AT THE GOLD-FIELDS.
IT was with intense delight that all in the caravan noticed the gradual
change of herbage which showed that they were approaching the confines
of this terrible region; and when, at their first halt after leaving it,
they came upon flowing streams, a general bath was indulged in by man
and beast, the oxen lying down in the water, and being with great
difficulty induced to emerge from it. The hunters now recommenced their
excursions in search of game, for all were suffering from the want of
fresh meat, the children especially feeling the privation.
Turk accompanied the party. The dog was now completely restored, and
nothing could induce it to leave Frank's side. It was quite young, and
Frank soon taught it to remain by his horse while he dismounted to stalk
game; while in pursuit on horseback, Turk often pursued and pulled down
deer who would otherwise have escaped.
One day Dick and Frank had gone out alone, and had been led a long
distance from the line of march in pursuit of a herd of deer. These had
finally gone up a narrow cañon in the mountains. The hunters pursued
them for some distance, and then, despairing of overtaking them, turned
their horses, and began to retrace their steps. Suddenly Turk, who was
in advance, stopped, uttered a deep growl, and its hair bristled from
its head to its tail.
"What is it, Turk?" Frank asked.
The animal replied with another low, deep growl.
"It must be some savage beast," Frank said.
"That ain't likely," Dick said; "any beast in this cañon would have
moved away when we passed before. I think the dog must scent Injins. A
party may have seen us entering the gap, and may be in pursuit."
He threw himself off his horse, and listened, with his ear to the
ground.
"It's Injins, sure enough!" he exclaimed; "I can hear the clattering of
horses' hoofs on the hard rock. There's nothing for it but for us to
make our way up the cañon."
They turned their horses, and galloped forward, Turk, after one more
growl in the direction of the Indians, following. Presently the defile
divided.
"Shall we take the main branch, or the one to the right?" Frank asked.
"Better keep straight on," Dick said; "the other may lead into some
valley from which there could be no getting out, and we should be caught
in a trap. See!" he said, as he halted, "the deer have gone that way. Do
you see some of the pebbles have been thrown out of that little stream?
"Jump off your horse, and cut some bits off your blankets and tie them
round your horse's feet. If the Indians see no marks going forward, they
will naturally suppose we have turned off here in pursuit of the deer."
Frank did what his comrade suggested; but quickly as the work was
performed, they heard the sound of the horsemen in pursuit, loud and
distinct, before they again set forward. Then, springing on their
horses, they rode up the cañon. After a while they halted; the sounds of
pursuit had ceased, and they had no doubt the Indians had turned off
into the other ravine.
"It all depends how far that runs," Dick said, "how soon they will be in
pursuit again. If it comes soon to an end it will not be long before we
have them after us; if it goes on for some miles we are safe."
Winding between perpendicular cliffs of great height, they rode forward,
mounting steadily. It was impossible to make rapid progress, for
although in some places the bottom of the ravine was bare, smooth rock,
at others it was piled with boulders.
It was three hours before they emerged from it, and upon doing so found
they were upon an elevated plateau. Before they moved forward, Frank
said, "Turk, do you hear them?" The dog stood with ears erect and
quivering nostrils, looking down the ravine which they had just left.
Presently he gave a low, deep growl.
"They are coming," Frank said; "but they must be a good way off, for
Turk did not hear them at first. Which way shall we go, Dick?"
"We had better turn to the left," Dick said, "for our natural line leads
to the right. However, it does not make much difference, for they will
be able to track us; still, it may puzzle them. It will be dark in a
couple of hours, and if we can keep ahead till then we are safe."
They started at a gallop, and for an hour rode at full speed in the
direction which would take them down to the plain at or near the spot
where they had halted the night before.
[Illustration: DICK AND FRANK ELUDE THE INDIANS.]
"Look out, Frank! rein up!" Dick suddenly shouted. Frank pulled his
horse back on its haunches, and but just in time, for at the brow of the
swell up which they had been galloping, the ground fell suddenly away in
a precipice two hundred feet deep, and the horse was barely a length
from it when he brought it to a standstill.
"We are in a mess," Dick said. "The Injins behind us will know of this,
and instead of following will scatter to the right and left, as they
will know that we must turn one way or the other."
"In that case," Frank said, "our best plan will be to go straight back."
"You are right," Dick exclaimed, "that is the best thing we can do. We
won't follow the exact track, as a few of them may have kept our line,
but will bear a little distance off it, and hope they may pass us
unseen; the sun is setting already, half an hour and it will be dark."
Taking every precaution to conceal their trail, they rode back, keeping
a hundred yards or so to the right of the line by which they had come. A
quarter of an hour passed, and then Turk gave his growl of warning.
"Could not have been better," Dick exclaimed, "this brushwood is just
the place for us."
They threw themselves from their horses, and made the animals lie down
at full length in the low bushes, and laid themselves down beside them.
"Hush! Turk," Frank said to the dog, as he laid his hand upon it's head.
"You must lie quiet, sir, and not make the least noise."
The dog, who was quivering with excitement, lay down quietly, as if it
comprehended the need for silence.
"One, two, three, four, five, six," Dick counted, peering through the
bushes. "Six of them; we could fight that lot easy, but the sound of our
rifles would bring the whole gang down upon us."
The Indians were not riding at full speed, for their horses were tired,
having already made a long march before they saw the hunters following
the deer to the cañon, and they did not expect to overtake those of whom
they were in pursuit, believing that when they reached the precipice
they would make along it to the right or left, and so fall into the
hands of one or other of the parties who had gone to intercept them.
No sooner were they fairly out of sight than the hunters rose, and,
remounting their horses, continued their way.
"It's well-nigh dark," Dick said, "and I doubt if they will be able to
make out our back-track when they get to the edge; at any rate they
cannot follow it."
They rode on until they found that their horses could no longer carry
them, then, dismounting, led them by the bridle. They had been steering
by the stars, and presently found themselves at the upper end of the
ravine.
"We won't enter this now," Dick said, "for some of them may take it into
their heads to gallop back, although that ain't very likely. Anyhow the
horses can't go any further, and if they could, we couldn't make our way
over these stones; it'll be as dark as pitch down there. So we will move
away two hundred yards, and let the horses feed while we get a few
hours' sleep. That dog of yourn will give us notice if any of the
varmint are coming this way."
The night passed without alarm, and at the first dawn of light they were
upon their feet again. The horses were given a mouthful of water from
the skins, and then the hunters mounted and rode down the cañon. There
would be pursuit, they knew well; but the Indians would not be able to
take up the trail until daylight, and would be an hour and a half
following it to the top of the cañon, so that they had fully two hours'
start. This being the case, they did not hurry their horses, but kept up
a steady pace until they emerged at the lower end of the ravine; then
they urged them forward, and two hours later arrived at the
halting-place of the caravan. No move had been made, but the instant
they were seen approaching, Abe and his two comrades rode up to meet
them.
"What has happened?" he asked, as he reached them. "We have been
terrible uneasy about you, and I was just going to start to try and pick
up your track and follow you."
Dick related the adventure.
"It war well it war no worse," Abe said. "That critter's sense has saved
your lives, for ef he hadn't given you warning you would have ridden
slap into the hands of the Injins; you may consider you are quits with
him now, Frank. But it war a nasty fix, and I congratulate you both on
having brought your har safely back to camp; that coming straight back
on your trail when you was stopped by the fall of the ground was a
judgmatical business."
"It was Frank's idee," Dick said.
"Wall, he just hit the right thing; if it hadn't been for that you would
have been rubbed out sure."
At the next halting-place they found that three or four of the caravans
which had preceded them had halted, being afraid to move forward in
small parties, as the Indians had made several attacks. With the
accession of force given by the arrival of John Little's party, they
considered themselves able to encounter any body of redskins they might
meet, as there were now upwards of fifty waggons collected, with a
fighting force of seventy or eighty men.
They therefore moved forward confidently. Several times parties of
Indian horsemen were seen in the distance, but they never showed in
force, the strength of the caravan being too great for any hope of a
successful attack being made upon it.
It was nearly five months from the time of their leaving Omaha before
the caravan approached the point where the great plateau of Nevada falls
abruptly down to the low lands of California many thousand feet below.
Here the hunters bade farewell to the emigrants, whom they had so long
escorted. All danger of Indians had been long since passed, and they
were now within a short distance of the gold regions.
Very deep and sincere were the thanks which were poured upon them by the
emigrants, who felt that they owed their lives entirely to the vigilance
and bravery of Abe and his companions. They expected to meet again ere
long at the gold-fields, and many were the assurances that should by any
chance better luck attend their search than was met with by the hunters,
the latter should share in their good fortune.
The change in the character of the scenery was sudden and surprising.
Hitherto the country had been bare and treeless, but the great slopes of
the Nevada mountains were covered from top to bottom with a luxuriant
growth of timber. Nowhere in the world are finer views to be obtained
than on the slopes of the Nevada Mountains. The slopes are extremely
precipitous, and sometimes, standing on a crag, one can look down into a
valley five or six thousand feet below, clothed from top to bottom with
luxuriant foliage, while far away in front, at the mouth of the valley,
can be seen the low, rich flats of California.
On the lower slopes of these mountains lay the gold deposits. These were
found in great beds of gravel and clay, which in countless generations
had become so hardened that they almost approached the state of
conglomerate. The gold from these beds had been carried, either by
streams which ran through them, or by the action of rain and time, into
the ravines and valleys, where it was found by the early explorers.
These great beds of gravel have been since worked by hydraulic
machinery, water being brought by small canals, or flumes, many miles
along the face of the hills, to reservoirs situated one or two hundred
feet above the gravel to be operated upon.
From the reservoirs extremely strong iron pipes lead down to the gravel,
and to the end of these pipes are fitted movable nozzles, like those of
fire-engines, but far larger. The water pours out through these nozzles
with tremendous force, breaking up the gravel, and washing it away down
a long series of wooden troughs, in which the gold settles, and is
caught by a variety of contrivances.
But in the early days of gold discovery the very existence of these beds
of gravel was unknown, and gold was obtained only in the ravines and
valleys by washing the soil in the bottom. It had already been
discovered that the soil was richer the further the searchers went
down, by far the greater finds being made when the diggers reached the
solid rock at the bottom, in the irregularities of which, worn by water
thousands of years before, large quantities of rough gold were often
discovered.
There was no difficulty in following the track through the forest, and
after two days' travelling the party arrived at the first mining
village. They chose a piece of ground for their camp, fastened their
horses to stumps, erected a tent of blankets, and placed in it the
stores brought on their baggage-horses, which had remained untouched
since they started. Then, leaving one of their number in charge, they
started off to visit the diggings.
The whole of the bottom of the narrow valley was a scene of life and
bustle. The existence of gold in the valley had been discovered but
three weeks before, but a rush had taken place from other diggings. The
ground had been allotted out, and a number of tents pitched, and rough
huts erected. Men were working as if for bare life. The lots were small,
and the ground was already perfectly honeycombed with holes. Generally
the diggers worked in batches of four or five, each member of which took
up a claim, so that the space for operations was enlarged.
Two men laboured with pick and shovel, and the baskets, as they were
filled with earth and sand, were first screened in a sieve to remove the
larger portion of stones and rock, and were then poured into what was
known as a cradle, which was a long trough on rockers; one man brought
water in buckets from the stream, and poured it into this, while another
kept the cradle in constant motion. The mud and lighter portions of
stone flowed away over the edge, or were swept off by the hand of the
men employed in working it, the particles of gold sinking to the bottom
of the machine, where they were found at the clean-up at the end of the
day's work.
The new-comers looked on with great interest at the work, asking
questions as to the luck which attended the operators. The majority gave
but a poor account of their luck, the value of the finds at the end of
the day being barely sufficient to pay the enormous rate charged for
provisions, which had to be carried up from the coast some hundreds of
miles away. The stores were brought in waggons as far as Sacramento, and
from that town were carried to the diggings on the backs of mules and
horses. Consequently it was impossible for a man to live on the poorest
necessities of life for less than three or four dollars a day, and in
the out-of-the-way valleys the cost was often considerably more.
Some of the diggers owned that they were doing well, but there was a
general disinclination to state even the approximate amount of their
daily winnings. The hunters found, however, that the general belief was
that some of those who had claims in the centre of the valley, where of
course the gold would settle the thickest, were making from ten to
twenty ounces per day.
"That's something like!" Dick said. "Just fancy making from forty to
eighty pounds per day. I vote we set to work at once. As well here as
anywhere else."
"Yes, I suppose we may as well begin here," Frank agreed; "at any rate
until we hear what is being done in the other places. But you see we
must be ready to move off as soon as a report comes of some fresh
discovery, so as to get good places. Here, of course, we must be content
to settle down outside the rest. We will mark out five claims at once,
turn up the ground, and put our tools there; they say that's sufficient
to take possession. Then we will go up into the forests and cut down a
pine or two, and slit it up into planks for making one of those cradles.
That will take us all day to-morrow, I reckon."
As they sat round the fire that evening, talking over their prospects,
Abe said--
"I tell you what it is, mates, I have been thinking this here matter
over, and when I sees what tremendous prices are being charged for grub
here, I concluded there must be a big thing to be made in the way of
carrying. Now we have got our five riding-horses, and the three
baggage-horses, that makes eight. Now what I proposes is this: three of
us shall work the claims, and the other two shall work the horses; we
can sell the riding-saddles down at Sacramento, and get pack-saddles
instead. We can begin by carrying for one of the traders here.
"I hear that a horse can earn from five to ten dollars a day, so our
eight horses will earn forty to eighty dollars a day. Now that's a good
sartin living for us all, especially as we shall bring up the provisions
for ourselves, instead of paying big rates here. Arterards we will see
how things go, and if we like we can open a store here, and one of us
mind it. Anyhow the horses will keep us well. If the claim turns out
well, so much the better; if it don't, we can do very well without it. I
proposes as we take it by turns to drive the horses and dig."
The counsel was good and prudent, but it was only adopted after some
discussion, for the sums which the more fortunate diggers were earning
were so large that all looked forward to making a rapid fortune, and
were inclined to despise the small but steady gains offered by the plan
Abe suggested. However, Frank sided with Abe, and offered to go with him
on the first trip to Sacramento, and the others thereupon fell in with
the plan.
The next day the cradle was made by Abe and Frank, the others setting to
to dig and wash out in a bucket. At the end of a day of hard work they
had got about a quarter of an ounce of glittering yellow dust. This was
not paying work, but they were not disappointed; they had not expected
to strike upon good ground at the first attempt, and were quite
satisfied by the fact that they really had met with the gold which they
had come so far to seek.
That evening Abe made a bargain to bring up goods from Sacramento for
one of the store-keepers, having previously found the rate which was
current. At daybreak next morning he and Frank started off on horseback,
each with three horses tied, head and tail, behind the one he was
riding, Turk marching gravely by their side.
The distance to Sacramento was upwards of seventy miles. On their road
they met numerous parties making their way up the mountains. All carried
a pick and shovel, a bucket and blanket, and a small sack with flour and
bacon. Many of them were sailors, who had deserted from their ships at
San Francisco, where scores of vessels were lying unable to leave for
want of hands.
All, as they passed, asked the last news from the diggings, where the
last rush was, and what was the average take at the camp, and then
hurried on, eager to reach the spot where, as every man believed,
fortune awaited him.
Two days of travel down the mountains took them to Sacramento. Here
their saddles were disposed of, and pack-saddles bought. The horses
were laden with sacks of sugar and flour, sides of bacon, and mining
tools, and after a day's stay in town, they started back for the camp.
Sacramento, but a few months before a sleepy, quiet city, mostly
inhabited by Spaniards, or rather people of Spanish descent, was now a
scene of animation and bustle. Long teams of waggons, laden with stores,
rolled in almost hourly across the plains from San Francisco, while the
wharves at the river-side were surrounded by laden barges. Bands of
newly-arrived emigrants wandered through the streets, asking eager
questions of any one who had time enough to talk as to the best way of
getting to the diggings, and as to the camp which they had better select
for their first attempt. Dark-looking men, half Spaniard and half
Indian, went along on their little ponies, or rode at the head of a
string of laden animals, with an air of perfect indifference to the
bustle around them.
Sounds of shouting and singing came through the doors of some saloons,
in which many of the fortunate diggers were busily engaged in
dissipating their hard-earned gains. Men sunburnt almost to blackness,
in red shirts and canvas trousers, walked along the streets as if the
town and all in it belonged to them in virtue of the store of gold-dust
tied up in their waist-belts. In these, revolvers and bowie-knives were
stuck conspicuously, and the newly-arrived emigrants looked with awe and
envy at these men who had already reaped a harvest at the mines.
Shooting affrays were of frequent occurrence in the drinking saloons,
where at night gambling was invariably carried on, the diggers being as
reckless of their lives as of their money.
"About ten days of that place would be enough to ruin any man," Abe
said, as they walked at the head of their cavalcade from the town. "I
reckon as Sacramento is a sort of hell on arth, and guess there's more
wickedness goes on in that ere little town than in any other place its
own size on the face of creation. They tells me as San Francisco is
worse, but at any rate Sacramento is bad enough for me."
On the evening of the third day after leaving Sacramento they arrived at
the mining camp, and having delivered the stores they had brought up to
the trader, and received the amount agreed upon, they took their way to
the spot where they had pitched their camp.
"Well, lads, what luck?" Abe asked, as at the sound of their feet their
comrades came out to greet them.
"We have got about four ounces of dust," Dick said, "and our backs are
pretty nigh broken, and our hands that blistered we can hardly hold the
shovel. However, we have been better the last two days. I expect there
have been two or three hundred people arrived here since you left, and
they are all at work now."
"Well, that's pretty well for a beginning," Abe said, "though you
wouldn't have much of your four ounces left if you had had to pay for
grub. However, we've brought up another half-sack of flour, twenty
pounds of sugar, and five pounds of tea, and a half-side of bacon, so we
have got quite enough to go on for a long time yet. I have brought up,
too, a good stout tent, which will hold us comfortable, and, after
paying for all that, here's thirty pounds in money. I got five pounds a
horse-load, so with your earnings and ours we haven't made a bad week's
work; that's pretty nigh ten pounds a man. I don't say that's anything
wonderful, as times goes here; but when we hit on a good spot for our
digging, we shall pick it up quick. Now let's pitch the new tent, and
then we will have supper, for I can tell you walking twenty-five miles
in this mountain air gives one something like an appetite."
[Illustration]