights of hand,
which can scarce be imparted by an instructor ever
so willing to pupils ever so diligent. If a man be
not to the manner born, such can only be mastered
by long study and practice at the head-quarters of

88

SILVEKLAND.

the trade ; and this applies not only to the officials,
but, in some sense, to the working rank-and-file. It
would need, perhaps, the importation of an entire
' plant' to make a concern, adequate to the exigencies,
work smoothly and profitably ; but, speaking under
correction, I can see no insuperable difficulties here.
In almost every Western mining camp, of any
importance, Wales and Cornwall are fairly repre-
sented ; and the men, who now cross the Atlantic by
twos and threes, could surely be tempted to emigrate
m a body, especially when the expatriation need
only be for a term ; for this class are, as a rule,
wise enough to prefer large fixed emolument to
any precarious chances. About the emolument
there can be no question. When a working miner,
capable of -nought beyond plying pick and spade
sturdily, can earn from three to five dollars daily,
being liberally boarded to boot, it is easy to calcu-
late what manner of hire really skilled labour might
command.

Neither should I apprehend any grave obstacles
or dangers from native prejudice or jealousy. With
all their national vanity, and desire to keep American
market and produce entirely under American
control, the folks out here easily recognise where

SILVERLAND. 89

they must perforce rely on foreign aid ; and, so long
as the necessity existed — as it must exist for years to
•come — they would be no more likely to annoy
the useful aliens, than to turn away a customer
because he worshipped Brahma.

The present high price of coke is, no doubt, a
serious drawback ; but the rates were lowered even
during our brief stay; and, if there be any leaven of
truth in the reports of recently discovered coal-
fields, the supply may soon nearly equalise the
demand, and Utah will not need to envy Pennsylva-
nia her ' diamonds/

For the sake of a country where we received no
small kindness, and wherein many Old World inter-
ests are already bound up, I have good hope that,
before we are much older, a stout tree transplanted
— root, bole, and branch — from the black Cam-
brian forest, may flourish under the lee of the
Wahsatch hills. British capital has been risked
lavishly, often enough of late, on wilder ventures,
with less tempting prospect of prompt and large
return.

Albeit in poor visiting form, I contrived to
struggle through the mud, in some places axle-deep,
up to Camp Douglas, to return the call of General

90

SILVERLAND.

Morrow ; and I had reason to rejoice at
made that effort.

The officers of the American standing army, as
at present constituted, need not fear comparison
with those of any regular service with which I am
acquainted. They are great readers, as a rule, and
extend their studies beyond purely professional
subjects ; but you will find little of Prussian
pedantry here ; and West Point, with perhaps
less congenial material to work upon, turns out as
sterling stuff as issued from Saumur or Sandhurst
in their palmy days. They contrast still more
favourably with the crop of ready-made soldiers
that sprang up, so rankly, during the Civil War.

Do we not remember — some of us with good
cause — those bragging brigadiers, cursing colonels,
and crapulous centurions, who, when they could not
bully, were forced to cajole their men, to keep up
any show of discipline, and whose uniform always
seemed a masquerade or disguise ? These worthy
creatures were, doubtless, well adapted to the profes-
sions for which they were originally intended ; but
they never could realise that something beyond
courage and patriotism is needful to make a perfect
soldier. They could fight, certainly, after a fashion;

SILVERLAND. 91

and they could talk like stump-orators about
American grandeur and British perfidy ; but the
drilling of a squad, or the giving a decent word of
command, was not in their province ; and tactics
were to the majority what Pure Mathematics are to
the vulgar.

o

Things are wonderfully changed now. The
U. S. A. officers seem no more inclined to slur over
their duty than their European compeers ; their
training embraces the theory as well as the prac-
tice of their profession ; and, if their appointments
would not always pass muster at our dress-parades,
slovenliness and squalor have quite disappeared.

If Anglophobia still prevails to any extent,
where political leaven is not at work (the which
I take leave to doubt), no class is so free from
its influence as the higher grades of this service.
During our Western tour, we heard many subjects
freely discussed in military circles — including the
Alabama question, then at its knottiest point : but
we did not meet with a single exception to the
general kindliness of feeling towards the mother
country ; and I am sure this went far deeper than
mere surface-courtesy.

General Morrow had had large experience of

92 8ILVERLAND.

frontier life, and his quarters were a perfect museum
of Indian curiosities ; though there were more tro-
phies here of peace than of war. Indeed, though he
spared not the sword on occasion, he was famous for
his tact in dealing with the savages ; and amongst
the buffalo robes, and bear-claw necklets, were tokens
of amity from more than one formidable Sachem.
Therefore I was curious to learn, whether he could
dispute or modify the character I had heard assigned
to these tribes. He only shook his head rather
sadly, and confessed, with evident reluctance, " that
you could trust the best of them just as far as you
could see him ; not a gunshot further." I gave up
the Redskin after this, I own ; for it was impossible
to look in the speaker's face and doubt the charity
or honesty of his verdict.

The small-arm system of the American army is
in process of remodelling, and several rifles were
then on trial at Camp Douglas. Two or three of
these made excellent practice up to GOO yards
range — the longest at which we saw them tested. A
modification of the Martini-Henry, from the famous
Hartford factory, scored, I think, the most points
for accuracy and rapid loading ; but, though some-
what lighter and better poised than the English

SILYERLAND. 93

pattern, the cartridge-cases seemed apt to hang,
after incessant firing, from the heating of the
chamber. A repeating carbine on the Winchester
principle, not a very recent invention, impressed us
most favourably : easily manageable from horseback;
with very slight recoil, considering its penetration
and straight trajectory — not liable to get out of
order with common care — it appeared the perfec-
tion of a weapon for desultory or frontier warfare.

We were twice or thrice at the camp after this
visit; and, on one occasion, witnessed a review of the
small garrison. The dressing of the line was very
creditable, though not much attention seemed paid
to the c sizing ' of companies ; and the marching in
quick time was fairly steady, with a springiness that
looked very like work. So much for the infantry.
However efficient on scout duty or in border-fight-
ing, the American trooper must always make a sorry
show on parade. ' Setting up ' can scarcely be
included in the drill ; if the trapping and accoutre-
ments were better cleaned, the hideous spatter-
dashes over the stirrups would be fatal to smartness ;
and both men and horses seem singularly indepen-
dent of the riding-school.

Though we had made some cheery acquaintances

V4 SILVERLAND.

at Salt Lake — notably ' Dick ' of facete memory, and
that convivial Captain, who, ' just to prove that he
bore no malice/ was always ready to ' smile ; — I
cannot remember to have been so bored in any
town, unless it was at Geneva in early spring.
Therefore, very meekly, I accepted the necessity,
according to the doctors, of seeking a more
genial climate without delay. Indeed, the Mormon
City, lying 5000 feet above sea-level, at this
season of melting snow is not the likeliest place
to cure obstinate pneumonia. We were loth — the
Sailor and I — to leave the old Arlington, and
our comrades, in the lurch; but the contingency
had been foreseen before their departure, and they
had, moreover, strongly advised our moving
westwards without awaiting their return. So
the last afternoon of February found us twain
fairly embarked on the Central Pacific, and rolling
across the dreary desert dividing Ogden from the
Humboldt hills.

A singularly monotonous journey, for the first
twenty-four hours at least. Always the grey sage
brush, streaked with ghastly white patches here and
there, where the alkali crops up through the acrid
soil ; lines of stunted alders and willows showing

SILVEBLAND. 95

where the Humboldt river, or a tributary turbid as
itself, welters sullenly along — a country that could
never have had natives, and where the few settlers
along the rail look like exiles — a country that tempts
the traveller to take his uttermost pennyworth out
of the sleeping-cars.

Halting for breakfast at Elko, we made acquaint-
ance— at prudent distance — with the Indian, in
flesh and blood. Till now, I had thought that
<ibout the lowest grade of clothed humanity was
to be found in the Upper Valais. I altered my
opinion that forenoon. Truly, here there was no
special physical deformity ; but the moral cretin-
ism, so far as could be judged by outward signs,
was even more remarkable.

Could those blear-eyed beldams, crooning a low
discordant plaint, and stretching forth skinny claws
for alms, be the sisters of ' Little Fawn ' or
6 Laughing Water'? Could that draggled, bloated
creature, suckling a papoose wrinkled and wizened
like a changeling, ever have given birth to
braves ? Could those shambling, knock-kneed
loungers, sodden with the fire-water for which they
still craved, ever have backed a wild mustang, or
met a foe fairly with bow and spear 1

96 SILVERLAND.

It would be manifestly unjust to take these out-
easts, whom their own tribe might have disowned,
as types of the Sioux or Apaches, even in their
present condition ; and mendicants, of whatsoever
.nation or language, only differ by degrees of abase-
ment. Nevertheless, the spectacle was exceedingly
suggestive ; and, before we left Elko, my last spark
of Eedskin romance was quenched for ever and
aye.

So we travelled on without an incident worth
recording; neither was there any notable cha-
racter on board our sleeping-car, unless it was a
certain Virginian, who might, possibly, have been
useful to a Temperance lecturer.

This eminent person — he represented himself as
a kind of deposed prince in his own country — -was
decidedly the worse for liquor when we first saw
him at Ogden ; and he was none the better for it,
when, with much difficulty, we evaded him on the
Oakland steam-ferry. The phases of his prolonged
drink were curious, chiefly from their inconsistency.
Having previously averred that his funds were at
the lowest ebb, and that he had scant hope of re-
plenishing them, he would provoke us to ' euchre '
for fabulous stakes ; and, when the challenge was

SILVERLAND. 97

declined — not always, I fear, quite courteously, for
he became a nuisance at last — he would descant,
with infinite gravity, on the evils of gambling,
which, combined with Northern oppression, had
brought ruin on his house. Next, having been
assured that we had no intention of crossing the
Potomac, he would proffer commendatory letters
to some shadowy kinsman, still all-powerful in the
Dominion ; though what office, or what relationship
towards our drunkard, he bore, was never clearly
defined : c ex-ticket-collector, and stepfather twice
removed ' — was my comrade's idea of it. Lastly, he
would wax maudlin over the wrongs of the South,
and vengeful over the prospect of retribution ; but,
when the tremulous lips began to stutter about
'chivalry,' it became too shameful for ridicule.
We rejoiced when stertorous sleep rid us of his
company.

Had we still been on the Union Pacific, we should
have been seriously disquieted ere this as to obstacles
ahead ; for, by sundown, we were within the roots
of the Sierra, and on steady ascent, once more
through deepening snow. But the stout sheds
held their own bravely ; and through some two score
miles of these we passed without let or hindrance ;

98 SILVEELAND.

till, soon after midnight, Summit Station was at-
tained : then, with always increasing speed, we bore
down towards the Pacific.

The morning broke loweringly ; but, luckily, the
mist lifted just before Cape Horn loomed in sight.
Eound this huge promontory the rail winds at an
angle, wonderful even on this line of zigzags and
curves. There is not a pretence of fence or parapet
to prevent you from looking sheer down into a
gorge over two thousand feet deep ; at the bottom
of which winds a dusky yellow thread, that to one
standing on its banks, would seem a broad yeasty
torrent. The Nevadas are as rife, as the Eocky
Mountains are barren, of the picturesque ; but we
met, elsewhere, no c effect ' to compare with this.

By this time, the sheds were left behind ; the
cuttings were rarer and shallower ; the overladen
pines, on either hand, had half shaken off their
burden ; whilst holm-oaks, mountain ashes, and
other hardy trees, had begun to appear; and we
felt that we were really escaping from the enemy
who so long had ' held us with his glittering eye,'
when not actually in his clutches. With each mile
of descent the air and the scenery waxed softer ;
till on a southerly slope, under the lee of a belt

SILVERLAND. 99

of woodland, we came upon a real meadow of
untainted green. Then quoth the Sailor — we
were standing together on the outer platform of
the car—

" Thank God ! We're clear of the snow at last."
To the which devout exclamation his mate said
' Amen/ heartily.

In very truth, during the last month I, for my
own part, had been working steadily round to the
Scandinavian notions of Hela. On the farthest verge
of a distant landscape, or cunningly disguised in
a granita, snow may possibly be unobjectionable.
But in any other shape or form whatsoever — in drift
or field, solid or liquescent, falling or fallen, blind-
ing-bright in sun or opaque in shadow — it is to
me, henceforward, an abomination only to be con-
fronted on urgent need. If in search of rest or
recreation, rather than to Chamounix or Zermatt, I
would betake myself to the Essex marshes, yea, or
to Mewstone-by-the-Sea.

Even the descent from one of the higher Alpine
passes into the Lombard plain, would give you but
a faint idea of this sudden plunge from the rigour
of winter into the maturity of spring. Under the
spurs of the hills nestled trim homesteads, half

n 2

100 SILVERLAND.

buried in orchards, under whose eaves the vines
were already in tendril ; everywhere the tender
meadow-grasses were flecked with flowers ; and,
before we had advanced far into the valley, wheat
was stirring in green waves under the westland
breeze.

The rainy season wras barely ended ; for the
Sacramento river was still in flood, and in
possession of some of the low-lying suburbs. It
seemed a busy thriving city, so far as one could
judge from the throng and turmoil around the
station, which is not in the heart of the town.
Indeed, Sacramento is nominally the State capital,
and the seat of local government ; albeit its im-
portance, social, political, and commercial, is
trifling, compared to that of San Francisco. Thence-
forward, the journey, to an ordinary traveller, be-
comes again monotonous ; though an agriculturist
might look eagerly and enviously at the rich allu-
vial country stretching away on either side of the
rail. Knowing that the land, though seldom or
never manured, is cultivated with all modern
mechanical appliances, you are puzzled, at first,
to account for the sparseness and insignificance
of the farm-buildings. Around the homestead

SILVERLAND. 101

itself there may be a few huts and outhouses ; and,
here and there, on the edge of a tilth, or at the
corner of a grazing-ground, are rude lodges for the
shelter of horses or cattle ; but there are few, if
any, of the barns or garners that you would expect
to find on these vast corn lands. The peculiarity of
the climate easily accounts for this. After the rains
have once ceased, for months to come, the earth is
not moistened even by dew. So the ripe brown
swathes, often not bound into sheaves, lie as they
fall, till they are threshed, winnowed, and sacked
in open air, like the crop of Araunah.

Night had fallen, long before we reached Oakland ;
and we were forced to grope our way on board the
steam-ferry through a storm of wind and rain. The
gusts swirled savagely, even up the land-locked
bay ; but the square solid craft made small account
of the puny billows ; and, soon, we found ourselves
at the very uttermost point of our long journey,

Down by the beautiful Balb.oa Seas.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ' Grand Hotel ' where we were lodged, may
be taken as a fair ensample of its own class. With
less of garish display, there is infinitely more
luxury here than can be found in the most pretentious
New York caravanserai. To begin with, you
are not infested by an incessant sirocco from over-
heated flues; the arrangement of apartments is
nearly perfect ; the table is as good as any other
managed on the wholesale American system ; and,
finally, if you dispense with a sitting-room, the
day's entire expense is covered by three gold dollars
— little more than half the Eastern tariff.

We bore credentials to a chief authority at the
' Grand.' Lacking these, we might not have lighted
on such good quarters ; for the house was full nearly
to the roof-tree — many bachelors and small families
being permanent boarders. In point of comfort

SILVERLAND. 103

my own apartment left nothing to be desired. The
oriel window of the sunny salon looked across a
small plaxe, down Montgomery Street, the gayest
thoroughfare in the city. In the rear were bed and
bath room, en suite ; spacious enough for any taste,
and magnificent to one who, for a month past, had
been dressing, so to speak, by inches. These details
are set down in the very faint hope that some
large-minded London host, in making future ' im-
provements,' will condescend to take a hint from the
farthest West. The like accommodation — barring
the genial outlook — can, doubtless, be furnished, in
our own metropolis to those who count not the
cost ; but, till they are brought within the compass
of travellers of modest means, a blot will abide
on our hotel economy.

We had our last taste of foul weather on board
the Oakland ferry ; and, thenceforward, the climate
amply fulfilled its warranty. Indeed, the next
day's sunshine was so tempting, that my mate and
I concluded to defer the presentation of our
letters, and the exploration of the city, till the
morrow ; and drove out incontinently to the . Cliff
House — the favourite afternoon resort of all San
Franciscan idlers.

104 SILVERLAND.

This is a long low frame-house, perched, as its
name implies, on the very verge of the Pacific ; the
balcony literally overhangs the ocean, and, when
the sea is wild, is drenched by the spray. As
you sit here, right over against you, distant a
cable's length or so, rise the famous Seal Eocks, the
basking-place and play-ground of the great sea-
lions. There is scarce a day when they may not be
counted by scores ; some lying, like big brown logs,
in heavy slumber ; others weltering clumsily to and
fro over the slippery shelves, or diving deftly into
a rising surge ; and, ever and anon, the echoes of
the cliffs are waked by uncouth sounds, betwixt
roar and bellow, the tokens of their sport or
anger. They seem peaceable folk enough, as a
rule ; albeit some, of vaster bulk or fiercer temper,
arrogate to themselves special nooks, and resent
trespass savagely. One huge brute, the tyrant of
his tribe — his weight was set at over 1500 Ibs.—
kept ever solitary state on a certain pinnacle ;
and the very lifting of his grim grey head scared
intruders. In honour of him who did his spirit-
ing so gently at New Orleans, this Sachem was
christened General Butler.

But not only the gambols of the Protei pecus

SILVERLAND. 105

tempted us to linger there so long. After being
nipped by raw mountain winds, weighed down by
leaden skies, or half blinded by snow-glare, it was
like a draught of fresh ]ife to rest in the quiet sun-
shine, fanned by a breeze coming straight from
Hawaii, and watch the sparkle and ripple of the
tide rising lazily ; for there is scarce a fathom's
difference betwixt the height of ebb and flow.
Setting aside one or two accessories, it was an
ordinary sea-side scene after all ; but I have looked
on miracles of nature with gratification less keen.
Even so said my comrade ; and the day was
waning when we turned city-wards again.

Despite our pleasant first impressions, I should
counsel a stranger to approach the Pacific other-
wise. The Cliff House road in itself, though much
frequented, is by no means attractive. There are
divers issues from the city ; but every one of these
is rough travelling, and more or less hampered by
tramways ; the sight of cemeteries on either hand,
even if you escape a whiff of incremation from the
Chinese burying-ground, is not exhilarating ; and,
though you get used to the throng of vehicles after
a while, the whole thing savours too much of a
suburban * outing/ A far better plan is to drive

106 SILVERLAND.

southwards out of the city, past the quaint old
Mission, and follow a road, steep but admir-
ably graded, to the top of the seaward hills.
Looking back from the summit, you have a more
perfect panorama of the town, and San Jose Bay,
than can be gained from any other point with
which I am acquainted. After a mile or so of
rather abrupt descent, you come on the fairest piece
of trotting-ground within leagues of San Francisco ;
and, if your cattle are fast enough, they can ' hold
a 3.20 gait/ till, sweeping round some barren
dunes, you break straight out upon the sands — at
most times of tide so firm and level, that there is
no need to draw rein till your wheels spin through
the feathery foam.

The next forenoon was taken up in delivering
credentials : it is almost needless to say that one or
more of these bore the address of the Bank of
California. Waiting a few seconds till the manager
was at leisure, we watched the cashiers at their
busy work. After familiarity with the frayed,
greasy, greenbacks, it was refreshing to see cheques
exchanged for piles of noble twenty-dollar pieces,
or, more rarely, for ( gold-notes/ — crisp and
ruddy, as though stained with the essence of

SILVERLAND. 107

the royal metal. For California has a mint and
standard of her own, and will have naught to do
with Eastern currency : greenbacks, at the usual
discount, are a legal tender ; but, to proffer them
in discharge of a debt of honour, would be a sole-
cism past forgiveness.

None, who have come hither under like circum-
stances, will doubt the nature of our reception in
the manager's room. We were not less kindly
and courteously entreated elsewhere ; and, before
night, we had been made free of both the ' Union'
and the 'Pacific.' The former is, I believe, the
most frequented by foreigners ; but I always
infinitely preferred the latter club, though it had no
coffee-room privileges, chiefly because there one
heard and saw so much more of real Franciscan life.

A large, lusty, liberal life it is ; though the
pace, a little forced sometimes, must needs tell
heavily on fragile constitutions or delicate nerves.
After brief experience thereof, you begin to
understand a certain peculiarity attaching to this
city. With ordinary precautions against chills, the
climate is exceptionally healthy, and the table of
longevity maintains a fair average ; but cases of
sudden death are common, and lingering maladies

108 SILVERLAND.

comparatively rare. The silver cord, here, seems
more prone to snap than to fray.

The ' free lunches ' are a specialite of the place.
In the bar-rooms of all the principal hotels, and
scores of others besides — to say nothing of the
clubs above mentioned — from noon till about two
o'clock, a table is spread with soups, stews, hot and
cold meats, and multifarious relishes. All who
choose may enter, and eat their fill, gratuitously, on
the understanding, but not on the express condition,
that they shall consume a quarter-dollar's worth of
liquor. Eather an unprofitable speculation at first
sight ; but the originators thereof probably argued
that a man could feed but once in a, forenoon,
whereas he might drink inimitably ; and, like most
calculations founded on human frailty, their estimate
has proved correct.

The Franciscan of the upper class, banker,
broker, lawyer, or merchant, lives rather in the
continental fashion ; indeed, the French element
is strong here. Eising early, after a hurried
breakfast he betakes himself to his office ; and,
there, or on the Change in California Street, toils
sedulously throughout the forenoon ; bearing a
hand, it may be, in the making or marring of

SILVERLAND. 109

some half-dozen fortunes. Then, at his club or
elsewhere, he goes in for a lunch, 'free' in more
senses than one, dallies perhaps a little with the
big black cigar ensuing, and returns for another
short spell at work. But little serious business is
transacted after three in the afternoon. The rest of
the day each man spends after his own devices. A
drive on the Cliff House road behind a fast team, is
perhaps the favourite amusement, although many-
indulge in less healthful recreations ; but, howsoever
their other tastes may differ, almost all these
capitalists thoroughly understand the theory and
practice of dining. The cuisine of San Francisco
is truly meritorious. If the number of the
dishes be limited, for the purveying of a toothsome
banquet, to say nothing of the difference in cost, I
will back mine honest host of the ' California'
against Delmonico of world-wide fame. A certain
salmi de grenouilles a TEspagnole will, I wot, live
long in more gastric memories than mine. During

o o o

the evening, often till night has far waned, both at
the clubs and in private houses there is much
prevalence of ' Poker/

Forasmuch as this famous game, more than any
other with which I am acquainted, illustrates a

110 SILVERLAND.

national character, a few words may be specially
devoted to it here.

The salient if not the best points in the American
temperament are, perhaps, coolness of nerve, keen per-
ception of chances, and equanimity under either for-
tune— exaggerated in Southern recklessness. Now,
of these qualities ' Poker' is the very touchstone.

The principles of the game are simple enough.
Six players can compete ; but, in the last case, the
pack hardly holds out, and five make the plea-
santest table. Five cards are dealt to each player,
and any or all of these may be exchanged for others
from the ' deck ' or talon. The rules differ slightly
in the East and West ; but, usually, the strongest
hand is a 'sequence flush' or quint — a quint-major,
of course, strongest of all ; next to this come four
aces, &c., then a ' full hand ' — three and a pair ;
and so on, through a like descending scale.
Any hand may be thrown up at once ; in which
case no loss is incurred save by the player next
to the dealer, who is obliged to 'ante' a trifling
sum. After the discard, commences a kind of
Brag. Each player, in turn, has the option of
raising the stake on his adversaries ; these may
either accept the same, showing their hand, or ' bluff"'

SILVERLAND. ill

with a yet higher, or retire at a sacrifice of all they
have contributed to the pool. I purposely omit
certain minutiae, such as ' straddling/ raising before
discard, &c. ; but, from this shadowy sketch of the
game, you may infer that it is no mean test of
character. When its devotees affirm that a finished
Poker-player must needs shine in any career, where
tact, courage, and study of human nature are more
essential to success than mere plodding industry,
they do not, apparently, far outrun the truth.

Speech goes for nothing ; for Poker-language is
not only always parliamentary, but intended ex-
pressly to mislead and mystify : therefore, skill in
physiognomy is most valuable, though even this
must frequently be liable to err. Broad-leafed hats,
drawn low over the brows, and even green shades,
have been used to baffle scrutiny; but the real
artist holds such shifts and subterfuges in utter
scorn. In strait ever so sore, his trained eyes
neither lower nor lighten ; over the fourth ace or
the sequence complete, his cheek never flushes ; and,
bluffing on the weakest of pairs, he would betray
not so much emotion as Hugo imputes to our
great Marshal, when, at the turn of the battle — Le
DUG de Per ne sourcilla pas ; mais ses levres

112 SILVERLAND.

bttmirent. But such men nascuntur, non fiunt ;
and no amount of practice, unsupported by natural
qualifications, will produce the perfect exemplar.

Extreme caution is almost as fatal a fault as
extreme audacity; and the player, who ventures,
only on strength, will rarely draw a remunerative
pool ; for his crafty opponents read his hand like a
book, and the very c ante's ' will break him at last.
A well-garnished purse is, of course, a very shield
and buckler ; for the stakes must needs be made in
money or notes : unless by special agreement no
bluffing on parole, or I 0. U/s, are allowed. A
story I heard, years ago, illustrates this rule rather
happily.

It was in the palmy days of the Mississippi, when
the South was full of coin and courage ; and you
may fancy the 'plunging' on board the floating
palaces in which the rich planters went to and fro.
A small confederacy made large profits by working
in this wise. They lay in wait for a big pool, and
then ' raised ' with a stake that it was next to im-
possible the wealthiest traveller could cover in cash :
by the Mississippi rule, cheques were not a legal
tender, and borrowing from outsiders was prohibited.
This stake was their entire capital; and, for a long

SILVERLAND. 113

time it remained intact, whilst on the interest thus
accruing the speculators lived royally ; changing their
quarters often, so as to avert suspicion. On a certain
clay the gang confronted a solitary opponent — a
staid, elderly person, who had sat down only under
protest, and after long solicitation. At the proper
crisis, the chief gambler produced the famous
pocket-book.

"I go 20,000 dollars higher/' he said; "and
youVe five minutes to cover."

The countenance of the decent elder fell blankly.
In great dudgeon, he remonstrated against such a
violation of the spirit of the game, and appealed to
the bystanders ; but all availed nothing, and the
time of grace was waning fast. The gambler was
beginning to gather the pool, when, with a sigh like
a groan, the patriarch unbuttoned his vest, and from
a chain round his neck detached a mighty wallet, by
the side of which the other note-case was as a lady's
porte-feuille. From its recesses packet after packet,
roll after roll, of good bank-paper emerged.

" I go 100,000 better," he said ; " and you ve five
minutes to cover."

The defeat was simply crushing ; for, besides a
few dollars of petty cash, it left the confederates

114 SILVEKLAND.

penniless : but they accepted it with that wonderful
fortitude which redeems some of the basenesses of
the trade. Did they wax wroth, I wonder, a week
later, when they discovered that their conqueror
was no other than the cashier of one of the chief
banks in New Orleans, carrying down supplies to
one of its branches ?

Though from the ' raise' being limited to ten
dollars, there is less scope here for splendid audacity
than for cool science, at that same Pacific Club
are found some of the most famous players west of
Chicago. Often and often, arriving late when the
table was full, I have watched the game with no less
interest than if it had been a crack rubber at the
' Portland/ I did not witness any of the big
gambling bouts, with which certain Californian
magnates beguile their brief leisure and lighten
their plethoric purses. At one of these, shortly
before our arrival, a celebrated Pioneer won close
on forty thousand pounds sterling ; and drew every
cent of his winnings before noon of the day on which
the thirty-six hours' sitting broke up.

After all, without crossing the Atlantic, you will
never understand the wonderful hold of this game
on all classes of American society. Judges on circuit,

SILVERLAND. 1 15

and even grave divines, are said sometimes to suc-
cumb to its fascination ; about the heaviest Poker
in all the States flourishes in the shadow of the
Capitol; as for the miners, if you would know
how deeply their thoughts, dreams, and daily talk
are imbued with its spirit, you have but to read
Bret Harte.

Finally, now that you are probably weary of the
subject, I have done it but scant justice.

CHAPTER VII.

THE following Saturday found us on the rail
running betwixt the uttermost spurs of the Santa
Cruz Sierra and the bay of San Jose. Anyone,
ever so slightly acquainted with Franciscan society,
will guess whither we were bound ; indeed, our
host's hospitality has become so completely an
' institution/ that it is needless to name him.

It was a pleasant journey — none the less so,
because a Maryland face was found in our com-
pany. When I looked on it last, the kindly lips
would have set themselves like stone rather than
have smiled on one of the ' Northern scum/ But
in nine years many changes are rung ; and, if the
fair dame has 'bated somewhat of her prejudices
since she vowed to honour and obey yonder
doughty commander — presently Indian-taming in
Arizona — she has but followed elder and wiser

SILVERLAND. 117

examples. Truly, it is best so. Why stir the
soil above buried hatchets? So we talked of old
times, and old friends, and old enemies to boot,
with a sober historical interest. Only I was
faintly sensible of an incongruity when, a few
days later, under her auspices, we made acquaint-
ance with the genial soldiers garrisoning Fort
Presidio.

I have never seen anything at all resem-
bling the chateau whither we were bound ; but
its plan seems well adapted to any climate
where perfect ventilation is of more consequence
than defence against cold. A broad, high gallery,
provided with all imaginable couches and loung-
ing-chairs, girdles three sides of a square, two-
storied mansion. On the ground-floor are the
living apartments, including a ball-room; on the
second are the sleeping chambers, in which four-
score guests have been sheltered ere now ; and,
everywhere, there is the same wealth of space and
liberality of air and light. The great charm of the
place is the absolute free-agency prevailing there.
You are not bound to amuse yourself by rule, or,
unless it seem good to you, to be amused at all.
When the cheery host, as you enter his door, bids

118 SILVERLAND.

you — " Call for what you want, and do as you
like/' — you feel that it is no form of words, and,
if you are wise, act accordingly.

After dinner we all went to inspect the stables.
These, like the house, are built entirely of wood,
and, though brilliantly lighted with gas, were just
as faultless in ventilation. More than fifty stalls
were filled with a rare level lot of harness cattle,
showing, with no deficiency of blood, an amount of
substance rare even in a Californian stud, where
good backs and loins are not, as in the East, an
exception to the rule. Without a single celebrity
among them, each and every animal standing there
—barring a few young ones hardly furnished yet
— looked, and I believe was, game to take its share
in long, fast work. In truth, though a kind horse-
master, our host drives after the manner of the
son of Nimshi : however, a team of four, that can
go up to ' 3.20,' satisfies even his requirements. A
buyer rather than a breeder, he is justly proud of
some of his deals; and it was my good luck to
pick out the very apple of his eye — a slashing-
chestnut four-year-old, that looked like carrying
fifteen stone alongside of any pack over any
country.

SILVERLAND. 119

In the carriage-houses, almost every form of
vehicle, from the roomiest break to the flimsiest
spider- waggon, was represented ; indeed, I cannot
remember another establishment where the old
vaunt of — ' Bring some more curricles ' — could be
so easily fulfilled.

Though the billiard-room lamps were burning far
into the small hours, certain intrepid sight-seers
were afoot soon after dawn; and, under convoy of
our host, drove into the heart of the green hills that
bound the horizon towards the west. They returned
in a fine frame of scenic enthusiasm ; but, for reasons
good, my mate and I were fain to take their raptures
on trust. However, we were to have our own
picturesque experiences ; for the digestive cigar,
following a long late breakfast, was scarcely con-
sumed, when our host was on the box of his break
again — brisk, bustling, and energetic, as though he
had just issued from his bed-chamber, instead of
having steered a pulling team over a score of miles
of cross-country road, abounding in steep pitches,
soft places, and awkward angles.

I suppose that nowhere, outside the tropics, could
be found a more marvellous variety of vegetation
than these lowlands, and the adjoining slopes, dis-

120 SILVERLAND.

play. Every tree, shrub, and flower indigenous to
the region, and many exotics to boot, seem to
flourish kindly here; and, ever and anon, over the
tender green and vivid emerald of the recent plan-
tations, or over the gay garden-broideries, towers
a huge holm-oak — writhen, gnarled, and grey as
the legendary Italian olives — like a Pict giant
among the Scots.

We drove through the grounds of two or three
country seats that afternoon : standing amongst the
shaven lawns and trim parterres of one of these,
you might have fancied yourself at Eoehampton.
The stables too were a picture in their way ; though
they wore a gaudy look to an English eye, and
much varnish and plated work might have been dis-
pensed with. I saw the like luxury of ornament
during the War, at poor Will MacdonalcVs stud-farm
near Baltimore ; but in the box thus bedizened stood
Flora Temple — queen of the trotting turf, whose
1 time ' was then unrivalled. The owner of this
buen retiro is a man of mark, even here where
financial celebrities are rife ; and his history is a fair
type of the country and period.

A few years ago he was a struggling storekeeper,
with a small share in a small mine ; and, once, was fain

SILVERLAND. 121

to send away his customers empty-handed, because his
credit was not good for a sack of corn. He struck
a 'good lead' at last, and came to San Francisco
with more than a moderate competence. But the
dogged courage, hopeful energy, and straightforward
common sense, which had thriven in the hills, went
astray in the crooked ways of California Street ;
and, within a brief space, a huge cantle of his pile
melted, like a spring snowbal], in the grasp of the
broking guild. Now, somewhere up in Silverland,
there was being worked a certain mine, more mo-
dest in its promises than in its requirements ; for, if
the dividends were irregular and rare, the ' calls '
came like clock-work. As a natural consequence
the value of the stock slid downwards, till at last it
stood nominally at three dollars a share, but was
scarcely quoted on 'Change. To the manager of
this property the speculator aforesaid had once shown
no small kindness ; and thus the other requited it.
For some time past, he had been exploring on his
own account ; working only with men whom he
could trust not to reveal the results to outsiders, or
even to their fellows. When he was prepared to
show some thirty thousand dollars' worth of exposed
ore, he hastened down to San Francisco. The whole

122 SILVERLAND.

twelve thousand shares might be bought up for
thirty- six thousand dollars ; would his friend find
the money ? It was a heavy — a very heavy — pull.
If this venture went awry, there was an end to
leisure and ease, and nothing for it but the preca-
rious toilsome hill-life all over again ; but this
man had faith in his comrade, and the pluck of that
famous hazard-player who, when the dice were most
unkind, would cry, smiling — " In spite of our late
losses and reverses, the main will still be Seven."

Before the following night, Mr. H • controlled

all this stock, in which he was already largely in-
terested, at the aforesaid price. When we were in
San Francisco the market value of each share was
seven hundred dollars — very few being procurable
at that price ; and the monthly profits of the mine
were over half a million.

So if this honest magniftco should elect to have
stable-fittings of virgin silver, or to pace to and fro,
amongst his roses and Calla lilies, on emerald velvet
instead of on soft lawn turf, he might safely please
his fancy ; and, I believe, none, howsoever they
may have envied, begrudged him his good fortune.

Whilst we are on the subject, it is worth while
remembering that a curious fatality seems to attach

SILVERLAND. 123

to these ventures. The cases are rare indeed, where
the original discoverers of the richest claims have
profited largely thereby. An instance, quoted by
Mark Twain, is substantially correct, and has many
parallels. " The owner of two-thirds of the Gould
and Curry mine sold out for two thousand five
hundred dollars, and an old horse, that ate up his
value in seventeen days ; whilst his partner — even
less provident — traded for Government blankets
and 'tangle-foot' whisky. Four years later, the
market value of the property exceeded seven mil-
lions in gold coin."

Though you know of a surety that things have
gone so, when, passing out of the presence of one of
these prosperous magnates, you encounter a woful,
haggard creature — unkempt, mrwashed, questing for
drink like a dry-lipped hound — it is hard to realise
that the two can ever have started fair in the same
race, and had even chances in the great Lucky
Bag wherein all, save a few special favourites, must
dive blindfolded. Nevertheless, it may well have
been thus ; and the contrast should suggest no light
warning.

The drive homewards, winding through the spurs
of the hills, was wonderfully picturesque ; and, by

124 SILVERLAND.

rare good luck, the tide was high in the bay ; so
that, looking seaward, you saw no sour salt marshes
or sullen mud-flats, but only the aviipW^ov y^ao-^a of
rippling sun-lit waters.

After the parting skal, a fresh team rattled us
down to the station. Whilst we waited for a train,
one of our party, fond of statistics, amused himself
by computing how many horses had been harnessed
for our special behoof since dawn. Thirty-four was
the sum of the addition — not a bad average for
a Day of Kest.

CHAPTER VIII.

I HAVE heard Calif ornians aver that, when travel-
ling or residing in other lands, a certain insipidity in
the surroundings soon turned the current of their
desires back towards their ' ain countrie/ Allowing
somewhat for provincial vanity, there may be much
truth in this ; at any rate, Franciscan life has a
wonderful fascination for most strangers. Not the
fascination of idleness or a/coAao-ta ; for the city re-
sembles ancient Sybaris no more than it does ancient
Athens ; and a thorough epicurean would be as much
misplaced here as any other philosophic dreamer.
There are strangely few drones in this vast part-
coloured hive ; and to almost every male adult each
day brings its tale of work, whether of head or hand.

It is not a soil wherein the Sciences, grave or
gay, or the Fine Arts, are likely specially to thrive.
Though a cunning painter will not lack patrons, and

126 S1LVEELAND.

sweet singers, coming from afar, may count on
hearty welcome and rich guerdon, probably in no
other city in the United States is the consump-
tion of literature, even of the lightest, so small. I
heard a Franciscan of mark confess, half regretfully,
that he could never find time for reading except in
the railway-cars ; and, doubtless, he might have
spoken for many of his fellows. A tinge of
bustle and business mingles with their Sabine
leisure ; and, even in his country-house, the romance
must be daintily seasoned that would chain a true
Californian to his chair for a stricken hour. A book-
worm is a rarity such as no Western museum can
show. There is no dearth of schools and colleges ;
and useful, if not liberal, education permeates very
far down in the social scale ; but, I imagine, the
studies of the rising generation have for the most
part some practical end ; and the dead languages are
rather lightly entreated in the politest of these
academies.

You meet with rare exceptions — men like Judge

H- ; who has Horace at his fingers' ends, and will

stray as far as you please through metaphysical
mazes ; but this amiable and erudite person, despite
his patriotism, would subscribe to much that is

SILVERLAND. 127

set down here, and regarded himself, intellectually
speaking, as rather a castaway.

Yet they are a pleasant folk to consort with,
these jovial plutocrats. Though ' rough diamonds'
are not uncommon, you will very seldom encounter
the purse-pride or assumption of the parvenu ; and
'shoddy ' is at a discount here. Moreover, in outward
seeming, they differ widely from their compeers on
the Eastern shore. Most of the faces you meet, as
you drive along the Cliff House road, wear the
healthy tan of sun and sea breeze ; and most of the
frequenters of California Street look as if they could
yet do a good day's work, if need were, up in the
hills. In fine, the influences of the place, social as
well as physical, are decidedly bracing.

The Cliff House reminds me of another
Franciscan spetialite. In no other city, in either
hemisphere, do such teams stand for daily hire. The
keeper of one livery stable is generally open, I
believe, to bet that he will produce thirty machiners
that will do their mile in a few seconds over three
minutes, trotting to the pole. Out of more than one
pair, both Tressilian and myself could get '2.50/
without great pressing ; and, under hands that they
were accustomed to, the time might, doubtless, have

128 SILVERLAND.

been much improved. Some of the private teams
are very remarkable : one, belonging to a principal
banker, I shall remember as the perfection of its kind.

A pair of dark brown mares, own sisters, and
the most marvellous match in colour, shape, and
action; standing just 15.3 ; clean-limbed, large-eyed,
lean-headed, as red hinds, with plenty of substance
— they made a picture that, set before any lover
of horse-flesh, must play havoc with the Tenth
Commandment. Being under seven, they had
scarce, according to American notions, come to their
prime ; but twice, driven by their owner — a fair,
though hardly a first-class whip — we timed them
over the mile track at the Agricultural Park under
2.35. The Commodore — an authority in such
matters — guessed that in New York they would be
cheap at twenty-five thousand dollars ; and I still
hold them peerless, after reviewing all the cele-
brities of Haarlem Lane.

Neither money nor pains are spared to produce
these fast cattle ; but, beyond question, the climate
and pasturage are all in favour of the breeder.
There are not a few cases even of aged horses,
brought hither from the East, whose turn of speed
has improved surprisingly.

SILVERLAND. 129

Notwithstanding all this, the charioteering facili-
ties at San Francisco are, in some respects, limited.
The two avenues to the Pacific, mentioned above,
are literally the only roads available for an afternoon-
drive ; and, before you emerge on either of these,
you must needs rattle over uneven pavement and
creaking planks, lined and interlined by the tram-
ways of the street-cars. These last are, doubtless,
most commendable institutions for cheapness and
utility ; but, contemplated from a coaching point
of view, they are an utter offence and abomina-
tion.

At a Greenwich dinner last summer, I listened to
some strong opinions concerning the latest improve-
ments in our southern suburbs ; and then I wondered
how those ill-used dragsmen would have spoken, had
they been confronted, daily and hourly, with the
iron network compassing this city like a shirt of
mail. ' Cater ' across the rails ever so cleverly,
you cannot escape jolt and jar ; and, with the
slightest divergence from the track when the
wheels are fairly in the groove, comes a pro-
longed grating wrench, recalling dental memories.
How some of the slender, fragile-looking vehicles
escaped constant dislocation, was a puzzle to our

130 SILVERLAND.

British minds, even after visiting Kimball's famous
factory. These cunning artificers seem to have
worked out the problem, of combining strength and
durability with incredible lightness of draught, to
the very last figure. They built for the Commodore
a spider- waggon, weighing just 90lbs., pole in-
cluded ; and to this conveyance, drawn by a fast
team, he would entrust over fourteen stone of very
solid flesh with perfect confidence — no mean test of
tough hickory and hardened steel.

The extreme looseness and friability of the soil,
in many places little better than shifting sand, must
try the skill and patience of the engineer ; but solid
metalling and secure fencing are, as has been proved
here already, simply questions of expense ; and I
affirm that the present state of the land-ap-
proaches to San Francisco is a stain on Western
civilisation. Take, for instance, the road trending
southwards into the heart of San Mateo county,
along the shore of the San Jose Bay. This is,
a main highway, passing through a country
well populated and fertile to a degree ; all along
it lie the country seats of bankers, merchants,
and mining magnates— men of mark and means,
not wont to count the cost when comfort or con-

SILVERLAND. 131

venience are in question. Let me give a per-
sonal experience thereof.

Threading the suburbs, you are prepared, of
course, for incessant tramways and much dodging
of street-cars, also for the succession of long wooden
bridges spanning marshy tidal inlets ; but the piece
of road ensuing would, to most strangers, be rather
a surprise. Imagine a long bare causeway — without
a curb or rim of earth to turn a wheel, let alone an
attempt at fence or parapet, — falling away on either
hand, till about midway you look down into hol-
lows some thirty feet deep, strewn with rugged
boulders. Down the centre run the inevitable rails ;
and as the car — rather larger than those plying in
our suburbs — overlaps these, there is barely room,
by drawing aside, to let it pass. Further, imagine
your near-side horse somewhat shy and raw, and
apt to hang heavily on the pole at any encounter
with these infernal machines. At the very tightest
point of the Via Mala, your enemy emerges from
a cutting ahead, and bears down on you at a steady
implacable trot. Would you fancy the position?
The subscriber did not, he is free to allow ; and his
misgivings seemed to find an echo in the breast of
his comrade — no other than c Dick/ the merry

K 2

132 SILVERLAND.

mystifier of Salt Lake City. We shaved by some-
how ; but betwixt the off- wheel (they pass here by
the Continental rule) and the causeway's verge I
doubt if two dollars would have lain flatwise. The
rest of the road, in parts lapped by the wavelets
of the Bay, is most attractive, and, save on the
darkest night, quite devoid of peril. Also, there
are some rare stretches of trotting ground ; and we
passed the seventeenth milestone in just a hundred
minutes from the door of the Grand Hotel. But in
a score of places, at least, we were fain to pick our
way carefully to avoid hole or quagmire ; though,
for weeks past, not a rain-cloud had flecked the
sky.

Such a trivial incident would not be worth re-
cording, were it not, to some extent, illustrative of a
feature in the Californian morale. Despite of re-
gular business habits and professional caution, some
of the sober city folk, when once clear of commer-
cial trammels, evince a carelessness of life and limb
worthy of a mining camp. When this road —
much the shortest and easiest, albeit not the
sole approach to San Francisco — might have been
made secure for a few hundred dollars, and solid
for a few thousand more, that a merchant-prince,

SILVERLAND. 133

such as our entertainer of that day, should travel it
contentedly in its present state, seemed an anomaly
not less strange than would be highwaymen on
modernised Hounslow Heath.

Without the attraction of a sumptuous banquet,
the mansion itself would have been well worth a visit.
From almost every window the eye might rest on a
landscape, scarcely less attractive than the master-
pieces of Bierstadt adorning the inner walls ; and
the specimens of polished woods — notably in one
room, panelled from floor to ceiling with blended
shades of mountain laurel — were quite a study.
The very place wherein to lounge away a calm
bright afternoon ; and only the recollection of the
' bad bit ' aforesaid made us turn citywards again,
be-fore the sun was low.

More pleasant hours we spent at Fort Presidio,
the district head-quarters of artillery. The position,
as a matter of course, commands the Bay ; the
defences of which are so nearly complete as to
render forcible entrance next to impossible. But
few grim evidences of war are visible here ; and
there will be fewer yet ere long, if the project of
converting a wide plateau of waste land, just with-
out the lines, into a people's park be carried into

134 SILVERLAND.

effect. The officers3 quarters contrast strangely with
our notions of barrack, accommodation in the pro-
vinces. Instead of a couple of dull scanty rooms,
opening on to a common stair, the wife even of a
subaltern can count on a neat, semi-detached house,
looking over a trim grassplat in front and a garden
to the rear, with vines and creepers to the eaves for
the mere trouble of training. The American system
of ' roster,' at least in this branch of the service, differs
materially from ours. A battery appears, not un-
frequently, to remain for years at the same station :
so no wonder that the nests of some of these warlike
birds are so comfortably feathered, and that

Securely there they build, and there
Securely hatch their young.

One of the field-officers at Fort Presidio is a
hunter of great renown; and from him I learnt much
concerning the sporting capabilities of the country.
Quails — much larger and handsomer birds, especially
the mountain variety, than ours — seem to abound
almost everywhere ; and on the hills, within a short
hour's sail of the fort, on the opposite side of the Bay,
a fair shot and staunch walker would rarely return
empty-handed from a stalk after deer. The snipe
and wild-fowl shooting on the rivers and marshes

SILVERLAND. 135

draining into Benicia Bay sounds very tempting ;
but it could only be properly worked from a small
yacht, or, better still, a large steam launch of light
draught ; and in an inclement season, like the last,
success is, at the best, uncertain. The farther afield
you go southwards, the better seem the chances of
sport, particularly amongst the big game ; and in
the vast ranches lying betwixt the Pacific and the
sierras of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San
Diego, you may come to as close quarters as may
please you with veritable ' grizzlies.'

Even so far west as this, most shooting men, who
can afford it, though they use the home-made rifle,
affect the British breechloader ; and all the Major's
dogs were of pure English breed, if not directly im-
ported. One brace of black and tan setters — a
recent acquisition — were handsome enough to have
taken a prize at any show. Their owner vouched
them as good as they looked; and, though we
could not try them actually on game, better
form of galloping I have seldom seen on Scottish
moors.

A visit to the Chinamen in their own quarter,
was a necessity. Knowing that they thrive not
ill, and seem tolerably content with their lot

136 SILVERLAND.

one is yet moved to compassionate the meek,
laborious aliens — toiling, many of them, all their
lives in a land so strange that none will leave
his bones therein, if at any cost, or by stealth,
they can be carried back to the Flowery Land.
They are not often, in the cities at least, physically
maltreated now ; but they always wear a weary,
overborne look, these poor Celestials ; and a harsh
word, or violent gesture, will make the boldest of
them shrink like a dog, who, in the hands of the
kindest master, never quite forgets his breaking.
Though they can do almost any amount of certain
kinds of work, there is something emasculate about
the whole race, at least when transplanted here.
Looking at their beardless faces, small hands, and
slender limbs, it does not seem strange that they
should be so apt at washing, cooking, and other
household drudgery that in most countries falls to
the women's share. Neither is this impression
much weakened, even when you realise that a sullen
implacability often underlies this outward submis-
siveness. I should be loth to make a friend of a
Chinaman — still more loth to lie at his mercy
as an enemy ; but then the same remark might
apply to divers classes of females, all the world over.

SILVERLAND. 137

The Ghetto at Eomc is — or used to be — a curious,
instance of isolation ; but the Chinese quarter at
San Francisco appears, in this respect, even more
remarkable. Wheresoever his lines may fall, this
incorrigible heathen clings to his native habits and
observances with a touching fidelity ; and it would
be easier to wash a blackamoor white, than to
argue or ' improve ' him out of these. The first
time we passed through the narrow noisome streets
it was after dark ; and the Sailor, who had been
stationed for a year at Hongkong, averred that,
without the slightest effort of imagination, he could
have fancied himself in Canton again. From the
recesses of the low-browed dens floated the faint,
sickly odours of the incense-lights, burning before
the Josses, mingled, ever and anon, with the deadlier
savour of smouldering opium ; the tiny coloured
lanterns displayed the same quaint, old-fashioned
wares, arid abominations of victuals which, from
time immemorial, have pleased the Celestial taste
and palate ; most of the shops, besides a placard in
Barbarian language, bore a scroll inscribed with the
well-known mystic characters ; and the tradesmen,
squatting within, reckoned up their gains and losses,
not with pen and ledger, but with a kind of abacus

13S SILVERLAND.

of complicated beads and wires, by the aid of which
a Chinese, even of the lower orders, will work out
an intricate sum with a rapidity that would leave
any ordinary book-keeper far behind.

I write the word ' noisome ' advisedly ; for, though
as a domestic, he is cleanly enough in his habits,
' John's ' warmest advocates — amongst the educated
classes in America there is no lack of these — will
hardly deny that, when cowering over his own hearth
or mingling in a crowd of his fellows, he is a
graveolent creature. Let any, who are sceptical of
this, pay just one visit to his theatre at San
Francisco. We were inducted there under fair and
favourable auspices ; and, albeit on escort duty, had
special permission to smoke unlimited strong cigars.
Well — before that night I never realised how nearly
a savour may become substantial, and an atmo-
sphere palpable. The heavy air seemed to cling
round you, and work into your very garments like
a Scotch mist ; only, humidity was absent. It was
impossible to define or classify the ill odours, a,s the
poet did in

Cologne, town of ugly wenches.

Indeed, the subtle blending of infinite variety helped
to make the whole effect so overpowering. Garlic

SILVERLAND. 139

did, perhaps, sometimes slightly predominate ; but,
before we could be sure of this, a narcotic whiff
assailed the nostrils, and set our senses swimming.
Where we were placed, there was elbow-room to
spare, whereas the pit below was densely thronged ;
and there sit, nightly, for weeks together, the specta-
tors of perhaps the dreariest pieces that have issued
from civilised brains. For the Chinese playwright
may be as prolix as he pleases, without fear of the
* cutting ' that provoked placable Mr. Puff ; and his
public get their money's worth with a vengeance.
It is not uncommon for a drama, embodying the
history of some famous Emperor, or of a dynasty,
to take some months of continuous representation.
Fancy being compelled to sit it out — deafened,
moreover, the while, by a running accompani-
ment of tom-toms, cymbals, and all manner of
discord ! Compared to this, surely it would be a
light entertainment to study, line by line, those forty
volumes of obsolete Italian history, to the perusal
whereof a certain prisoner preferred the scaffold.
Even with the help of an interpreter, it was
difficult to pick up the slenderest thread of plot ;
especially as, when the situation seemed to be
waxing at all impassioned or interesting, the

1 10 SILVERLAND.

orchestra was sure to strike in with a din drown-
ing the dialogue : yet actors and actresses, to do
them justice, spared not their lungs, and strained
their voices to cracking. I have written ' ac-
tresses ;' but I should be loth to swear to the sex
of those strange beings, ' ruddled ' till their faces
shone again, gibbering and screaming there. The
costumes were remarkable for profuse embroidery
and violent contrasts of colour ; but, had they been
in better taste, they must have looked garish and
tawdry on the ill-lighted stage. There was a good
deal of sham fighting, but none of the combatants
went through the form of smiting each other ;
neither was there any clashing of swords or buck-
lers. The whole affair seemed intended to display
the feats of a few ordinary acrobats ; and, very often,

Around them paused the battle,

whilst they flung somersaults, and otherwise con-
torted themselves.

The tenacity of purpose and powers of endurance,
inherent in the sex, supported, it is probable, the
matrons and maids of our company ; for they had
shown no signs of moving, when, on false pretext,
I shame to say, of a forgotten business-engagement,

SILVERLAND. 141

I fled and gat me out. The first gulp of fresh air
• — never very fresh, however, in that quarter — was
like a cordial ; but the cunningest drink that the
Pacific steward could devise — availed not to wash
out of my throat, that night, the arriere-gotU of the
Paynim.

Graver, if not wiser, heads than Bret Harte's, have
been busy of late over the question of Chinese cheap
labour ; ' and it is possible that the solution of many
difficulties may be found here, notably of those now
hampering the South.

A Chinaman would sooner lie down and starve,
than delve underground for ever so liberal hire.
Superstitious terrors lie, probably, at the root of this
prejudice, which is insuperable. But of ordinary
out-door labour he can do his fair share, supplying
by neatness and assiduity the lack of physical
power. An eminent railway engineer assured me
that, in the long run, he could get more work out of
a Chinese gang, controlled by a Chinese overseer or
sub-contractor, than out of an equal number of
Americans or Irish. Indeed, though, side by side with
an ordinary navvy, ' John ' looks but a puny atomy —
burrowing on in mole-like fashion, he is pretty sure
to complete the appointed task in the appointed

SILVERLAND.

time ; whereas, with the other, broils, sprees, and
strikes make this a very open question. Assuredly,
in rivalry with the free negro, it seems long odds
on pigtail against wool. In extremes of cold or
wet, the ' Chinee ' is apt to shrivel up and wax
flaccid, and he has no nerve to fight against certain
epidemics ; but— opium being nearly his sole ex-
cess— he is rather a tough, than fragile, creature as
a rule, and is like to thrive quite as well on a
Louisiana cane-brake, or South Carolina rice-
ground, as in his native paddy-fields.

There are, of course, certain inconveniences
in dealing with people devoid of moral sense
and moral dignity, who reckon lying and steal-
ing amongst the Polite Arts ; but the opportu-
nities for the exercise of this last accomplishment,
on an important scale, would be comparatively
limited on a plantation ; and a strict, not over-
severe, supervision might do wonders. At any
rate, the experiment seems worth trying, if it were
only to bring the impracticable ' Pompey ' — now
absolutely master of the position — somewhat to his
bearings. Some Southern landowners must be of
this opinion ; for the directors of more than one
large steamship company have been sounded already

SILVERLAND.

as to the contract price of landing some thousands
of coolies on that seaboard.

" San Francisco," writes Mark Twain, " a truly
fascinating city to live in, is stately and handsome
at a fair distance ; but close at hand one notes that
the architecture is mostly old-fashioned ; many
streets are made up of decaying, smoke-grimmed,
wooden houses ; and the barren sand-hills, towards
the outskirts, obtrude themselves too prominently.'7

An impartial witness might further have recorded,
the remarkable absence of any artificial shade. Not
that even on the sand-hills, encompassing the city,
it is ' barren all ; ' for, where there is shelter from the
sea- winds, there is wealth of vegetation : but it is
vegetation — not woodland. There are orchards
and vines, of course ; but, with the exception of
a few tall shrubs in Woodward's Gardens, you
may go far afield beyond the extremest suburbs,
before you find anything resembling a forest tree.
However, if your soul thirsts for umbrage, you have
but to take the steam-ferry across the Bay to Oakland,
where there is no lack of greenery, great and small.

Of this, her rival, San Francisco is waxing exceed-
ing jealous ; and, it would seem, with reason good.
A few years ago, it was a mere group of isolated

144 SILVERLAND.

villas, owned by wealthy citizens, with semi-rural
tastes. Nowadays, a densely populated town
stretches landward from the Central Pacific
Terminus ; whilst on its outskirts imposing frame-
houses, and more substantial edifices, are spring-
ing up daily ; and the price of building lots has
risen fabulously. It is, indeed, a very pleasant
place of sojourn ; for, when the waters within the
Golden Gate are all a-foam, the sea-winds breathe
gently here, even if they are not held wholly at
bay by the hill-rampart to the north-west, over
which Monte Diablo looms like a keep.

Nevertheless, the residential attractions of Oakland
will, probably, ere long, be merged in its commercial
importance. Whether the Goat Island project has
been carried out or no, I cannot say. On this
barren islet, lying nearly midway betwixt the City
and their present Terminus, the Central Pacific
Company proposed to build a vast depot ; bridging
over the shallows dividing it from the mainland.
The bill was strongly opposed — not in San Francisco
alone, where conflict of interest was evident, but by
strategists, who argued that the occupation of this
point by Government was absolutely necessary to
the complete defence of the Bay. If the bill should

SILVERLAND. 145

pass, it is not difficult to foresee the effect. The
want of unbroken land-communication has already
told heavily on the commerce of the City ; and, if
the goods traffic were still more powerfully con-
centrated at Oakland, the balance of mercantile
power would be turned in earnest — presently, at
least. For, ere the world is much older, the last
links of a double or triple chain, knitting San
Francisco to the South-East will certainly be
welded.

CHAPTEE IX.

THE most attractive, if not the most important,
thoroughfare in San Francisco is Montgomery
Street ; and chief, beyond doubt, of the temptations
that here beset the stranger, is the Photographic
Gallery. At the proper season, the atmospheric
conditions seem specially favourable to the process,
and the results are very remarkable. Though this
branch of art has so marvellously advanced of late,
the views of the Yosemite Valley might, I think,
challenge European comparison.

The swan upon St. Mary's lake
Floats double, swan and shadow,

writes Wordsworth. Would not the ' gentle lover
of nature ' have rhymed to some purpose, if he
had seen a whole mountain-side so exactly reflected
in a vast crystal mirror, that at the first glance it is
hard to discern where rock merges into water ?
This effect the cunning worker in collodion has

SILVERLAND. 147

reproduced with absolute fidelity. I should like
to know — not intimately, but at a respectful dis-
tance— the traveller who would issue from those
seductive saloons with unloosened purse-strings.

The very mention of Californian landscape draws
English thoughts towards Arnold Bierstadt ; and
the great painter has honour in his own country, no
less than in ours. I shall not lightly forget a fore-
noon spent in his studio ; or the patience and
courtesy which enabled us to exhaust, to the last
tiny scrap, portfolios crammed with sketches in
water-colour. In the depths of this last winter he
had succeeded in reaching the Yosemite Valley — a
feat of which the Alpine Club might have been proud ;
although he himself made so little of it, that only
from our own experience, and the hints of native
mountaineers, could we guess at the risks and priva-
tions that must need have been incurred. Almost
all the recent drawings were mere studies ; but one
or two stormy sunsets were marvels of weird light
and shade ; and you could not look narrowly into the
crudest of them without perceiving how it might
work into some corner of a noble picture. Through-
out, there was the same delicate touch and soft elabo-
ration of detail ; and — speaking not ex cathedrd — I

L 2

148 SILVERLAND.

take leave to doubt if, since Claude Lorraine, any
have rivalled Bierstadt in the handling of gnarled
trunk, twining creeper, or feathery spray.

A view of the Donner Lake in oils, from a point
adjacent to the Central Pacific Railway, was nearly
complete ; and on the easel rested a half-finished
picture of the Seal Rocks. Even thus, this last was
well worth lingering over. The slow swash of the

o o

Pacific surge, with its creamy foam-fringe, just
sufficing to lift the lazy sea-lion on to his rocky
pillow, was simply perfect ; and some cavernous
clefts, half veiled by broken water, were miracles
of cliiar-oscuro.

In about a fortnight the ' Arlington ' brought
down the rest of our company, safe and sound, but
very weary and travel-stained. And then we knew
that our days here were numbered, and that what-
soever of business or pleasure was on hand, behoved
to be done quickly. Our comrades had not alto-
gether wasted time and trouble, having, indeed,
seen much to reward prospecting ; but the same
stumbling-block noted above — want of development
— they had met with almost everywhere. Not that
this in any wise checks the tide of speculation, but
rather amplifies and accelerates it.

SILVERLAND. 149

Perhaps it would be hard to find a Yorkshireman,
owning or tilling a hundred acres of land, without a
horse to sell ; but, trust me, it would be infinitely
harder to light on a Calif ornian of means — not
that this condition is indispensable — without a
mine, or a moiety thereof, at the disposal of the
first likely customer. And, though you be palpably
an uncommercial traveller — howsoever warlike,
learned, or reverend be the calling of your inter-
locutor— I would not insure you against temptation
for a 'red cent.'

Tressilian having, despite his constant disclaimers,
a certain reputation as a capitalist, was a tempt-
ing quarry. A deer turned out at Salt Hill may
give you some faint idea of how he was mobbed
and hunted ; and I always wondered that he did
not oftener turn to bay. When he arrived at San
Francisco he was suffering from the effects of a
heavy fall in a Calaveras prairie ; his mustang
having come down headlong when going at top
speed. A leading physician of the city — personally
known, besides, to one of our company — was sum-
moned, and soon ascertained that no serious harm
was done. A very reverend signor : not exactly
vsimple-looking ; but, with his long white hair and

150 SILVERLAND.

grave weary eyes, most guileless in outward seem-
ing— the kind of man you would fancy too locked
up in his profession to be well versed in the world's,
ways. When, one evening just before the dinner-
hour, we saw the tall, spare figure, with bent head,
crossing the carrefour under our windows, both
the Commodore and I opined that the doctor's errand
was to inquire after, or perhaps inspect, his patient.

" But," said Tressilian, " I'll take twenty dollars
to ten, that he has got a mine in his pocket."

The bet was booked ; and, for once, the Commo-
dore's astuteness was at fault. Having required a
private interview, from the recesses of his long-
skirted garment the sage produced not one, but a
brace of these ventures, with the shadowy outlines
of a third.

For myself, I began to have ' lodes' and 'pockets'
on the brain ; and, in the still watches of the night
fancied that low voices were murmuring of millions :
it was as though I were haunted by the spirit of
some luckless speculator, drowned, long ago in the
seething silver whirlpool. Not the least amongst
the advantages of the Pacific Club was its im-
munity from this annoyance. Mining topics could
not have been intentionally tabooed ; yet I cannot

SILVERLAND. 151

remember hearing them more than casually alluded
to, even by those who came in 'red-handed' from
the battle on 'Change. ' Battle ' is scarcely a mis-
nomer ; for nowhere else, perhaps, within the scope
of mercantile speculation, might be seen such
desperate onslaughts, such wily ambushments, such
ruthlessness of victory, such woe to the vanquished.

Perhaps intense weariness of the whole subject,
not less than natural proclivities and force of old
association, turned my own thoughts and inquiries
into another channel — whereof more anon.

Our experiences of San Francisco were fast
drawing to a close ; but one we lacked yet ; and
this void the Sailor took not a little to heart.

" We've never had our earthquake yet," he used
to remark, mildly, but querulously ; just as one
might speak of an ' unavoidable,' omission, in the
programme of a new opera.

I argued that it was extremely improbable
that a city, perfect hitherto in hospitality, would
send a stranger away, even on this point discon-
tented. Nevertheless, our comrade did so depart
— preceding the rest by some three days or so,
with the view of visiting the Big Trees in Cala-
veras and rejoining us en route.

152 SILVERLAND.

On the night but one ensuing — or rather on the
third morning, for the hour was ' far ayont the twal '
—I was walking home from the club up Mont-
gomery Street, with one companion ; a sojourner
like myself, though of longer date, and also just
flitting Eastwards. Suddenly, I was aware of a
sensation new and strange — not a shock, but a
kind of quiver, thrilling from the soles of the feet
upwards ; and, without quite staggering, I was fain
to sway to and fro involuntarily. At the same
instant the pavement grew unstable, not violently,
but like a raft floating on a lake faintly wind-
stirred ; and the tall houses over against us — this
was a mere optical delusion, of course — seemed to
waver in the uncertain twilight.

Honestly conscious of sobriety — when we left the
club the strictest martinet might have put either of
us through our ' facings ' — I could not guess what
ailed me ; and set it down, at first, to a dizziness or
other passing disorder of the brain. But, glancing
aside at my companion, I noticed that his right
hand was propped on a convenient shop-rail as he
stood stock still.

He had good cavalier blood in his veins, this gay
Down-Easter : for generations past his family had

SILVERLAND. 153

kept up their connections with the old country ;
and he himself had visited it frequently. On
the present occasion, he evinced an amount of
phlegm worthy of that wonderful creation, the
Englishman of the French drama. To be sure, he
had been beaten twice or thrice that night on a
' full hand ' ; and a losing gamester, as all men
know, cares neither for ' the devil nor the deep sea.'
I have no reason to believe that his acquaintance
with these phenomena was more extensive than my
own ; but he only shrugged his shoulders depre-
ciatingly, muttering, " Pretty mean earthquake."
And so marched on, musing, as before.

A very faint jar, immediately ensuing, was fol-
lowed by absolute tranquillity ; and, after waiting a
minute or two, deeming the performance over, I
followed my philosophic friend. But, thenceforth,
I wondered no longer at wood replacing stone in
so many of the imposing edifices within and
around the city.

So slight a shock would scarce have troubled the
slumbers of any true Franciscan. A few bells rang
of their own sweet will ; doors swung open in a
ghostly fashion ; and more crockery was broken than
cats or clumsy fingers can usually account for : but

154 SILVERLAKD.

there was no excuse for a panic, and nothing like
general alarm.

However, the anger of the earth, which visited us
so lightly, was felt in bitter earnest elsewhere.
Throughout the south-western counties there was
rack and ruin ; and in San Bernardino nearly an
entire village was swallowed up in a yawning
chasm, — living souls going down into the pit, as
in the ' gainsaying of Kore/ Even in Stockton
our Sailor's rest was rudely broken. The shock
there was thrice repeated, each time with increased
violence; and, before the third had ceased to vibrate,
through every corridor in the hotel streamed half-
clad fugitives ; whilst the street without was soon
similarly crowded. One ' commercial' — the brother-
hood is always prominent in such emergencies —
specially distinguished himself by leaping out of
a back window on to a huge skylight below.
He escaped with life and limb, much scarified ; but
the smash will probably be l immortal ' in that
hostelry.

After Franciscan hospitality was thus made teres
atque rotunda, we had few chances of further
testing it. Though none murmured when the
marching -orders were issued, one or two, I think,

SILVEKLAND. 155

of our party accepted them in the spirit of the old
Plymouth doggrel ditty :—

* Though it's 'cording to rule, 'says the sergeant,

' It du seem 'nation hard ; '

And so / thought, who listened

To the 'plaint of the Dockyard guard.

One farewell banquet at the ' California/ at which
mine honest host surpassed himself — one farewell
bout of ' poker ' at the Pacific, more in good fellow-
ship than in spirit of gambling — grips of brawny
hands that set our fingers a-tingling ; and then,
through the chilly dawn-light, the Commodore
and I walked back to the ' Grand ; to get our traps
together, just in time to catch the ferry to Oakland.
There the Arlington awaited us, ready yoked to
the eastward-bound train, and not unwelcome with
its curtained couches.

CHAPTER X.

FREQUENT disappointments had so damped the
ardour of our explorers, that not without difficulty
they were persuaded to turn aside from the direct
route eastward to inspect certain hydraulic mines in
Nevada county. Albeit unfit for mountaineer-
ing— for a heavy cough was still tormenting me — I
rejoiced, at the time, that it was so decided.
About this expedition there was no shade of
difficulty or hardship ; and the delay was more than
repaid by what we saw and heard.

Here I must needs crave space for some
statistics ; for the subject is really important, and
scarcely so well known as it deserves to be. At
least I am free to confess that, a few months ago,
I had not so much as heard of this branch of
industry ; and it is probable that the most of those

SILVERLAND. 157

t

who have kept me company thus far are in like
plight.

Ten years ago, M. Laur — an impartial, I
believe, no less than a competent, witness, for
he was a distinguished French engineer —
stated confidently that the auriferous gravels, in
extent and thickness, are the most important gold
mines of California.* It is impossible to under-
stand this, without enduring a brief geological
lecture. Wherefore in patience possess your souls
—it being premised that I advance no theories of
my own ; but am simply transcribing those of our
Professor.

"It seems clear/7 writes this learned person,
" that, at the close of the geological epoch just prior
to the appearance of man upon the globe, the
western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains —
the Alps of California — were, below a certain
horizon, covered by a vast spread of alluvium ;
owing its origin, probably, to the action of extensive
glaciers, which have left evidences of their former
presence everywhere in the higher Sierras. The
glaciers furnished the transporting power that
brought from above the fragments, which, by l®ng

* De la production des Metaux Precieux en Californie. Paris, 3862. j

158 SILVERLAND.

continued action of running water, were worn into
the smoothly rounded boulders, gravel, and sands
forming the gold bearing alluviums. The melting
of glaciers, as their lower skirts reached warmer
zones, furnished the water for these ancient rivers;
whose beds are now found at elevations far above
the level of the present river-system, and whose
courses are generally crossed by the valleys of our
modern streams. This condition of things continued
long enough to permit the accumulation of beds of
gravel to a depth and extent unknown anywhere
else in North America ; and, if we speak of
auriferous deposits, unequalled elsewhere in the
world. Of the thickness of this accumulated
material we have evidence, in numerous places
where it has been protected from the action of
subsequent denudation by a capping of volcanic
materials. In such places it reaches a known thick-
ness of more than five hundred feet. Usually, how-
ever, it has been denuded to one-half of this thick-
ness— often less — and, in many regions, has been
completely swept away.

" Subsequent to the glacial and alluvial epoch, to
which the gold-bearing gravels are referred, there
was a period of intense volcanic activity; the evidence

SILVERLAND. 159

of which is seen most conspicuously in the Table
Mountains, so called, which are cappings of basalt
forming highly characteristic ranges. In other parts
of the State, and especially in Nevada county, the
volcanic outpourings consisted of ashes and frag-
mentary materials, consolidated into heavy beds of
volcanic mud, with fragments of scoria, tufa, and
basalt ; which are found accumulated to the east of
Columbia Hill, in Nevada county, to the height of
many hundreds of feet. Following the outpouring
of the volcanic matter, there has evidently been an
epoch of very active denudation by running water ;
which has broken up and removed the volcanic
cappings, leaving them entire only here and there,
as landmarks showing the ancient levels — sweep-
ing away likewise vast areas of the old alluvium,
and re-distributing it as secondary or shallow
* placers ' at lower levels.

" This denudation was probably consequent on
the sudden disappearance of the vast system of
glaciers which, up to that time, crowned the entire
range of the Sierras with ice. It was greatly
more energetic in the southern portion than in
the northern, where the mass of ancient alluvium
remaining is very much greater than it is in the

160 SILVERLAND.

former region. The extent of the ancient alluvium,
as well as the. energy of the power which produced
and subsequently denuded it, becomes apparent on
a study of the phenomena.

" These extensive deposits of gold attracted the
attention of the early adventurers in California, and
were called e Hill Diggings ' ; but their real nature
and significance were not at first fully understood ;
and, being generally much above any sources of
water supply then available for washing, they re-
ceived but little attention. Especially were they
overlooked, whilst the spoils were available, drawn
by no other means than the miner's pan, shovel,
and pick, from the productive e bars ' of adjacent
rivers, and from the rich ' gulches ' where the
gold lay open to the first comer, in a concentrated
form.

" So complete was the removal of the ancient
gravel in some of the southern counties, that the
gold, left behind by its weight, lay upon the naked
rock, covered by only a few inches of vegetable
mould — as at Mokelumne Hill, where, in the limits
of a single ' claim/ fifteen feet square, the precious
metal, to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, has
fallen to the share of a single adventurer."

SILVERLAND. 161

In further disquisition the Professor waxes a trifle
too professorial for unscientific auditors ; and, for
the rest of the way, I am guided by the rougher,
but equally safe leading-strings lent by practical
hydraulic miners.

The alluvium aforesaid, in many cases, is found
to rest in a perfectly well-defined channel — not
harder to trace, when the superincumbent soil is
removed, than any other of the dried-up water-
courses, through which, aeons ago, flowed rivers
ancienter than Pison. These troughs, varying in
width from four hundred to a thousand feet or
so, are lined and floored by ' rim-rock ' and ' bed-
rock ' of greenstone, granite, or serpentine ; and,
Avheresoever these are revealed, howsoever hard the
material, grooves and cavities mark the course of
the current, and witness to the fury of its eddies.
Ohiefest of these primeval streams, is that known in
Nevada as the 'Great Blue Lead/ It has been
traced, beyond the possibility of doubt, for near a
hundred miles ; though, sometimes, it will be needful
literally to remove mountains before the channel is
•laid bare.

The bluish tint is, by common consent, considered
•characteristic of the richer portions of the gravel ;

1 62 SILVERLAND.

but, according to the Professor, it lias no necessary
connection with the presence of gold. The deposit
is invariably more valuable, and more toughly
cemented, as it nears the ' bed-rock ; ' but the
peculiar colour is due only to exemption from
oxidising influences. When exposed to the action
of the air and atmospheric water, it disappears ;
passing into a dull yellow, sometimes brilliantly
streaked with purple and red.

It would be difficult, indeed, to estimate in figures
the value of these reserves of gold; but experts
have calculated that in the districts betwixt the
South and Middle Yuba rivers, there is stored up
more of the precious metal than the whole of
California has produced since 1849. The French
engineer, quoted above, estimates that in five hundred
years that portion of the auriferous gravel in this
district, which now lies within the reach of water,
will not be completely washed away ; and he sets
the annual revenue, for the whole period, at over
ten millions of dollars. These vast treasure-beds
lay unnoticed and comparatively unknown, till the
shallow placers in the ravines and river-beds were
more or less completely exhausted. But, when bars
and gulches began to fail, and it needed Chinese

SILVERLAND. 163

patience to work pan and rocker, men began to
scan the ground more narrowly and farther
afield : so, ere long, the secret of the hills was
known. From the first it was evident, that
only by the hydraulic or some equally econo-
mical process could so vast an amount of pas-
sive resistance be attacked with any prospect
of remunerative success ; but the proper appli-
cation of this mechanical agent, was a problem
solved only after large experience and many
abortive trials.

The following conditions are involved : —

1st. The moving of the whole mass of auriferous
gravel, whatever its depth, quite down to the c bed-
rock/

2nd. The accomplishment of this by the action
of water alone — human labour being confined to
the application of the water, and to the preliminary
preparation for its supply.

3rd. The disintegration of the conglomerated
matter, as a part of the uninterrupted operation of
the whole system.

4th. The saving of the gold, without interrupting
the continued flow of water.

5th. The disposal of the accumulation result-

M 2

164 SILVERLAND.

ing from the removal of such vast masses of
gravel.

These conditions are, in practice, met by the
following steps ; and once again I quote, I hope
correctly, my Professor.

The mining ground being selected, a tunnel,
or 'open cut/ is projected from the nearest and
most convenient ravine or river bank ; so that,
starting in the l bed-rock ' on the face of the
ravine, or other selected point, it shall approach
the centre of the gravel mass to be moved, at a
gradient of about one in twenty-four to one in
thirty-six. The dimensions of this tunnel are
usually six feet in width by seven feet in height,
sometimes wider ; and, where possible, it is carried
on the line of contact between the granite and the
shales, for the greater ease of excavation. These
tunnels vary in length from a few hundred feet to a
mile ; some of the longer consuming from two to
seven years in driving, at a cost of from ten to
sixty dollars per foot, varying with the character of
the rock to be excavated. The end of the tunnel
is designed to reach, beneath the under surface of
the gravel, the centre or deepest part of the
channel, at a point where a shaft or incline is sunk

SILVERLAND. 165

through the gravel until it intersects the tunnel.
It obviously demands careful engineering to carry
out works of such magnitude with the accuracy
required ; and, for the want of sufficient care or
skill in this particular, years of costly labour and
anxious expectation were wasted in the early history
of these enterprises.

The object of this laborious exploration is obvious.
The long tunnel becomes a c sluice-way ;' through
the whole length of which ' sluice-boxes ' are laid,
at once to direct the stream and save the gold. For
this purpose a trough of strong planks is placed
in the tunnel, from three to four feet wide, and with
sides high enough above the pavement to control
the stream. The pavement is usually composed of
blocks of wood six inches in thickness, cut across
the grain of the wood, and so placed as to expose
the ends of the blocks to the wear of the current.
The wooden blocks are usually alternated with sec-
tions of stone pavement — the stones set endways.
In the interstices, quicksilver is distributed ; as
much as two tons of this metal being required to
charge a long sluice.

The water from the canal is brought by side
' flumes/ or aqueducts, to the head of the mining

166 SILVERLAND.

ground, with an elevation of two hundred to live
hundred feet above the ' bed-rock ' ; and it is con-
veyed into the bottom of the mining claims by
iron pipes, sometimes sustained on a strong incline
of timbers. These pipes are of sheet iron of
adequate strength, ri vetted at the joints ; and
measure from twelve to twenty inches in diameter.
They connect with a powerful apparatus of cast
iron, provided with an universal joint to which
the outlet or ' nozzle ' is attached, ending in a
steel ring for the delivery of the stream, which
varies from four to eight inches in diameter. This
apparatus is sometimes called a c monitor/

The banks of gravel are usually worked in two
benches. The upper is never so rich as the lower ;
and, being also less firm, is worked away with
greater rapidity. The lower section is much the
most compact ; and the stratum on the c bed-rock,'
being strongly cemented by sulphuret of iron and
great pressure, resists even the full force of the water
stream, until it has been loosened by gunpowder.
For this purpose adits are driven on the e bed-rock,'
forty to seventy feet from the face of the bank, and
a tunnel extended at right angles to some distance
each side of the adit. In this tunnel a large

SILVEELAND. 167

quantity of gunpowder is placed, and fired at by
a train laid from without. Thus the compact con-
glomerate is broken up, and the water rapidly
completes the work.

Even from this rough sketch, it must be evident
that water in these parts is a very precious commo-
dity. At any cost it must be secured and assured ;
or all other cost and pains are wasted. More than
five thousand miles of artificial ' ditches * have been
laid already, representing twenty millions of dollars
expended ; and many of these are worked by com-
panies paying good dividends. Fifteen cents for an
inch of water sounds exorbitant, and this is about the
average ; but a miner's inch is rather liberal measure-
ment. It varies in different districts : generally an
opening of one inch high and twenty-four long, is
made with a pressure of six inches, producing, as I
am informed, an outflow of about 17,000 gallons in
each twenty-four hours. You cannot wander a
mile on the western slopes of the Nevadas, without
encountering a dozen of these ' flumes/ clinging to
the steep sides of canons, flying across ravines on
trestle-work — strong and tough as a chain-bridge,
though at a little distance it looks built of pipe
stems — gurgling along merrily under sunlight, or

168 SILVERLAND.

murmuring sullenly as they dive under ground ;
and, ever and anon, you come on a reservoir,
enclosing half a valley within its massive dam,
where the abundance of spring rains and melting
snows is stored, and where, over the murky water,
peer, by hundreds, the gaunt heads of the drowned
pines.

It follows that, though a hydraulic mine may
be worked provisionally, it cannot, except in
very exceptional cases, be completed and in-
sured against the accidents of seasons — or
rather against inevitable drought — without con-
siderable outlay. Nevertheless, the advantage
of this system of working, compared with any
former process, will be apparent from the fol-
lowing table. Taking a miner's wages at three
dollars per day, the cost of handling a cubic yard
of gravel is —

With the pan . $15.00

With the rocker 3. 75

With the Long-Tom 75

With the sluice ... .34

With the hydraulic process . , . . .10

Now, you have heard nearly enough to enable
you to understand what we saw. Like Canning's

SILVERLAND. 169

clerical tormentor, quoted aforetime, I have endea-
voured not to be tedious with — I doubt not — pre-
cisely the same result.*

* In working out these and other personal recollections, 1 have been
much aided by comparing notes with a very sensible little volume —
"Six Months in California," by J. G. Player-Frowd.

CHAPTER XL

THROUGH Alameda and San Joaquin once more ;
past boundless corn-straths, waving now in deeper
green billows — past meadows, broidered like a royal
robe with blue, crimson, and gold— past orchards,
heavy in bloom — to Sacramento, where the Sailor
rejoined us, having accomplished a visit to the Big-
Trees in Calaveras very easily.

He did not seem to have been much overawed
by the spectacle. Indeed, I fancy that the expecta-
tions of most travellers outsoar the reality, vast
though it be. If any one of the giant brotherhood
stood out quite isolated, the effect would be in-
finitely grand ; but it seems impossible to take in,
at one glance, the proportions of any that stand
erect ; unless you except a pair called ' the Sen-
tinels' ; and, after long ravages of storm or lightning,
these retain scarcely the semblance of a forest tree.

SILVERLAND. 171

But our comrade had been anything but disap-
pointed with his earthquake. What we felt at San
Francisco, must have been as nothing compared
with the three-fold shock which startled Stockton
from its slumbers ; and the panic in the hotel, how-
ever absurd in the retrospect, did not appear wholly
groundless.

Our car was cast loose at Colfax late in the after-
noon; and here we recognised, regretfully, that we
had left .behind those names of rich Catalan ring —
tinged, as it were, with the sane/re azul — and were
back again among the Creeks, Flats, Villes, and
other designations trivial and dissonant. Hence,
a darkling drive of some four leagues brought us to
Nevada City, over roads, testing almost too hardly
the eu durance of those wonderful 'Carson ' waggons.

It was not without its merits, the hostelry in
which we found shelter. The bar- whisky was not
instantaneously fatal ; by careful steering it was
possible to move undefiled through the crachoirs of
the crowded common room ; and the bed-chambers
only offended the nostrils through innocence of fresh
air. But, though the night was yet young when we
arrived, our host declined to furnish us with food
of any kind whatsoever ; and those who chose not

172 SILVERLAND.

fasting had to search for their supper
through mud and rain. 1 remember encountering
the like difficulty at wayside inns in the Upper
1 ; but it seemed odd to be so stinted in
the chief house of accommodation of a tolerably
populous * city/

Early on the morrow, we drove out into the hills
dividing Nevada from the South Yuba Valley.
collar-work for the first four miles or so, over roads
literally ploughed up by the heavy drays, was some-
thing fearful ; but our wiry teams faced it with indo-
mitable gameness, and we reached table land at last.

Mark Twain, if I remember right, complains
of the monotony and melancholy of Oalifornian
forests, contrasting them unfavourably with like
landscapes in the Ea- We strangers, however,
found nothing to cavil at, and much to admire, in
the woodlands we traversed that breezy forenoon.
Where on earth will you find a grander tree than
the red pine, rising pillar-wise, with never a knot
or excrescence to mar its smooth stateliness ?
Would you crave for more diversity of forest colour
than is supplied by the feathery cedar, the solemn
black-oak, the vivid green buckeye, and the /

hrub, with its soft grey foliage and rosy

SILVERLAND. 173

blossom ? If so. you are harder to please than was
our company. Under the summer drought, of
course, all these may look dull and arid : one can
but speak of things as one finds them.

The mine we had been invited to visit was in full
work ; and, leaving our waggons at the manag-
hut, we descended by a steep slippery track into
the hollow where the nearest ' washings ' lay. The
peculiar features of the - - we rounded the

last corner of cliff, could scarcely be produced
photograph, much less by word-painting.

It was difficult to believe that human force, un-
aided by earthquake or volcano, could have produ'
such hideous desolation. A whole hill side quarried
away, would give no idea of it : for, there, may l)e
observed a certain regularity and method of attack :
here, the spot might have been ravaged by some of
the fantastic fiends of Cornish legend and German
' folk-lore.' On the soil, seamed, torn, scarified, and
bestrewn with boulders, the foot finds no level rest-
ing-place ; the cliff-face displays no sloping shel
nor smooth sheer descents, but only yawning rifts
and chasms, and gibbous crags nodding to their
fall ; and, here and there, tower uncouth islets of
gravel — their dusky sides streaked with dull red

174 SILVERLAND.

and blue — marking the level where was opened
the first parallel in this cruel war against the Great
Mother.

Some fifty yards or so from the base of the bank
lay the ' monitor/ silent and still ; for the order to
* cease firing ' had been sent down a while ago, so
that we strangers might witness the opening of
the battery.

An innocent-looking engine enough ; with its
rude wooden lever, and muzzle not larger than that
of a light field-piece, it looked as if it might
furnish a douche of more than average power.
Yet "Nimrod, or Anak, or the most puissant crea-
ture that has ever drawn breath of life, standing
before it, a second later, would have been swept
away like a dry leaf before a gale. Without
danger you may lay your finger on the jet at its
issue : then you will be sensible not of rushing fluid,
but of something smooth, compact, and seemingly
substantial as polished marble ; and you are made
aware that the edge of Excalibur could never have
cloven that thin grey column in twain.

With the turning of a handle came a savage hiss —
a smothered crash, as the fierce stream smote its mark
— then a rumble and rattle, as great clots and crusts

SILVERLAND. 175

from the cliff hurled themselves into the whirl of water
beneath, to be swallowed by the greedy sluice-way.
The mass, then operated on, was not of the toughest
cement ; but the heavy boulders imbedded therein,
fared little better than the lighter compost, when
the ifurious stream once had them in grip : thence-
forth, they too were pressed into man's service; each
helping, as it was swept down, to grind its . com-
rades to powder.

"One thousand miner's inches," says my technical
adviser, " are equal to over one hundred thousand
cubic feet of water, per hour, constantly discharged
against the face of the bank, under a pressure of from
one hundred to two hundred pounds to the square
inch, varying with the height of the column ; and
this ' monitor ' is working at about two-thirds of
that power."

The information — however valuable in itself —
does not, I confess, minish my wonderment ; and I
stand there staring, just as stupidly as before, at the
great grey cliff literally melting away, like a sugar-
loaf under a heated jet. By the help of the wooden
lever aforesaid, the engine can be worked easily and
accurately as any mitrailleuse ; and, on inanimate
matter, must be infinitely more fatal. It is part and

176 SILVERLAND.

parcel, I suppose, of our unregenerate nature to find
an attraction in any grand spectacle of destruction.
Why, otherwise, do we find sober and benevolent
people watching a terrible fire or flood, with inte-
rest keener than that excited by the most moving
melodrama ? Howsoever profitable the ultimate
result, there could be no question as to the present
destructiveness of the process we were witnessing.
This, therefore, may account for our reluctance in
quitting it — even when made aware that time was
pressing, if we would visit all we had come to see.

For some distance we followed the downward
course of the sluice-way ; clambering warily along
slippery tracks, and passing gingerly over bare
single planks, supported, athwart chasms disagree-
ably broad and deep, on unsteady trestles ; and,
as we went along, our conductors explained to us
what work was carrying on — surely, though so
swiftly — in the turbid torrent beneath.

The complete trituration of the gravel and other
raw material is the prime essential. The action
of impetuous water on the debris swept down is
aided by a series of small cataracts — 'dumps/ in
mining parlance — at each of which the process of
comminution is carried forward till the lowest level

SILVERLAND. 177

is reached, at a distance of half a mile or more from
the first fall. The internal preparation of the
sluice-way has been described above ; but it is
difficult to realise that, under all this turmoil
and hurly-burly, the quicksilver is quietly absorb-
ing the minutest particle of gold into a brittle
amalgam. Yet, rude as this method may appear,
experience has proved that more gold is saved
thereby than by any method of washing yet de-
vised ; whilst, in point of economy, no comparison
can be made. At intervals of from fifteen to thirty
days, according to the extent of the operation, and
the richness of the material worked, comes the
' cleaning up ; ' which consists in removing the pave-
ment and blocks from the bed of the sluice, gather-
ing the precious compost, and replacing or renewing
the blocks and stones of the pavement — severely
punished by the violence of rock and water.

One would suppose that these ' cleaning-up-
times ' were seasons of excitement, resembling the
drawing of a lottery ; but this is not so. When
the average of the gravel has once been ascertained,
expert miners will calculate almost to a nicety the
amount, monthly or bi-monthly, of their gross pro-
fits. The last step of the process is the retorting of

78 SILVEELAND.

the amalgam. Under a fierce heat, the evaporated
quicksilver is collected and preserved for further
use ; whilst the royal metal — after the fashion of
martyrs — emerges from prolonged torment, perfect
and pure.

Where the canon narrowed to a cleft we halted
and retraced our steps ; and then climbed a lofty
gravel isthmus, dividing this first hollow from
another and deeper ravine, in which a second ' moni-
tor ' was in position. By this time, the cough had
fairly mastered me ; and I was fain to sit down and
rest whilst the others went on their way. I may
thank that enforced pause for a very curious effect.
After brief breathing space, I strolled to and fro
over the vast mound — the isthmus on one side
widened into a plateau — collecting handfuls of
gravel at random, with a purpose that will be made
plain hereafter : having obtained a sufficiency of
these, I sat down near the verge of the cliff, which,
at this point, fell some two hundred feet sheer.
As I rested there, my thoughts travelled away
over many leagues of land and sea — perhaps, I
had begun to drowse, as one is apt to do when
weak and weary : at any rate, the dream was
broken somewhat startlingly. Eight under my feet

SILVEKLAND. 179

came that savage hiss and roar ; and the earth lite-
rally and palpably trembled — not with comparatively
slow undulation, as in the Franciscan quake, but
with a rapid quiver as of mortal fear. The
instantaneous transition from complete repose to
the extreme of insecurity was very remarkable ;
resembling the sensations of an evil dream where,
without previous warning, you find yourself
sliding over the marge of a precipice — both
foot and handhold failing. For a second or two,
it seemed as if the face of the cliff must
needs topple outwards and downwards inconti-
nently, bearing me along with it ; and I cannot
deny having retreated inland somewhat hastily, be-
fore I realised the cause of the phenomenon.

Nothing could be simpler after all. The moni-
tor below — held in abeyance like its fellow for the
same reason — had, without note of preparation,
opened fire. This once understood, I became much
comforted and encouraged ; and advanced cautiously
—keeping a little wide of the presumed line of bat-
tery— till, lying prone, I could peer over the verge
of the cliff. Of the face of the breach nothing could
be seen ; for not only did the bank sheer rather in-
wards here, but a dense mist of dust and spray

N 2

180 SILVERLAND.

spread far around the point of impact ; however,
in the little group, from the centre of which shot
forth the level streak of grey, I made out the
Sailor directing the monitor. I doubt if the
heaviest piece of ordnance served by the Naval
Brigade ever wrought, within the same space, such
havoc as the harmless-looking engine then a-plying.
Some hundreds of tons of displaced rock and gravel
witnessed, I was told, to the luck, or accuracy, of
our comrade's aim.

When the rest of the party rejoined me, the pur-
pose of our visit was nearly fulfilled ; but, before
climbing the track leading back to the manager's
hut, we halted by the side of a rill, to make expe-
riment of the gravel-samples I had collected, and
of others selected likewise at random, not only from
the surface, but from such depths as a spade could
reach easily.

This panning — still in vogue amongst the
' streamers ' of the Cornish moors — is the rudest
of all mining processes, and quite infantile in its
simplicity. In a broad shallow vessel — an ordinary
shovel will suffice at a pinch — you sift a few hand-
fuls of gravel to and fro ; gradually casting out the
refuse, and adding fresh water till there is left a

SILVEKLAND. 1 81

residuum scarcely coarser than sand : in this you
must look for ' colour ' — the miner's term for pre-
sence of gold.

Ours might possibly have been the proverbial
luck of les mains merges ; but in no one instance
were our pains fruitless. At the bottom of each
pan, without exception, glistened, more or less fre-
quently, the soft yellow specks, minishing from
scales like flattened pin -heads, to grains almost
invisible. This does not sound very grand, perhaps ;
but if you remember that these were only samples,
culled from the surface of a mass, estimated to
contain millions upon millions of tons ; and that
the material invariably waxes greatly richer as
the ' bed-rock ' is n eared, the result will not seem
contemptible. We, at least, were more than satis-
fied ; and, albeit frequent disappointments had made
some amongst us slow to admire, none would have
inscribed this forenoon amongst the wasted days.

After doing justice to the miner's good fare, we
followed a rough team-road, a league farther into
the hills into another valley, where an adit-level,
or tunnel, has been driven in upon the bed-rock
itself ; whence is extracted ' cement/ so hard and
tough as only to be worked in a steam-mill. It is,

182 SILVERLAND.

of course, proportionally more valuable — averaging,
as we were informed, about eight dollars per ton ;
whereas about twenty cents in the blue gravel, and
eight cents in the grey upper strata, seems a fair
average.

Here you may actually walk on the floor of
the ' dead river ' and touch stones, rounded by a
current that must have ceased to flow, Science says,
ages before there is record of man's existence. To
a technical eye the sight must be rarely attractive,
and I shall not easily forget our Professor's face, as
he issued from those darkling recesses ; through
grime and moisture it beamed with geological
ecstasy.

We reached Nevada long after sundown, but just
in time for supper ; and fell-to with a pleasant con-
sciousness that it had been fairly earned. On the
morrow we returned to Colfax by different routes,
for reasons good.

The one selected by the Sailor and myself
abounded in steep and ' soft ' places ; but was incom-
parably the most picturesque I have traversed in
Western America. It would be difficult to con-
ceive richer variety of mountain, wood and water ;
and, as a final tableau, right over against you as

SILVERLAND. 183

you near Colfax, looms grand Cape Horn, dipping
its feet into a turbid river.

Before closing this chapter, I should like to sum
up briefly the observations already recorded :
the subject is surely of sufficient importance to
warrant this.

The advantages of hydraulic mines seem to be —
the absolute certainty and uniformity of profits,
inasmuch as any variation must needs be on a
steady ascending scale — their great durability, and
comparative immunity against accident — the mar-
vellous cheapness of the process, after the prelimi-
nary expenses of reservoirs, flumes, and tunnels
have once been cleared.

The first of these assertions will scarcely be
doubted by those who can comprehend that, by
sinking of shafts at intervals, the extent of the
( Lead,' or auriferous bed, can be staked out to a few
fathoms; and that the increasing value of the gravel,
as it nears the ' bed-rock/ is a fact established by
universal experience.

The second is not less easily demonstrable.
The material to be dealt with, lies, so to speak,
patent — more easy and certain of mensuration
than even a coal-field, or any other known

184- SILVERLAND.

mineral reserve ; no costly and perishable ma-
chinery, such as mills, engines, pumps, or hoist-
ing gear, are in use ; whilst the inclemency of
seasons is likely rather to aid, than impede, pro-
gress. When the heaven is black with clouds,
and there is threat of great rain, the gold seeker's
heart leaps with joy ; and of snow he knows little
or nothing, save when brimming reservoirs, and
flumes lip-full, tell of drifts melting in the higher
Sierras.

As to the third — I believe the table of com-
parative cost, given above, to be absolutely be-
yond question. Setting adits and tunnels aside,
even pick and shovel are rarely required ; and
no 'plant' is in use that cannot be constructed
and repaired by any intelligent smith or carpenter.
The consistency of the gravel or cement, varies,
and it should always be remembered that the
richest is the most impracticable ; but, taking
a fair average, it may be estimated that a sup-
ply of three hundred water inches will enable
two men to displace about three thousand tons
in a day of twelve hours. And these need not
be athletes either, judging from the specimens
serving that first monitor. I gravely doubt if, in

SILVERLAND. 185

any other mining district, that crabbed, crook-
backed elder would have been deemed worth his
hire. A few hands are employed, watching the
flumes and keeping the sluice-ways clear ; but this
is essentially cheap labour, and specially suited to
the feeble Chinese folk, to whom it is often assigned.
On ' cleaning-up ' days, the manager usually dis-
penses with heathen company ; not caring to trust
those long finger-nails too near the soft amalgam.
So — put working expenses at ten, or even twelve
cents, and the gross value at fifteen cents per ton
of displaced material — the daily return will not be
unsatisfactory for operations conducted on so small
a scale. As a rule, it may be reckoned that profits
rise more than in proportion to the increase of
water power.

On the debit side must be set down the prelimi-
nary and precautionary expenses — in some cases
very heavy. In one instance, over a million dollars
have been sunk without a dividend in sight, and
without a murmur from those chiefly interested ; and
this property — controlled by some of the cleverest
capitalists in California — will, doubtless, eventually
more than pay its way. The blasting adits are
only needed to burst, so to speak, the last barriers

SILVERLAND.

of the treasure-house, when the ' bed-rock ' is near ;
but, except in localities exceptionally favoured—
where a natural cleft or canon serves the same pur-
pose— a tunnel to carry off the outflow is obviously
necessary. If you consider that this may have
to be driven inch by inch, by dint of drill, through
granite, quartz, or volcanic formations almost as
hard, it is easy to imagine the cost and labour
involved. Furthermore, as we said above, the
immunity from accidents is comparative. Flumes
are liable to leakage, and reservoir-dams to burst ;
and, though the first is trivial and easily amended,
the last is a grave disaster. For, not only is
the repairing of the embankment, with its mas-
sive bracings and buttresses of hewn timber, very
costly, but much precious working time may be
lost before the water-reserves are again available.
However, some kind . of risk is, I presume, insepar-
able from any venture, whether by land or sea ; and
the risks here seem about as light as are consistent
with fair mercantile speculation.

Finally, though, when certain data are esta-
blished, a progression of profits is almost assured,
the ascending scale is minutely graduated ; and
there is a moderation about the whole concern.

SILVERLAND. 187

Property of this kind, worked as is described
above, may pay good dividends for a couple of
generations ; waxing richer as the core of the
treasure is approached — but slowly — never electri-
fying its shareholders with a brilliant discovery, or
stunning them by a dismal disaster. On the whole,
it appears a field rather for investment than
speculation.

One word more, before quitting the subject.
Since seeing the high rates of interest prevalent
out here, and the numberless enterprises in which
money can be turned over rapidly, I do not lay so
much stress on the argument, that, if an American
property be really valuable, it will never pass out
of American hands. However, if this theory be at
all reliable, it needs must bear a double edge.

Now, since the mines of Nevada County have
been in full work, they have been supported almost
entirely by California!! capital. Only a very
few, quite recently — and these, as I am informed,
not the choicest, albeit fair, specimens of their
class — have been ' promoted ' beyond the Atlantic.
For example, the property we inspected has been
worked for a dozen years or more by native pro-
prietors ; its name is neither of good nor evil

188 STLVERLAND.

repute in the British mining market ; nor, so far as
I know, is it likely to become famous or infamous
there. Nevertheless, to avoid possible cause of
offence, I have purposely abstained from more than
vaguely indicating the locale.

Possibly some of my readers may think it worth
while to work out for themselves, in detail, these
rough outlines. Simply as a spectacle, the scene I
have tried to describe amply repays a visit. To see
the hand of Nature turned literally against her-
self, with such terrible effect, rather raises one's
conceptions of the supremacy of Man.

CHAPTER XII.

Now that we are back on the frontier, it is
time to take up a theme recently alluded to, which
engrossed many of my thoughts whilst sojourning
in San Francisco.

I but impute to others a negligence to which I
must personally plead guilty, in assuming that only
her metalliferous resources have made California
familiar to English ears. Plain, uncommercial peo-
ple, who never open the Mark Lane Express,
or care for the fluctuations of markets, might be
surprised to hear that the above-mentioned source
of revenue may eventually prove not the richest
allotted to this favoured State. I say — not the
richest ; because certainty, and durability, must
count largely in the intrinsic value of any possession
whatsoever.

None will deny, and many have heavy reasons
for affirming, that from any search after the

190 SILVERLAND.

nobler metals some insecurity is inseparable : per-
haps, were it otherwise, these ventures might lose
somewhat of their fascination. Even the auriferous
gravels, whereof we have just been speaking, though
they may outlast a generation beyond our own,
must in process of time disappear ; and though the
treasures of granite and limestone already open may
stand an amount of drain quite incalculable, and be
supplemented by yet vaster discoveries, it is possible
that these may minish, if not fail ; whilst to each
successive enterprise must attach the like element
of hazard. These are considerations rather for
posterity, and may concern little you who read, or
me who write ; but to the historical future of a great
country they may be of grave import.

Certain words are writ in a Book true to a letter,
though we may often misinterpret its meaning :
they were uttered six thousand years ago, near an
altar built in the shadow of Ararat, on ground
scarce dried from the Deluge ; and thus they run, —
While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and
day and night shall not cease.

Since that gracious benison was laid on her,
rarely has the Great Mother shown herself more

SILVERLAND. 191

bounteous than on the plains stretching from the
Sierras to the Pacific. There are table-lands, nooks,
and valleys, far up amongst the hill-spurs, naturally
perhaps more fertile than the low-lying country
watered by the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers ;
but these have, thus far, been only partially broken
up ; and from the latter chiefly are drawn supplies of
wheat so vast, that this item of export alone would
insure to any country commercial importance.

Striking a rough balance from the official returns
of the last seven years, about four million sacks, of
one hundred pounds each, seem to have been shipped
annually ; and last harvest — an unusually productive
one — would raise the average considerably.0 This
is in the face of a largely increased home-consump-
tion, and prices generally ruling high. The Chilian
and Australian varieties seem to suit the soil best ;
and the grain, though hard and difficult to grind,
is plump in ear and exceptionally rich in gluten.

The dangerous facilities of agriculture here have
been already alluded to ; dangerous — because the
husbandman, waxing over-confident, if not supine,
may forget to provide against the losses that two
successive seasons of drought must needs entail.

* Vide Appendix D. (1).

192 SILVEKLAND.

The early sown crops, though ultimately less pro-
ductive, suffer least from a partial rain failure ; but
the risk always exists, and must endure till a com-
plete and uniform system of irrigation is established.
About this there need be no doubt or real difficulty.*
The natural conformation of the country is, in most
places, specially favourable to such projects; and
the water stored up in mountain tarns, or running
to waste from the foot-hills, to say nothing of the
abundant rivers, would more than suffice all possible
demands. I met in San Francisco an eminent
engineer, who has devoted himself specially to this
branch of his profession, and had lately returned
frpm superintending similar undertakings on a very
large scale in the Deccan. He assured me that the
obstacles to be overcome might be compassed by
any ordinary contractor ; and instanced one case,
where a large district might be thoroughly protected
by a simple canal, at a comparatively small cost.
His figures are unluckily mislaid ; but I am sure
that if the expense had been fairly assessed, about
a dollar per acre would have covered it ; and
by such insurance against the caprice of seasons, the
value of the land would be quite doubled.

* Vide Appendix D. (2).

SILVERLAND. 193

In many parts of the State barley thrives won-
derfully well, and produces most of the ' volunteer
crops/ These spring simply from the grain shaken
out in harvesting; and, very often, the seed is
worked in only by harrowing, without use of the
plough. Sonoma County, stretching to the north-
west of the San Pablo Bay, is famous for maize ;
but its culture does not seem so much affected here
as in Iowa and Illinois.

The danger of drought once overpast, the crop,
whether in ear or swathe, is safe from the wrath of
the elements : neither is there much to fear from
such minor plagues as blight or wire-worm. Yet, till
his produce is fairly on shipboard, the Calif ornian
farmer can scarce sit down to count his gains.
When the ripening process has once begun, it pro-
gresses very rapidly, and with wonderful uniformity
throughout each district ; thereby involving a pro-
portionate demand for labour. Over a million acres
are at the present time under wheat ; and I am per-
sonally acquainted with the owner of a ranclio
in the San Joaquin Valley, where six thousand acres
in a ring-fence are so cultivated.0 If the crop be
reaped a week too soon, it will naturally sample

* Vide Appendix D. (3).

194 SILVERLAND.

badly, and be apt to spoil ; if a week too late — the
husk being parched — there will be cruel waste in the
gathering. At such an anxious season, it is not
hard to fancy what manner of prayer a pious hus-
bandman would address to the Lord of the Harvest.
Scarcely second in importance to her cereals, is
the wool produce of California. The exports of this
commodity in 1855 were under four hundred
thousand pounds. In 1871 it approached eleven
thousand tons, at a largely increased value. You
may remember the story of the Scotch noble, who
after exhibiting to Prince Esterhazy his flocks, then
unparalleled in the country for numbers and quality,
inquired how many sheep his visitor owned. An-
swered the calm Magyar — " I cannot tell ; but I own
a few thousand shepherds." Some of the great ran-
cheros of Southern California would be fain to speak
almost as vaguely : therefore our numerical calcu-
lations must be somewhat rough. After careful
inquiry, and some study of these statistics, I am
inclined to believe that the annual clip exceeds
three million fleeces ; whilst tens of thousands of
sheep, from disease, wide straying, and other causes,
never come under the shears. Neither cost nor pains
have been spared to procure judicious crosses ; an

STLVERLAND. 195

the texture of the wool, originally very coarse and
fibrous, has been infinitely improved of late, though it
cannot as yet hold its own with Europe or Australia.

A dry season tells, naturally, on the pasturage, no
less than on the tilths ; but, on these occasions,
superior quality often goes far to make amends for
the gross deficiency. In like manner, the sheep-
farmer of the northern counties— breeding entirely
from imported rams, or crosses direct from the Eastern
States — though his flocks never multiply like those
browsing southwards of Lake Tulare, almost balances
the account on the higher value of his sample.

One might, no doubt, find parallels, without
going further afield than our Scottish Highlands :
indeed, I question if any single Californian owns
possessions vast as the appanages of Sutherland,
Athol, or Breadalbane.0 Nevertheless, there is a fine
flavour of suzerainty about these noble southern
ranches ; specially when you remember that they
are made up, not of bleak hills and desolate corries,
fit only for the harbour of deer and browsing of
hardy hill-sheep, but of pasture sweet as ever
fatted kine, and of loam rich as was ever turned
by ploughshare. Sixteen square miles was no

* Vide Appendix D. (4).

o 2

19G SILVERLAND.

uncommon area for one of the old ' Spanish grants/
most of which have now passed in their entirety
out of Mexican into American hands. I was
presented to a veteran general officer of the
U. S. A. — like a picture by Vandyck, with his
pointed white beard and clear-cut features — who
owned two hundred thousand acres down in fair
Los Angeles. Not the lightest of many like vexa-
tions, was my regret in being forced to decline
his hospitality. For one, who was his guest last
autumn, had told me of the abundance of game,
great and small, in those parts, and of the facili-
ties of pursuit ; and on question of venerie it is tole-
rably safe to trust a scion of the M'Callum More.
It seems, as if a slight parody on the old hunting-
ditty might serve here

What shall be our sport to-day ?

Shall it be deer or bear ?

There's nothing too long, too fast, too gay

For me and the good bay mare.

Fancy a * grizzly' lassoed fairly in the open. Surely,
rarer sport has not often been seen since, in the Great
Circus, men looked down on the feats of the
bestiarii.

The world runs all in cycles, they say ; therefore
it is, perhaps, that in some of these recent settlements

SILVERLAND. 197

you find reproduced, so exactly, some of the most
ancient phases of Eastern life. In the count, how-
ever, of his flocks and herds the Western patriarch
far outruns his antitype. About a year ago, one
of the old Spanish colonists dwelling in San Diego,
for reasons best known to his solemn self, wishing
to migrate, offered to take one dollar per head for
his live stock of every sort and kind, and . throw
in the fee simple of the land. An Eastern specu-
lator— from Chicago, if I remember right — came to
trade ; but returned, re infectd, simply because his
capital caved in, long before the numbering of the
droves was done.

When the Sacramento river ran through a swampy
desert, and never a sail had been furled within the
Golden Gates, all down the seaboard, from Monterey
to the southernmost boundary of Los Angeles, were
found, neither few nor far between, snug home-farms,
fertile and carefully tended as husbandman could
desire. Here dwelt the old Mission fathers in great
comfort, and perhaps not a little indolence ; for
their preacher- work was easy, and the mild Indian
converts did all the labour needful in the facile soil.
Amongst many good legacies bequeathed by these
honest Padres to ungrateful successors, not the least

198 SILVERLAND.

precious are myriads of well-nurtured vines. One
of these, twining round the mouldering walls of a
deserted Mission in Santa Barbara, has long been
a miracle of fruitfulness and luxuriance ; and shows
no sign of decay, though near a century has passed
since it was severed from the parent-stem in Cata-
lonia.

Now-a-days, vineyards have sprung up in almost
every part of the State, Indeed, the Lower Sierras,
and the valleys trending coastwards from the foot-
hills, produce liquor more palateable than that
pressed from the c Mission ' grape ; for the excess of
saccharine in the latter makes the wine somewhat
heavy and cloying : so the trade of Sonoma, Napa,
and El Dorado — all lying north of the Golden
Gates — has already surpassed that of the southern
counties whence it was derived. Of late years, cuttings
from some of the most famous stocks of Burgundy,
Gascony, and the Khineland have been planted
with very promising results ; and infinitely more
care and skill have been bestowed on the process of
fermentation and refining : until recently, these had
been conducted much on the principle of the First
husbandman. The total annual produce has risen
to ten millions of gallons, and is still steadily on the

SILVERLAND. 193

increase; whilst the wines average a better price than
most ordinaires : so that they must please a goodly
number of palates, albeit to an old-fashioned taste
the finest seem not devoid of a certain roughness
and crudity.

From time primeval, the olive and the vine have
thriven side by side ; arid Southern California is no
exception to the rule. The groves encompassing
each and every one of the old Missions have been
utilised and much amplified of late ; and Santa
Barbara alone sends forth annually a hundred thou-
sand gallons or so of oil, scarcely inferior to any that
flows from Italian or Spanish presses. In truth,
the bounteous soil of these counties welcomes kindly
almost every known fruit-bearing tree. Specially
do the fig and orange flourish here. The latter has
been sedulously cultivated, with no small profit ;
for, when nine seasons have brought it to rnatu-

' O

rity, each tolerably prolific orange-tree is worth
some twenty dollars annually.*

The agreeable little hand-book, referred to above,
notices the extensive planting of mulberries to
supply food to the silkworm ; for sericulture has
become a Californian industry. But on this sub-

* Vide Appendix D. (5).

200 SILVERLAND.

ject I can speak neither from personal knowledge
nor accurate information : therefore I simply guarda
e passa.

In filling the last dozen pages with dry details,
my chief object has been to prove to whoso it may
concern, that the promises, wherewith California
tempts persons about to emigrate, in no wise re-
semble the prospectus of the ingenious Mr.
Scadder. Perhaps the most substantial advantage
lies in the great variety of soil and climate. Any
practical farmer — taking due care that his lines fall
aright — could not fail in finding work at once ready
to his hand. Indeed, in some of those southern
districts, I imagine capital, sagely invested, might
bring in liberal returns, when backed by no great
skill or experience.

In such a region, even our sanguine friend,
Captain Longsword, who seems to think that the
purchase system, just abolished in the service, sur-
vives in agriculture — so that, by risk of his modest
savings, he can at once be invested with a fresh com-
mission bearing Queen Ceres7 sign-manual — might
sit down here in comparative safety under his own
fig-tree. For, when once fairly established, ordinary
gardening skill will keep a vineyard in order ; whilst

SILVERjLAND. 201

an orange grove needs no more tending than an
orchard ; and our ' plunger/ when on leave, had
ever a hankering for horticulture, and a happy knack
of wielding the pruning-knife.

Furthermore, though there is doubtless room, and
to spare, for large investors, I conceive that very
modest capital can nowhere else be worked to more
advantage. Take an instance, unluckily by no
means rare.

Many of us know — and, not being his tor-
mented landlord, perhaps compassionate — Jacob
Mold warp. He was hale and hearty enough when,
in early married days, he ventured on Hungerford
Farm, poor land at the best, and soured from stint
of manure. The first wet spring threw him behind-
hand ; and, floundering on doggedly ever since, he
has never got quite clear of the slough. So far from
putting money aside to start them in life, he can
scarce find bread and bacon enough for his big
growing family : each rent-day, as he shambles in
half sullen, half ashamed, with the same stale ex-
cuses, deepens the lines on his gaunt face, and the
shifty look in his eyes, till he appears like a frau-
dulent bankrupt rather than a ' right down British
yeoman/ Yet it is not so. Jacob would cheat

202 SILVERLAND.

no one willingly of his due — not even liis landlord ;
but the old burden, want of capital, under which
stronger shoulders have bowed themselves, has broken
him down.

Now set this man and his belongings down in
the San Joaquin Valley, and see how they would
fare. Land — provided it were tolerably remote
from Stockton — he might purchase at thirty shillings
per acre ; frame-house, cattle-sheds, and a light barn
or so, supposing the ground bare of such conve-
niences, could be set up in a few days ; and the sur-
plus that would probably result from the sale
of the live and dead stock on Hungerford Farm
would more than plenish the new homestead. And
those long-limbed lads and sturdy ' rnawthers/ who
at the home rate of wages were scarce worth their
salt — at what would you appraise them in a country
where reliable labour is eagerly secured at two dol-
lars a day and upwards, and at certain seasons is
nlmost priceless ? Moreover, suppose him enabled
to grow four successive wheat crops on the same
ground, without fear of permanently impoverishing
it, much less of being called to account for break-
ing the course. After a season or two at this
work, specially if no heavy drought intervene, I

SILVERLAND. 203

doubt if his bitterest enemy — his late landlord's
agent, to wit — would know Jacob Moldwarp
again.

The climate of the interior, where the sea breezes
may not penetrate, is, no doubt, at first rather
trying. To dwell from May to December under a
sky rainless, cloudless, windless, must ever be a cross
to the Teuton or Anglo-Saxon, though a Provengal
or Calabrian would be little like to grumble. But,
so far as I can learn, this regular drought brings no
inevitable disease in its train ; and the country, as
a rule, is singularly free from epidemics. An un-
usual dry spring, may lengthen the bills of mor-
tality no less than other debits ; and even the
vine-growers, whose profits are largely increased
thereby, would be moved to deprecate such a season.
On the whole, however, foreigners seem to become
easily and quickly acclimatised.

Lastly, as to the price of land.

There is room enough for all, and more than
all, that are like to come hither ; for, out of forty
million acres in this State fit for tillage, scarce
a thirtieth part has been touched by plough or
spade. Nevertheless, estates are no longer to be had
for a 'song' — not even such a costly one as La

204 SILVERLAND.

Diva trills. In certain districts, lots of a hundred
and sixty acres can still be taken up at the govern-
ment price of a dollar and a quarter ; but these, as
a rule, are too remote, or otherwise undesirable, to
tempt ordinary emigrants. Vast tracts have been
granted to railroads already laid, or in process of
construction ; and real property has become, of late,
rather a favourite speculation with the native capi-
talists. Moreover, it would be hard to set forth a
regular tariff; for the value of land, even in the same
county, would vary considerably, according to its
proximity to rail or river. The transport of his
produce must for years to come enter largely into a
Calif ornian farmer's calculation.

In the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys — ex-
cluding property in near vicinage to the larger
towns — from five to fifteen dollars might be a fair
average ; in Sonoma, Napa, and Solano it is slightly
higher. In San Mateo, which the wealthy Franciscan
chiefly affectsfor his villeggiatura, ground commands
a fancy price ; but the average falls again greatly as
you travel southward, so that in Santa Barbara, San
Diego, and San Bernardino, choice rauchos are to be
secured at from two to three dollars per acre.

Especially, however, in these southern counties

SILVERLAND. 205

does it behove a purchaser to look narrowly into
his title. With the ' Spanish grants ' there has
already been endless trouble. Doubtless in almost all
instances the languid, credulous Mexican got much
the worse of the c trade ' with the keen American
lawyer or mortgagee ; but the Don's descendants
have, to a certain extent, avenged him by involving
these properties in a perfect mist of litigation. This
has been almost entirely swept a way by the strong pa-
tience of the law ; but it is still needful, before signing
and sealing, to take all possible precautions. ( Black
mailing ' is not entirely confined to the mines.

These calculations, remember, are based absolutely
on the present state of things. A few years, or even
a few months, might work material changes. Two
important lines of rail, now actually in progress,
the Atlantic and Pacific starting from St. Louis —
the Southern Pacific with Memphis for its eastern
terminus — will cross and recross these same southern
counties ; and, as the supply of their special produce
can scarcely ever equal the demand, it is not diffi-
cult to foresee how the real property market here
will be affected by unlimited facilities of transport.*

Surely, it might be well worth the while of

* Vide Appendix D. (6).

206 SILVERLAND.

anyone, well versed in the emigration question, to
take stock in earnest of this country's capabilities.
In some of the districts named above, where British
settlers are almost unknown, I verily believe limited
capital and limited experience would meet with
better, because more varied, opportunities of profit-
able development than in Illinois, Iowa, or even the
Southern Dominion. And, for the benefit of any
who may be moved to judge for themselves whether
these sketches have been over-coloured, I would
alter slightly a well-worn proverb, and say — ' The
more haste, the better speed/0

* Vide Appendix D. (7).

CHAPTER XIII.

— f —

WE paused, or turned aside, no more on our way
back to Salt Lake City. The clemency of the
weather, though it was not yet quite settled,
enabled us to appreciate several points of view
scarcely noticed before. Pleasant Valley has earned
its name ; and the canon of the Palisades, where
sheer cliff walls, penning in the Humboldt, almost
baffle the sunlight, makes a good sombre picture —
especially in the easternmost gorge, where the stream,
chafed with long struggle for freedom, rushes on for
a while with the impulse and puissance of a real
mountain river. So, over alkali plains, leaden
marsh flats, and dusky sage-brush, around the head
of the Great Lake to the Mormon city once more ;
where — in default of other entertainment — we were
refreshed with home news, after more than a three
weeks' fast.

208 SILVERLAND.

Out of the four days of our stay, we gave one
entirely to Camp Douglas. Setting aside pleasant
recollections of the place, we wished to observe mi-
nutely the daily routine and economy of the service ;
and the courtesy of our hosts enabled us to do
this thoroughly. The details would probably rather
weary, than interest, general readers ; but, on the
whole, we were much pleased with what we saw. In
point of scrupulous neatness the barrack-rooms
would compare unfavourably with ours ; and I
doubt if an inspection of ' necessaries ; would satisfy
a, martinet : but the accommodation — to say nothing
of the officers' quarters — is more spacious, the ra-
tions more liberal, and altogether there seems to
be more consideration for the comfort of the full
private than our military rulers have yet cared to
bestow.

Before evening parade, we had some practice
with the Gatling mitrailleuse. It seemed, both to
the Sailor and myself, lighter and more manage-
able than any European model ; whilst its accuracy
at a certain range, and rapidity of sweep, were
marvellous. I have looked on many engines of war
more potent in outward seeming, but on a more
venomous never ; and the whole effect was pro-

SILVERLAND. 209

duced by turning a handle with something less than
the ordinary energy of an organ-grinder. But, I
think, the streets in which this instrument shall be
plied, will find it something more than a ' nuisance ; '
and in the concerts in which it takes part there will
be no great struggle for front places.

When evening parade was nearly over, we walked
round to where, some thirty paces in rear of the
supernumerary rank, were ranged the Mormon
prisoners, then awaiting their trial on charges
somewhat similar to those on which their President
had been arraigned.

A douce homely folk they seemed on the whole ;
and even the expression of the ' Hickman ' aforesaid
—hired assassin and highway robber by his own
confession — was rather cunning than malign. But
almost every visage wore the same sly, shifty look.
Not being well read in the Mormon creed, I cannot
say whether its devotees are expressly forbidden to
gaze straight and steadfastly into the face of either
friend or foe.

The fourth morning found us journeying east-
wards again ; and, mounting in daylight the
Wahsatch passes, which we had descended darkling,
we were fain to allow that they did redeem much of

210 SILVERLAND.

the monotony of the rest of the route betwixt
Ogden and Omaha. In the canons of Weber and
Echo, there is no lack of rugged grandeur ; nor of a
softer beauty amongst the coils of the Green Eiver ;
and divers buttes, near the Point of Bocks, are so
fantastically carven, that it would seem as if
some old-world architect had chosen this for a
practice-ground. The clear sky began to lower
ominously as we grated through the drift-cuttings,
still deep and solid, of the Laramie Plains ; and
we fancied that our engineers made better
speed, as though conscious of the burden of the
atmosphere and the wrath to come : if so, truly
they were wise ; for heavy white flakes were
driving densely as we crossed the Sherman ridge,
and the track — closing in behind us — was blocked
for three full days ensuing. But at Cheyenne we
could afford to mock at the Erl King ; and, in the
forenoon of the morrow, Omaha was made actually
4 on time/

Here, we found the same intelligent official who
at Laramie had sent us on our way unrejoicing.
To his good nature we were indebted for the better
view of the new Missouri bridge than could other-
wise have been obtained ; for the curves of the

SILVERLAND. 211

approach are so abrupt that, even standing on the
platform of the car, you see little or nothing till
the portal-tower is passed. But from the driving
engine, where we were perched, the effect is very
striking. For nearly half a mile the roadway
hangs in mid-air at such a height that the welter
against the piers of the turbid current can scarcely
be discerned; and an ordinary traffic steamer,
anchored hard by, looked scarcely larger than a
Thames l Citizen/ Indeed the whole structure is
a triumph of Western engineering and iron foundry ;
for the embankments are laid across a kind of
morass ; and many fathoms of treacherous mud and
shifting soil must have been pierced before the
supports found firm foothold in the Missouri. If,
as we were assured, no pains have been spared to
make the work solid and secure to the minutest
detail — and the small vibration on the bridge,
added to the smoothness of a track partly laid
within that same week, would go far to prove this —
it is the more creditable that the original estimate
should have exceeded the actual cost by some
thousands of dollars.

Thenceforward to Chicago, the way was plain and
absolutely uninteresting.

P 2

212 SILVERLAND.

Here we tarried only long enough to shift our
belongings into the sleeping-car of the eastward -
bound train ; for here the ' Arlington ' and her freight
were bound to part, with regrets, I hope, not all
one-sided. Not being in her first youth, she was
apt to give in her joints, and wax creaky at times,
the good old car ; and, whilst in her convoy, all of
us had known some weariness — some not a little
pain, nevertheless, on the whole, we had had a
right good time ; and nowhere else, of a surety, could
we have fared half so merrily. A dash of the
ludicrous, unluckily, often attaches itself to African
emotions ; yet, I think, no Britisher was much
moved to laughter, when the round rolling eyes of
our chief henchman moistened visibly as he bade us
farewell.

We are never like again to foregather. But may
luck wait on the ready wit and nimble hands of
our zealous Conductor ; blessings on the curly pow
of Andrew, simply smiling ; and may the unctuous
countenance of Joe of the caboose shine still with
the oil of gladness above his fellows !

For thirty hours ensuing we sped smoothly on
along the southern shore of Lake Erie to Buffalo
and thence to Albany— the day breaking just in

SILVERLAND. 213

time to reveal the chief beauties of the Hudson
above the Palisades. It chances that I have looked
on this noble river only

In the first of the morning twilight,
When the trees are merely grey.

Nevertheless, in my memory it has no rival. Cer-
tain points of view do assuredly remind one of the
Upper Meuse ; but the Hudson boasts far richer
expanse and variety of woodland, infinitely grander
cliffs, and a volume of water beyond compare.
The Sailor and Tressilian, viewing it for the first
time, were, I fancy, more impressed by this
spectacle than by any other American wonder.
Despite of 'improvements/ Nature still queens it
here ; nor can the villas and the country houses,
dotted about so densely, entirely mar the land-
scape ; indeed, certain coigns of vantage — few and
far between, of course — seem hardly changed since
stout Hendrick rounded them in his galliot.

At the New York Terminus, the small company,
which for so long had made up a not inharmonious

unity, was resolved into its several elements ; and I

i
am fain to believe that in the farewell cocktail

compounded by our Commodore, there mingled no
drop bitterer than the juice of Angostura.

CHAPTER XIV.

SHORTLY before our arrival a truce had been
sounded in Wall Street, after a contest fierce and pro-
longed, waged on the old Erie battle-ground. Sharp
skirmishing for some time past had brought on a
general engagement, in which the bears — fairly 'cor-
nered' at last — had been defeated with great loss.
And now the victors were dividing the spoil, some-
times not over amicably ; and the vanquished, who
had not sought safer hiding places, were binding up
their wounds in their tents. For from such a fight
many must needs come out sorely stricken — some so
sorely, that if they would carry on the war, they
will be fain, instead of caracolling gaily in the van,
to join Sydney Smith's 'heavy brigade of bankrupts,
with mourir sans payer on their banners, and Acre
alieno on their trumpets.' And the dead ? Well —
in this enterprising community, even social annihila-

SILVERLAND. 215

lation is very rare; and over commercial tombs that
seemed securely closed, might usually be written an
ignoble Resurgam.

That same afternoon, in the pleasant morning
room of the Union Club, I was saluted by a member
with whom I had been made slightly acquainted
during our previous sojourn here. He was a man
of mark in more ways than one ; for his bold opera-
tions, backed by solid capital, had made the Erie
Ring to quake in the zenith of their power ; and,
unless their hide was taunt-proof, they must often
have winced under his bitter tongue.

After interchange of greeting and enquiries, this
eminent person proceeded :—

uYou missed a good deal last week. Even a
look-in in Wall Street was worth something. It
was warm down there, I tell you."

Freedom of interrogation grows upon one in this
great country. Therefore I ventured to ask, whilst
partaking of a fragrant mint julep at his cost, how
my entertainer himself had fared in that conflict —
not, I own, expecting a very direct reply. He
answered promptly, and, as it seemed, quite
frankly :

u I wasn't right in the swim — went in on

210 SILVERLAND.

Tuesday morning, and cleared out by Friday noon
— but I bested 'em for about half-a-million."

Evincing, I hope, all outward and visible signs
of implicit faith, I was troubled with misgivings lest
this famous farceur had been practising on British
credulity. But one who bore him no good- will,
more than confirmed this statement — on oath too, so
to speak — an hour later ; so that I was fain to ac-
cept it as quasi-historical.

But transatlantic figures — insist as much as
you will on the difference between dollars and
pounds sterling — will, to the end, rather stagger
and confuse European arithmetic. Certainly,
the more you hear of such matters, the less you
wonder at the lavish expense and luxury prevalent
here. After all, it is only the old Homburg life
over again on a larger scale. Would the digestion,
even of moderate punters, then, have been impaired
by a rise of thirty kreutzers in thefoies de volaille d
la brochette ; or if Conrad (with whom be peace !)
had arbitrarily doubled the tariff, would the ' Piper
sec ' have slaked the thirst of victors or vanquished
less gratefully? I trow not. You may find
heavy gamblers, both with scrip and pasteboard,
thrifty to the hoarding of a cheese-paring; but I

SILVERLAND. 2] 7

question if these exceptions will much weaken the
rule of recklessness.

Whilst speaking on such topics, one's thoughts
naturally revert to a personage, famous on both sides
of the Atlantic ; the very whisper of whose name
makes the ears of Wall Street to tingle — I mean,
of course, the Vanderbilt.

The next day, driving back through Central
Park — we were trying a famous team, and had
gone out early, so as to ' speed ' them when the
Lane was comparatively clear — we met a wagon,
drawn by a pair of raking browns, going at the
lazy loping gait noticeable in many trotting cele-
brities when not extended. In the shadow of the
hood sat a tall, spare, erect, old man ; severe and
somewhat stately of aspect ; with a touch of the
precisian in the trim of his beard, the fashion of his
sombre apparel, and the turn of his broad-brimmed
beaver. Neither in figure nor feature was there the
faintest resemblance ; yet something in his pose and
method of handling the reins, reminded me at once of
a deceased dignitary, better known in the Bow than
in Convocation; though austere dignity was assuredly
not a leading characteristic of the Dean of St.
Buryans. In acknowledgment of my companion's

218 SILVERLAND.

cheery hail, this solemn elder vouchsafed a short
surly nod, but scarcely a side glance out of
his hard steady eyes; and yet the two had
been intimate for years, and not seldom had
made venture in the same argosy. That afternoon
I heard, in order and detail, a story of which I
had gotten only a disjointed outline ; though, it
is needless to say, no business secrets were
betrayed.

There is neither mystery nor obscurity about
Vanderbilt's early career. He began life as a 'long
shore boatman or pilot, and was afterwards promoted
to command one of the innumerable steamers run-
ning to and fro in the Bay and Sound. Mere thrift
could scarcely have laid even the first foundation
stone of his fortune. It is said that some of his
regular passengers, authorities in Wall Street, sup-
plied him with information, and allowed him to
stand in occasionally ; and — once having ' bank
money' in hand — he backed the run dauntlessly.
But the inconceivably rapid progress by which
competence was converted into wealth, has never
been satisfactorily explained; as for gaining in-
formation from the man himself — it were as
well to seek it from an ancient grave. His name

SILVERLAND.

was hardly known on Change before it became a
power there ; and, very soon afterwards, he took the
chief place in the Board-room of the Company
whose boats he had steered. Hence, I believe, ra-
ther than from his connection with any regular yacht
squadron, he derives his brevet of Commodore. No
amount of audacity or astuteness, unsupported by
strong capital, would have enabled him to carry out
the gigantic schemes of aggrandisement, scarce one
of which seems to have gone awry. Of these a,
single example — the most famous of all, and com-
paratively recent — may suffice.

Almost from its commencement, Vanderbilt had
been largely interested in the New York Central
Eailroad ; and, as the shares fluctuated considerably
for a while, watching the market warily, he was en-
abled to acquire almost absolute control of the line.
Two or three directors followed his lead implicitly ;
whilst the rest soon found that it was useless to
struggle against the Commodore and his host of
proxies. In truth, none had reason to grumble.
The line was admirably managed and well supported
—paying, despite large outlay on depots, store
houses, and rolling stock, very satisfactory dividends;
and though Vanderbilt, while his plans were matur-

220 SILVERLAND.

ing, overtly meddled little with the stock, the shares
rose steadily.

One Saturday evening, two hours before midnight,
such directors as could be found in New York, were
convened to an ' urgent special meeting/ My in-
formant sat on that memorable board ; and described
very quaintly the fear and quaking with which
he and others, albeit used to their chiefs strategy
then listened to the propounding of his sovereign
will. The Commodore was pleased to argue — or
rather to insist — that the value of all improvements
and augmentations, effected since the commence-
ment of the line, should be considered as so much
surplus capital ; and, on these grounds, proposed to
declare a dividend of eighty per cent, on the origi-
nal shares. There was much surprise, no doubt ;
and probably some strong language accompanied
weak resistance ; but, for the reasons stated above,
before the chairman had finished speaking, the ques-
tion was virtually carried.

If the minds of so well-trained an audience were
perturbed, what, think you, was the effect out of
doors on the morrow, when the announcement of
the Vanderbilt coup spread abroad like wildfire ?
Probably, never since its institution did a Sabbath

SILVERLAND. 221

more thoroughly belie its name. From early morn-
ing till long past midnight, the saloons and cor-
ridors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel — then, as now,
a kind of supplementary Stock Exchange — were
thronged with haggard, anxious faces, and filled
with an uproar of eager voices, wherein the Yankee
twang, the Southern drawl, and the Semitic snuffle
struggled for mastery. Yet this scene was tranquil
compared to that enacted in Wall Street, on the
Monday forenoon. The place was verily and
literally a ' bear-garden ; ' and the author of all this
turmoil sat chuckling grimly — not more, perhaps,
over his financial triumphs, than over a conscious-
ness that even his nearest familiars had been taken
thoroughly unawares. On none did the coup light
more unexpectedly than on the Commodore's eldest
born, then enjoying brief leisure in the shadow
of the Green Mountain, who rushed back to
the city half distraught with anger and fear ; for
he knew his sister's husband to be deep in these
shares, and did not know whether the latter had
been operating finally for rise or fall.

When the storm was at its wildest, million after
million of Central scrip — prepared for this special
emergency — was * floated ' into the market ; and

222 SILVERLAND.

at each fresh issue, not only the harassed speculators,
Lut the outside public, caught eagerly, as drowning
men will clutch at safety-rafts.

Vanderbilt's own profits on this occasion have
never been, and probably never will be, accurately
known ; but, after allowing largely for American
grandiloquence, it really seems probable that the
like have not been realised at any single stroke
recorded in modern commercial history. For, not
only was the value of the original shares, of which
he was so large a holder, enormously increased,
but he had unlimited and almost irresponsible
command of the fresh scrip, which instantly was
at a high premium. Truly it is no wonder if
even in a community accustomed to take such
things coolly —

The boldest held his breath
For a time.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature in all the
strange story, is the fact of this same scrip having
paid steady dividends 'of about six or seven per
cent, ever since; and there is talk, I believe —
if it be not already accomplished — of converting
it into stock. So the Commodore's own coffers

SILVERLAND. 223

were filled to overflowing, without apparently de-
frauding anyone of his due. A man who could not
only achieve, but secure such a victory, must needs
leave a deep mark on his time. And this name
will long be a household- word ; though it may be
questioned if in a country lax in its commercial
code, and indulgent to success, it will be cherished
or honoured.

Temperate and frugal ; for tobacco is his sole
excess, and a trotting stud his sole extravagance —
not a fond husband or father ; but never an overt
adulterer, and just in his hard way towards his
children — scarcely a professing Christian ; yet ren-
dering to the Church her dues, and not slow to
contribute to public charities — both physically and
morally absolutely fearless — prudent, patient, per-
severing and sagacious — scenting either danger or
profit from afar with a keenness allied to instinct.
Such civic crowns Vanderbilt may assuredly
claim.

Now turn another page.

A despot in council, a bully on the tavern-
stoop — everywhere, whether in jest or earnest, a
foul-mouthed blasphemous railer — grossly illiterate
and boorish, and boastful of both defects — ever

224 SILVERLAND.

morose and saturnine, save when moved to surly-
laughter by some brutal jest — liberal in bribes,
and sometimes ostentatious in benevolence ; but
the veriest miser of private alms — a man who
would liever, any day, hire a sycophant than secure
a friend — always utterly remorseless, pitiless, and
unrelenting ; and, in his arrogant intolerance of
rivalry, often wantonly perfidious and cruel.

In the early part of this century flourished, like
a mighty bay-tree, a certain Marquis, one of the
Regent's chief worthies. He had practised the
Seven Sins so sedulously and extensively, that small
vices began to pall on his taste ; and even in
gambling he craved for some adventitious excite-
ment. "It is poor sport playing with rich folks,"
he was wont to aver ; " but I like winning of poor
men — they feel it so"

Truly, it would seem as if some of the pecu-
liarities of this amiable noble had been reproduced
in the Commodore. That a man of his reticence
and reserve should keep his secrets safe locked
up, is natural enough ; but that he should
not seldom mislead his fellows to their hurt,
is somewhat unaccountable. He has, ere this
given a valuable clue to a bar-keeper, prize-fighter,

SILVERLAND. 225

or trotting-jockey, when his own kin and familiars
were groping helplessly in the dark. Indeed, it is
credibly affirmed that his son-in-law, after being
trapped in divers commercial pit-falls, only escaped
ruin, by at last going exactly counter to the
Commodore's suggestions ; and, ever since, he has
stood much higher in the old man's favour, as one
who, having paid his 'prentice fees, is entitled to the
honour of an independent trader.

Assuredly, there are very many mansions in New
York that would still remain closed against this
Roi Carotte, were his wealth and power trebled.
Nevertheless, he is beyond question rather a popular
favourite. When, awhile ago, not a month after
the death of his first wife, the mother of all his
children and his faithful help-meet for forty
years, he sold her favourite horse to the highest
bidder, people only laughed — saying, " it was the
Commodore all over;" and others of his social
offences have in like manner been glossed over and
condoned.

Well — it little becomes us, who have gathered
up reverently the scattered aspirates of railway
monarchs, and been edified by fraudulent Gamaliels,
to sit in judgment on our neighbours ; but, I think

22(5 SILVERLAND.

we have never yet bowed down before quite such an
idol as this.

We encountered several more celebrities that day,
but none of European renown. On the whole, a
drive out to Haarlem Lane or the Blooming-dale
Eoad, is about as amusing a way of passing a
spring afternoon as can be conceived. Put-
ting horse-flesh entirely aside, the variety of
equipages is very wonderful. Some would be quite
in place in the Bois or the Eow. No American
hands taught yonder pair to step and carry them-
selves so correctly ; and even the coachman you
might swear was born and bred not a mile from
Piccadilly. But this is a recent fashion ; and has
not prevailed to any extent, even amongst the
' Ten Thousand/ The wagons and buggies, if
sometimes unsightly, are invariably well built, and
fit for hard, fast work ; but some of the heavier
vehicles are ' cautions ' for clumsiness, and drawn
by cattle put together in a manner fearful to behold.
Over-tight bearing reins and couplings are quite
fatal to fast travelling; but the effect thereof is
not so ludicrous as that of two raw-boned garrons,
whose top speed is under six miles an hour, strug-
gling along in seeming independence of the pole,

SILVERLAND. 227

whilst this last sways and pitches like the bowsprit
of a lively cutter.

Almost all American dragsmen lack ' finish ;'
but they are safe as a rule, and, at any rate,
seldom lack nerve. Amongst the professionals, the
coloured persons are decidedly to be preferred :
some of these have actually learned to sit on their
box, and are turned out as correctly as one could
desire.

Central Park in itself deserves a visit. When I
saw it last, it was the dreariest waste imaginable :
now, it might bear comparison with any plaisance
-abutting on a metropolitan city. For though
there can never be any great wealth of foliage,
even when the trees lately planted and trans-
planted come to maturity, the inequalities of the
ground have been more happily developed here than
even in the Bois de Boulogne. Also there is a
sense of air and liberty, very agreeable after the
turmoil of the Broadway ; whilst to get quite clear
of the tramways is a real relief; and there are
several points of view worth lingering over, before
you come to the quaint wooden hostelry — once a
convent, save the mark ! — where a halt and ' liquor
up ' are inevitable.

Q 2

228 SILVEKLAND.

Altogether, the Empire City improves on ac-
quaintance ; albeit there must attach to it one grave
disadvantage. Having proved the climate now in
winter, spring, and summer, I am unable to con-
ceive it as anything but ' trying ; ' and this is
rather a leitotes.

CHAPTER XV.

' HASTE is of the devil' — quoth the Eastern Stage ;
and I think one never realizes more thoroughly the
wisdom of the ancient saw, than when travelling in
a foreign land wherein one is not quite a stranger.
It would have been very pleasant to have gone back
at leisure over some old tracks, and mark what
changes nine years had wrought. But it was not so
to be ; and four short days were all that could be
spared to Washington and Baltimore.

Much must be allowed for prejudice, no doubt,
and I own to having quitted the place in a temper,
not improved by four months of solitary durance ;
nevertheless, I believe many — natives no less than
aliens — will back me in affirming that the State
Metropolis is about the most comfortless of civilised
cities.

No squalor offends you ; the other public build-

230 SILVERLAND.

ings, without lofty architectural pretensions, are not
unworthy of the grand white Colossus throned on
the Capitoline hill ; many private dwellings, of
recent erection, are spacious, solid, and excellently
contrived ; and, since the introduction of street
asphalte, the double nuisance of mud and dust,
though not cured, is much abated. In spite of all
this, I cannot, even now, fancy the most zealous
official feeling himself thoroughly at home here.
The normal condition of everything, within doors
and without, seems to be one of incessant hurry,
confusion, and unrest. Everybody is ' seeking '
something ; though the objects of pursuit may vary
infinitely, from a lucrative appointment down to a
meal or a share in a bed-chamber. The Congress-
man per se is not usually a very pleasant or polite
person ; indeed, considering how he is harassed,
there is much excuse for his shortcomings in
courtesy ; but he is amiable and attractive com-
pared to the office-hunters and the rest of the camp-
following. The carcase must be an atomy indeed
that will not, before the breath has fairly left it,
draw together a score of strident harpies ; and,
fighting over the quarry, they spare not, be sure,
beak or talon. Within the diplomatic atmosphere

SILVERLAND. 231

you may doubtless breathe more freely; but even
liere the air is often troubled, and there is seldom
perfect peace.

Each hotel is, naturally, the centre of a scramble.
When we reached the Arlington House in the
early dawn, though we had telegraphed for rooms,
Tressilian and myself were fain to be grateful for a
small double-bedded garret, whilst a couch was
improvised for another of our party in the bath-
closet adjoining. However, a bright sky overhead,
and a breeze blowing freshly up the Potomac, made
amends for much ; and our Senator was ' all there '
to lionise the strangers. For myself I can aver, that
tho pleasantest sight Washington showed me that
clay was a familiar Baltimore face, unaltered from
the ancient kindliness.

Early on the following forenoon, under the
Senator's auspices, we were ' received ' by the Pre-
sident. Albeit prepared for republican simplicity,
tho informalities of the White House struck us
rather forcibly. A sentry strolling to and fro in the
outer precincts, expectorating copiously the while,
did not interfere with the general sam-gene. Ushers
or chamberlains there were none : the Senator
merely dropped a word or two in passing to a

232 S1LVEKLAND.

servant in the outer hall ; then, quite unattended,
we followed him into a kind of antechamber on
the first floor, tenanted by some half-dozen loungers.
Hence, for the first time so far as I know, our
names were sent in.

After the briefest possible delay, we were inducted
into an apartment sufficiently lofty and spacious,
but absolutely destitute of pomp or ornaments,
most resembling, indeed, an ordinary board-room.
At a large oblong table in the centre three or four
men were writing busily, of whom one only rose as
we entered.

Now a President cannot be hedged with any
divinity whatsoever. Indeed, being, as Miss Nipper
would say, ' only a temporary/ there is no reason
why he should carry more of a presence than a
mayor or any other ephemeral dignitary. But I
think we strangers were all rather disappointed
with the physique of the famous Ulysses. We
had looked to see features resolute, if somewhat
stolid, in expression, and a figure sturdily squared ;
something, in fine, td remind one of the soldier
who ' set his foot down ' in such bitter earnest
at Eichmond leaguer. What we saw was a small,
undersized man, with wan face and weary eyes,

SILVERLAND. 233

pekin from head to heel, and palpably not quite
at his ease. One would have thought myriads
of such, inflictions must have case-hardened any
diffidence ; but he spoke in a shy, subdued voice-
rather hesitated over each successive formula of
greeting — and then paused, as if waiting for a
conversational lead. An awkwardness naturally
ensued ; for on such occasions ordinary persons, like
the courtly huntsmen of the ancien regime, feel
disinclined to cut out the work, howsoever lamely
Monseigneur may be mounted. At last the Senator,
taking heart of grace, struck in ; and the President,
once over the first fence, ambled on pretty steadily ;
expressing his personal regard for the 'old country '-
regret at the present complications — confidence in
the speedy clearing of the political horizon, and so
forth. And he said all this in a solid, placid
way, that made you feel as if some substance sup-
ported the complimentary froth.

Consideration for the President, no less than for
ourselves, made us not seek to prolong the inter-
view ; for he looked ill as well as harassed, and we
heard afterwards that for some time past he had
been rather ailing. The atmosphere of the White
House, if it at all resembles that of the audience-

234 ttlLVERLANl).

chamber, would be very like to promote dyspepsia,*
The room, despite its size, was fearfully over-heated,
and the air heavy with nicotine ; indeed, whilst
conversing, the Chief ceased not to twist betwixt
his fingers the stump of a big black cigar.

If his outward seeming differed from my ideal,
my moral conception of Ulysses Grant, after having
seen him face to face, is hardly, if at all, altered.
Essentially a substantial man — not easily led, and
hardly to be urged, either by persuasion or obloquy,
an inch further or faster than it pleases him to
advance — upright in his dealings, both public and
private, albeit not heedless of the main chance, nor
devoid of the spirit of partisanship — in his home
policy, careful quieta non movere — in his foreign
scarcely aggressive, though inclined to take any
fair pretext for enlarging American borders. A
man whose light is never like to be set on high,
like that of some who have preceded him ; neverthe-
less, the longer it burns steadily, the better, I think,
it will be for honest folk on either Atlantic shore.

A pleasanter recollection of that forenoon was a
visit paid by Tressilian and myself to Charles
Sumner. A courteous reception, even if we had

* Vide Appendix E.

SILVERLAND. 235

not come by invitation, was a matter of course :
yet I was agreeably surprised ; for, although I
have been in his company twice or thrice, long
ago, my recollection had not done justice to the
great orator's powers of causerie. The talk ran
chiefly on indifferent topics ; but, without constraint
or affectation, such could not be invariably adhered
to ; and it was admirable to mark the tact and
delicacy with which our host— never actually
evading a difficulty — glided over dangerous ground.
Listening to his smooth, facile periods, it was hard
to realise that his name could ever have been
associated with Indirect Claims. There was nothing
strange in this, after all ; only the lower order of
demagogues are, on and off the platform, pretty
nearly the same.

Overwork, rumour affirms, has told heavily on
Mr. Sumner. If this be so, the outward and visible
signs thereof are faint to discern. Beyond an
increase of bulk, and a thorough blanching of the
long flowing hair, the past decade seemed to me to
have worked few changes. Indeed, the face-
perhaps from the filling up of its outlines — appeared
to me less worn than when I looked upon it last ;
but that the labour has been incessant, and the

236 SILVERLAND.

mental strain severe, none would doubt, after
glancing at tables literally smothered with pape-
rasses. Indeed, our host assured us that the perusal
of his correspondence, after it had been carefully
sifted, often took him far into the night. The
house, though spacious enough for all ordinary
requirements, is somewhat strait for the full display
of its art treasures. Every available foot of wall,
and inch of space, is already occupied ; and even
the study, specially consecrated to business, reminds
you far less of America than of Rome. Minutes,
that dragged so heavily at the White House, flitted
rapidly here ; and I was only just in time to catch
the train for Baltimore, whither I went alone ; for
my comrades, having no old associations to tempt
them, elected to spend the residue of their leave in
Columbia.

Driving through the streets from the Baltimore
depot, I was struck with the changed aspect of all
the surroundings. Even in that feverish war-time
trade could not be said to stagnate here ; but it was
a feeble uncertain flutter, most unlike the business-
like bustle which now prevailed. I was not sur-
prised to hear afterwards that the population of the
city had increased by nearly a third, and that her

SILVERLAND. 237

commerce was flourishing exceedingly ; for direct lines
of steamers run hence to the principal European
ports, and the port is crowded with general
shipping. Generally speaking, the keen mercantile
spirit of this people — ever quick at seizing and
moulding opportunities — -might claim credit for this
wondrous progress. But I believe there are cases
here, not a few, where men have worked with
fiercer earnestness because the whirring of the
business-wheels drowned, for a while, bitter voices
of the past to which it is wisest not to harken.

My first visit was to the Maryland Club. Here
there were few marks of change. Though the
society had been somewhat roughly evicted in the
last year of the war, things had evidently settled
down again ; and even the furniture seemed to
occupy the old places. In the same sunny corner
stood the same vast arm-chair : only the portly form,
that used to fill it in nobly, has long since changed
substance for shadow. Indeed, though familiar
faces were not lacking, I soon learned that there
were voids, wide and many, in the goodly company
that used to assemble here. On one — perhaps the
cheeriest of them all — had lighted the heaviest grief
that can befall humanity ; and under the roof-tree

238 SILVERLAND.

that sheltered me oftenest in those days there was
still more recent mourning.

But not for this, their revel
Those jovial souls forbore.

In truth, it must have been a poor heart that would
not have rejoiced over the succulent canvas-backs,
the toothsome terrapins, and Sercial, older than
the century, yet full of fragrance and flavour, as
when it was brought down from the sunniest slope
in Madeira.

But a better cordial than even that rare liquor,
was the real Maryland welcome awaiting one every-
where. To have kept a place in kindly memories
so long, through good and evil report, with a thou-
sand leagues of sea betwixt — we have been thankful,
in our time, for lighter mercies than this.

In such a hurried visit it was difficult to form
any accurate conclusion. But, though ancient heart-
burnings have healed more completely than might
have been reckoned on, I fancied that in not a few
cases there were traces of vague discontent and
political animosity. This set me pondering more
gravely than heretofore over a question, concerning
which much has been said and written already,

SILVERLAND. 239

but one of such world-wide interest that it can
scarcely become trite or wearisome.

How long is the Great Eepublic like to remain
one and undivided ?

I am not thinking now of revolt, revolution,
or any violent disruption whatsoever ; but of
natural causes, working evenly towards an inevit-
able end. I fancy, few foreigners, who trouble
themselves to consider the subject, will traverse the
States from ocean to ocean, without some such mis-
givings, inspired — if by naught else — by that very
' vastness ' of which our cousins are so prone to
boast. Are you aware that more leagues divide
New York from San Francisco than lie betwixt
Paris and Bagdad ? If you realise this, you wonder
less at the tone in which a Californian or Missourian
is wont to speak of the Down-Easters. In one long
day's journey may be compassed the distance
between Boston and Baltimore ; yet, in many
essentials, the proclivities of these two cities differ
not less widely than if they were set in diverse
hemispheres. To produce disunion it is not neces-
sary that active antipathy should exist. Without
thorough sympathy and identity of interests through-
out, it is difficult to see how a federation of such

240 SILVERLAND.

proportions can long cohere. Albeit discontent,
and even disaffection, may still smoulder in the
South, I hold the probabilities of another Southern
rising extremely remote. Nevertheless, I believe
that many, now past middle age, will live to
see several republics established on this conti-
nent ; not necessarily at enmity with each other,
or struggling for pre-eminence except in fair com-
mercial rivalry, and perhaps always ready to make
common cause against a foreign foe ; but absolutely
self-contained, self-governed, and independent.

Surely each large accession of territory must
strengthen such probabilities : yet the Northern
mind is loth to acknowledge this. With ' annexa-
tion ' in view, even the wary Ulysses seems some-
times to forget his sober solid self, and is not over-
scrupulous concerning his neighbour's landmark.
And still the scheme of aggrandisement proceeds.
How long Canada is like to hold her own, is entirely
matter of opinion ; and we will not here pause to
inquire. But the fate of Cuba is even now in the
balance, and the proximate acquirement of Mexico
may be said to have been ' discounted ' already ; for,
in the very heart of that country, a little quiet
pro.specting has been done ; and, when the stars

SILVERLAND. 241

and stripes are once firmly planted there, certain
bold speculators will be at no loss where to ply pick
and spade. Beyond a doubt, there are many in the
States — just and discreet men to boot — who look
forward to the day, not far distant, when the entire
North American continent will be absorbed in the
Great Republic.

I have heard it argued that even then, both in
area and in population, for some time to come, the
Russian Empire would hold the vantage ; and—
being exceedingly feeble on figures — I could not
wholly controvert this. Nevertheless, I ventured to
affirm that the cases are in nowise parallel. Setting
aside the Caucasus, ever ruled rather by the sword
than the sceptre — within the sweep of the Russian
eagle's wing dwell, and for generations to come are
like to dwell, great hordes of mere barbarians, bred
in habits of blind obedience, and void of real free
aspirations, even when, by oppression or their own
wild instincts, stirred to revolt. Furthermore,
Russia proper, at least, the Czar overawes, not
only with hereditary dignity, but with the semi-
divine attributes of the Head of a vast hierarchy :
if all earthly principalities and powers were
swept away, and merged in universal Communism,

242 SILVERLAND.

In certain natures the old Relligio, in some shape or
another, would still be found throned.

Mark the difference when you have once crossed
the Behring Straits. The savage — pure or mixed
— may fairly be eliminated from any question of
the future ; and, whatever maybe their other faults,
few old-world countries contain a population less
' barbaric' than the United States, as they now
stand, or are like to stand. For — except perhaps in
the extreme South — absolute ignorance, even among
the negroes, has become rather exceptional. But
from civilization with all the modern improve-
ments, a certain amount of factiousness unluckily
seems inseparable. Education is, doubtless, an ex-
cellent thing ; but the quick-witted citizen, with
the ' Eights of Man ' at his finger's end, will be more
apt to vex the soul of his ruler than the dullest of
boors. I suppose, on a moderate computation,
America could furnish forth a well-defined creed for
each week in the year ; so that the most devoted
adherents of any President, present or to come,,
are scarce likely to regard him with a jot more
veneration on the hierarchic score.

On the whole — chimerical as the idea may sound
— if that huge fagot of parti-coloured staves is held

SILVEELAND. 213

prominently together, I am inclined to believe it
will be in the grasp of an autocracy.

That difficulties, many and great, would hamper
any severance, however amicable, is too evident ;
and, perhaps, not the least of these would be found
in the anomalous position of Maryland. Beyond
doubt, the current of her sympathies trends in the
same direction as heretofore ; nor is it ever likely
to turn : nevertheless, it is hard to see how the
boundary line could touch the Atlantic, otherwise
than at the mouth of the Potomac. For, if the
territory east of the Missouri were divided under
two Republics, it seems as if the District of Columbia
must still remain neutral ground, invested with the
ancient Elean privileges, and the Capitol the properest
meeting-place for federal councils.

I suppose time and patience would solve this
puzzle, as they have solved many another ; but I
would it looked less intricate ; for few can have
sojourned long in this most genial State without
retaining an interest in her future. Though our
faces were set fairly homewards now, I felt as if I
were leaving much of home-like behind, when, on
our way back to New York, we crossed the
Susquehanna.

K 2

241 SILVERLAND.

Bright spring weather had come east at last, and
we were able, for the first time, to stroll about the
Empire City without being forced to wade through
snow or mire. That the last few years have much
improved and beautified her, it is impossible to
deny. The white marble, now profusely employed,
produces a wonderfully good effect ; especially as,
in this climate, its gloss and purity do not soon pass
away. Several new stores and hotels are faced with
this costly material. In the Roman Catholic
cathedral — now about half complete — no meaner
stone mingles. If the original plan be carried out,
there are few like edifices with which this stately
structure will not stand compare. But vast sums
have been sunk here already; and, though scarce an
Irish labourer grudges a tithe from his daily hire,
and wealthy devotees are liberal, the walls mount
slowly.

Still — once clear of the Fifth Avenue — wandering
about the good town, Desinit in piscem will per-
petually recur to you. The Broadway remains the
same quaint patchwork in brick and mortar ; and
the contrasts are often more glaring than heretofore.
Some recent erections are not only magnificent, but
bear evidence of a pure architectural taste ; and

SILVEKLAND. 245

when, shoulder to shoulder with one of these, you
find a hideous baraque, plastered over with parti-
coloured placards, the effect is simply provoking ;
albeit a thorough-going Yankee will insist that it is
rather picturesque.

Just two short days, into which were pressed the
work, and perhaps the wassail, of seven ; and we
paced the familiar deck of the ' China' once more,
with Sandy Hook on our quarter. A perfectly
uneventful voyage — yet pleasant as fair weather
and fair company could make it — and, on the
tenth morning, we heard Birkenhead bells ringing
to matin-song.

Now for a brief epilogue, or apology, if you
will.

A great traveller remarked a while ago, with
equal truth and simplicity, that a " certain amount
of egotism was inseparable from personal narra-
tive ; " and for this defect I hold it needless to
make excuse, inasmuch as the evading it would
have entailed much wearisome periphrasis. Fur-
thermore, it may be doubted how far one is justified
in putting one's own sentiments into the mouth of
others who actually move, live, and have being. I
am free to confess that the route we traversed

246 SILVERLAND.

would, under ordinary circumstances, offer no more
stirring incidents than might be found betwixt
London and the Land's End ; and some of our
facts are trite as — let us say — the motto on the
title-page. Nevertheless, amongst ' things not gene-
rally known' are many lying little remote from
the world's main highways ; and, perhaps, a few
matters recorded here would not be found in
ordinary guide-books. With no temptation to set
down aught in malice, I have striven very earnestly
to be swayed neither by friendship nor favour.
Any palpably interested statements, unless borne
out by strong external evidence, I have put wholly
aside, or used them only as counterpoises to others
of a like nature ; and a glance at the Appendix
will show that in figures we have usually undershot
the mark.

Ever since Terah and the other patriarchs ' went
forth from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land
of Canaan,' a tide of emigration, always swelling in
volume, has followed the sun ; and — Kenrist du da*
Land ? — is translated into many tongues from the
Teuton. Without venturing to answer the query
authoritatively, I have tried to suggest where the
answer may be found; and if only a few honest

SILVEKLAND.

yeomen, or stout adventurers, profit by the clue,
neither time nor trouble has been wasted.

At the very worst, I shall never regret these
latest American wanderings ; for they brought
much worth remembering, even if — as just judges
should decide — little worth recording.

APPENDIX.

Page 30.— A.

BY an odd coincidence, while this sheet was in process of
correction, the following appeared in the American column of
The Times :—

" In the ' Credit Mobilier ' inquiry two former Members of
Congress have been found who not only admit having held the
stock, but, unlike some of the others who have testified, they
resort to no excuses, but boldly say they bought it to make a
profit from it, and they deny any man's right to question the
propriety of their conduct. These men are James F. Wilson,
of Iowa, and Benjamin M. Boyer, of Pennsylvania. Boyer says
he only got 100 shares, and regrets that he was not able to get
more. The testimony taken shows that the ' Credit Mobilier '
made no less than $30,000,000. This enormous profit was
made from the Government bonds and lands, yet it left the
Union Pacific Kailroad heavily in debt and in arrears to the
Government. The Government directors of the line, of whom
Brooks is and Wilson was one, ought to have ^evented this
huge swindle, but the shares they held (although in direct
violation of law) sealed their lips. The movement is very
strong to have the railroad seized for its debts, and the ' Credit
Mobilier' shareholders sued to get back at least enough of
their gains to reimburse the Government its expenditures over
and above the actual value of the road.'*

250 APPENDIX.

Page 40.— B.

From the latest report of the Commissioners we gather that
the Redskins of all kinds, now existing on American ground,
can hardly muster 150,000. The estimate must be partly
founded on guess-work ; for the numbering of some tribes
could hardly be accomplished by any one valuing his scalp.
But doubtless it is sufficiently accurate for all practical pur-
poses. Out of these 150,000, more than a third are so far
domesticated in their own territory that no more trouble need
be looked for here than in any ordinary distant settlement.
On the other hand, certain hostile tribes seem, of late, to have
plucked up heart and attempted something more than desultory
forays. There has been sharp skirmishing down in Arizona ;
and in Upper California the U.S. troops seem to have been
twice decisively worsted. But such reverses are really pro-
fitable. Indian fighting would be wonderfully simplified if the
savage in any wise be tempted to stand up in fair field. All
things considered, the whole question seems to be narrowing
itself into a compass strait indeed.

Page 73.— C.

From one cause or another, months have intervened betwixt
inditing the first and the last of the preceding pages. It must
be confessed that the present prospects of the ' Emma ' are
hardly so prosperous as when these lines were penned ; never-
theless, I am not minded to modify or retract a single letter
thereof. The quality of the ore may, of course, vary with each
assay ; but subsequent reports have only strengthened my con-
viction that the estimate of quantity, then actually ' exposed,'
was in no wise exaggerated. It looks like prophesying after
the event, to affirm that the flooding of the mine in this later
spring, whilst these vast drifts were melting, suggested itself as
a probable danger even to us who scanned things with unprofes-
sional eyes. But, so far as I can learn, the ' cave ' which occa-

APPENDIX. 251

sionecl so much damage and hindrance of work was really
attributable rather to surface water, filtering largely through
the chinks and pores of the limestone, than to the breaking up
of deep hidden springs. This disaster would be included, I sup-
pose, in ' the acts of God,' provided against in bills of lading.
But the unlucky * Emma ' fell likewise into the hand of man,
in the shape of long litigation ; and though she eventually made
her case good against the Illinois Company, so far as present
cost is concerned it seems to have been rather a Pyrrhic victory.
Up to February last every shaft, winze, and driftway had as-
suredly been driven on the broadest of prospecting principles :
hence the exceptional development. How they have been work-
ing since, I cannot pretend to say. Eighteen per cent, in monthly
dividends on a million sterling, is no light load to carry ; and
neither mine nor mule can work fairly, if overburdened. Only
a constant supply of high-class ore can meet these frequent
calls ; and the exhaustion of one or two rich veins must inter-
fere with fair exploration. This is what the hill folk mean by
* picking out the eyes of a mine.' I do not affirm that the
' Emma ' has been so managed of late ; but the temptation —
perhaps it would be fairer to say the pressure — is obvious.
Probably, ere long, both directors and shareholders may be
convinced that these frequent ad interim dividends, however
attractive in a prospectus, are at variance with sound theories
of investment. Furthermore — casting no imputation on
our neighbour — it may be questioned whether it is wise
to leave the control of American works, supported almost
entirely by British capital, exclusively in American hands. An
English resident manager might not find it at first an easy post ;
yet tact and firmness have triumphed over greater obstacles
than he would be like to encounter. A superficial knowledge
,of mineralogy, and the intelligence of an ordinary mining-
engineer, would not suffice ; and he must not alone be bribe-
proof, but steeled against fear or favour. You do not light on

252 APPENDIX.

this sample, perhaps, every day. Nevertheless, not a few such
are to the fore in flesh and blood ; and, with millions at stake,
they are surely worth the seeking.

D.

Within the last fortnight I have read — not yet thoroughly
enough, I must own — " California, a Book for Travellers and
Settlers," by Charles NordhofF. It is carefully and exhaustively
written ; though the chapters on colonization appear rather
addressed to native than foreign emigrants. But it is a rather
costly work ; and, like many others published beyond the
Atlantic, will probably not obtain here circulation wide as it
deserves. Therefore, I am glad to supplement my scanty
knowledge by infinitely larger experience, especially as it more
than confirms all the facts stated above. To practical farmers
the concluding extract may seem worth attentive perusal ; for
it gives, in a small space a very comprehensive notion of
husbandry in Middle California.

i .(1), page 191.

11 It is a singular piece of good fortune to the farmers and
land-owners, that they got a remarkably fine season and the
railroad in the same year. They have known how to avail
themselves of their good luck, for they have put in enormous
crops. One of the best informed men in Stockton assured me
that the San Joaquin Valley will send to tide- water, in the year
1872, 180,000 tons of wheat. Mr. Friedlander, the great
grain buyer of this State, is reported to me to have estimated
the probable export of the whole State this year at 700,000
tons.

D. (2), page 192.

" One irrigation company is already at work in the San
Joaquin country upon a large scale ; it has forty miles of canal
dug, and a large force of men is now at work extending this

APPENDIX. 253

canal. The plan of this company contemplates not only irriga-
tion, but incidentally the reclamation of a million of acres of
swamp and overflowed lands.

D. (3), page 193.

" Between Stockton and Merced lie about six hundred square
miles of wheat. The railroad train runs through what appears
to be an interminable wheat-field, with small houses and barns
at great distances apart, and no fences, except those by which
the company has guarded its trains against the cattle, which
are turned into the fields after harvest to glean the grain and
consume the stubble.

" Wheat, wheat, wheat, and nothing but wheat, is what you
see on your journey, as far as the eye can reach over the plain
in every direction. Fields of two, three, and four thousand
acres make but small farms; here is a man who 'has in'
20,000 acres ; here one with 40,000 acres, and another with
some still more preposterous amount — all in wheat.

D. (4), page 195.

" Miller and Lux own forty miles of land on the western side
of the San Joaquin, and other persons own almost equally great
tracts. Mr. Miller is the possessor of half a million of acres in
this State ; he has nearly 100,000 cattle ; and, being a shrewd
business man, he is fencing in his great estate, to reserve it. for
his own cattle. He is eager for more land ; and is said to have
determined that he will not rest until he can drive his cattle
over his own land from Los Angeles to the Sacramento.

D. (J), page 199.

" Los Angeles is,' at present, the centre of the orange culture
in this State. The tree grows well in all Southern California,
wherever water can be had for irrigation.

" Sixty orange trees are commonly planted to the acre.
They may be safely transplanted at three or even four years, if

254 APPENDIX.

care is used to keep the air from the roots. They grow from
seed , and it is believed in California that grafting does not
change or improve the fruit. It begins to bear in from six to
eight years from the seed, and yields a crop for market at ten
years. With good thorough culture and irrigation, it is a
healthy tree ; if it is neglected, or if the gopher has gnawed
its roots, the scale insect appears ; but a diseased tree is very
rarely seen in the orchards.

"At from ten to twelve years from the seed the tree usually
bears 1000 oranges, and they are selling now in San Francisco
for from fifteen to thirty -five thousand dollars per 1000.

" I have satisfied myself, by examination of nearly all the
bearing orchards in the southern counties, and by comparing
the evidence of their owners, that at fifteen years from the
seed, or twelve years from the planting of three-year old trees,
an orange orchard which has been faithfully cared for, and is
favourably situated, will bear an average of 1000 oranges to
the tree. This would give, at twenty dollars per 1000 — a low-
average — a product of 1200 dollars per acre.

" One man can care for twenty acres of such an orchard ; and
every other expense, including picking, boxes, shipping, and
commissions in San Francisco, is covered by five dollars per
1000. The net profit per acre would, therefore, be a trifle less
than 900 dollars.

D. (6), page 205.

" The price of land at first strikes the stranger as high.
Near Los Angeles they ask from thirty to a hundred dollars per
acre for unimproved farming land. I thought they were
already discounting the railroad which is coming to them, and
which will no doubt cause this part of the countiy to increase
rapidly in population and wealth. Everybody was 'talking-
railroad.' A corps of engineers of the Southern Pacific Com-
pany was near the town completing surveys for the road ; and

APPENDIX. 2o^

as I had seen in the East the rise in prices following the
mere announcement of a new railroad, it was natural for me
to think that prices here had been affected by the same cause.
But I am satisfied that they are, on the whole, not too high.

"The Congress land which remains unoccupied in this and
the adjoining counties has been reserved from sale until the
Southern Pacific Railroad line is determined, and that company,
which works, I believe, with the help of a land grant, shall
have located its alternate sections. There is, I am told, a
great deal of good land in this part of the public domain —
how much I am unable to tell. The soil in this country is
mostly a rich, loose, sandy loam, with patches of adobe,
which is a stiff black clay, and forms, with proper cultivation,
the very richest grain land of California. It is on the adobe
soil about Watsonville and Santa Cruz that the enormous crops,
of wheat have grown ; some farms averaging, for several years-
in succession, from seventy to eighty bushels of wheat per acre.

D. (7), page 207.

"They sow the wheat here from the 1st of December to the
1st of March, and they have another three months to harvest
it in, with a certainty that no rain will disturb them during
their long harvest.

" The fields are ploughed with what are called gang-ploughs,
which are simply four, six, or eight ploughshares fastened to
a stout frame of wood. On the lighter soil eight horses draw
a seven-gang plough, and one such team is counted on to put
in 640 acres of wheat in the sowing season, or from eight
to ten acres per day. Captain Gray, near Merced, has put in
this season 4000 acres with five such teams — his own land and
his own teams.

" A seed-sower is fastened in front of the plough. It scatters
the seed, the ploughs cover it, and the work is done. The
plough has no handles, and the ploughman is, in fact, only a

256 APPENDIX.

driver ; he guides the team ; the ploughs do their own work.
It is easy work, and a smart boy, if his legs are equal to the
walk, is as good a ploughman as anybody ; for the team is
trained to turn the corners at the driver's word, and the plough
is not handled at all.

" It is a striking sight to see, as I saw, ten eight-horse teams
following each other in over a vast plain cutting ' lands ' a mile
long, and, when all had passed me, leaving a track forty feet
wide of ploughed ground.

" On the heavier soil the process is somewhat different. An
eight-horse team moves a four-gang plough, and gets over about
six acres per day. The seed is then sown by a machine which
scatters it forty feet, and sows from seventy -five to one hun-
dred acres in a day, and the ground is then harrowed and cross-
harrowed.

" When the farmer, in this valley, has done his winter sowing,
he turns his teams and men into other ground, which he is to
summer fallow. This he can do from the 1st of March to the
middle of May ; and by it he secures a remunerative crop for
the following year, even if the season is dry. This discovery is
of inestimable importance to the farmers on the drier part of
these great plains. Experience has now demonstrated conclu-
sively, that if they plough their land in the spring, let it lie
until the winter rains come on, then sow their wheat promptly
and harrow it in, they are sure of a crop ; and the summer will
have killed every weed besides.

" After the summer fallowing is done, the teams have a rest.
The horses and mules are turned out to grass until the 4th of
July, when the harvest begins.

" It is then the rainless season, and the farmer gets his teams,
his headers, his grain waggons, his thresher, and his sacks and
men into the field, and on the light soil cuts, threshes, and
puts into sacks the grain at the rate often of one hundred
and fifty acres per day.

APPENDIX. 257

" Three ' headers,' which cut off only the heads of the wheat
stalks, leaving the straw standing, and nine wagons to take
the heads from the headers to the thresher, require to work
them twenty-three men and eighty-three horses. With this
force they got in one hundred and fifty acres per day. The
grain, put into sacks, is left on the fields until time and teams
can be got to haul it to the railroad, or often until it is sold.
It does not sweat nor mould, and there is no fear of rain.

" As soon as the crop is harvested, the teams are hitched to a
brush — six horses to a twenty-foot brush, which goes over the
field at the rate of forty acres per day. This brush scatters the
grain which has been dropped in the fields ; and sometimes a
little more seed is added. When it has been brushed in, it
is ploughed — two or three inches deep — to cover the seed ; and
from this comes, without further care, what is called a
* volunteer ' crop, which is often better than the first, and is
certainly counted on.

" Now the horses and men have another interval of rest
until the rains begin and ploughing recommences.

" Thus, as one farmer pointed out to me, they have work
for their teams almost the whole year, and have no horses eating
their heads off in idleness.

" In the heavier soils, the ' volunteer ' crop is put in with the
harrow instead of the brush ; and this is followed by a ' chisel
cultivator,' having from seven to thirteen teeth, four inches
deep. If these leave the ground rough, it is again harrowed.

" At five bushels per acre, if wheat brought Jjwo dollars and
a half a hundred pounds^ the farmer on these sandy plains
makes three dollars and a half per acre, clear of every expense.
This result, which seemed to me incredible, I saw demonstrated
by figures of the cost of the crop which were satisfactory to a
whole roomful of farmers.

" But if you will remember that it is no uncommon thing for
a farmer to put in three or four thousand acres, you will see

258 APPENDIX.

what money they make, even with a small crop, if the price
happens to be good, as it often is in a bad year. Two and a
half cents is, of course, a high price, and a cent and a quarter
is a more usual price in good years. But at that rate a crop
of ten bushels per acre pays so well on the sandy plains that
farmers down here count confidently on making large fortunes
this year.

" I was fortunate enough to find myself one afternoon among
a dozen farmers, some having sandy soil, and some the heavier
loam; and, after discussing the comparative cost of cultiva-
tion, which is nearly double on the heavy land, and the pro-
duct, which is as ten bushels to from twenty to twenty-five, I
listened to an earnest argument concerning the relative merits
of sand and clay.

" A very intelligent man, who owned and worked 2000 acres
of clay and loam, said, at the close of the discussion, ' The sand
has many merits ; it can be worked very cheaply, and it bears
drought surprisingly well ; but after all it is only good for
wheat ; it must always be farmed on a large scale, and circum-
stances may make it unprofitable some day ; whereas on the
clay we can raise anything we like, and are not dependent on
wheat alone.' He added, * The clay and loam farms will have
to be cut up, and will be before many years. It will pay
better on that land to take one hundred and sixty acres and
work it in various crops thoroughly, than to exhaust 2000 or
3000 acres by skimming over the surface.'

" I told you much of the land is rented. It is customary in
such cases for the land-owner to furnish seed, feed for the teams,
all the tools and machinery needed for putting in and harvest-
ing the crops, and the land and necessary buildings, and he
gets half the crop put in bags on the field, and furnishes the
bags for his share. The renter, as the tenant is called, fur-
nishes only the teams and men, the supplies for the men, and
his own grain-bags.

APPENDIX. 259

" This arrangement is not inequitable ; and it gives, as you
will see, an important advantage to a man without capital. An
eight-horse team is worth about six hundred dollars ; with five
such teams, and five men — who receive in the winter thirty
dollars per month and rations — 4000 acres can be put into
wheat.

" When the work is done, the teams can be hired out, or
they can be turned into pastures without cost. I was not
surprised to hear that many men have become rich as renters.
Two or three good crops enable a renter to buy a large tract of
his own."

Page 234.— E.

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