While St. John was occupied as narrated in the preceding chapter, we
remained at Ford's Bar, and prayed that the river might speedily fall.
The same day on which we bought the armour I went with Dr. Browne to a
spot not far from Jacob's Ladder, to put up a notice of our intention
to construct a wing-dam at that place as soon as the water permitted.
This simple bit of paper, with our names and signatures attached, was
posted in a conspicuous position on a tree hard by, and secured to us
possession of the territory therein described as effectually as all
the sealed and witnessed and recorded formalities of more artificial
society.
The spot we had selected had been found unusually rich the year
before, and it was but natural to conclude that a great deal of the
precious deposit still remained, which could be reached, however, only
by a wing-dam. This is nothing but a thick mound or dike of stones
and earth, projecting half way across the river, and then running
down the stream fifty or perhaps several hundred feet. When possible,
it is built just above a fall or rapid, which lowers the water in
the partially enclosed space sufficiently to enable the miner with
long-handled shovels to dig out the earth without much difficulty; but
when no such rapids are to be found, the only advantage of a wing-dam
consists in the stillness of the water, the current being generally
so violent that it would be quite impossible, without some such
expedient, to raise a shovelful of earth above the surface.
The miner then, standing in the water up to his middle, scoops up
the gravel from the bottom, and either flings it on to the bank or
empties it into a bucket held by one of his companions. Much of the
gold is unavoidably lost by this imperfect process, but the labour is
so slight compared with the ordinary method of damming, and requires
so much less expenditure of time and money, that the miner can well
afford to overlook its peculiar disadvantages.
With a wing-dam in prospect, and one fourth of a submarine armour in
actual possession, we thought we might safely bid defiance to fortune.
The water, however, was yet too high, and in the mean time we worked,
though very interruptedly, here and there along the banks, sometimes
making half an ounce apiece, and at others spending the whole day
in prospecting without earning a dollar. The 12th of June was
uncomfortably cool, and a slight shower fell in the morning, the first
rain we had known for more than six weeks. The next day the river had
contracted so much with the cold that we made a beginning in our claim
at the lower end of the bar, but the water again rising, drove us out
at thirty buckets.
In the afternoon we walked down to the store to see a wonderful
instrument that had just been brought into the valley. On entering
the store, we found a large crowd assembled, and in the midst a
heavy-looking Dutchman, who held in his hands a strip of whalebone
apparently taken from an umbrella, and split in two about half its
length.
The Dutchman was talking very earnestly, and the crowd, as if afraid
of his potent wand, kept at a respectful distance while he expounded
to them the extraordinary properties lodged in this innocent-looking
bit of umbrella, and the way in which it could be used to most
advantage. Just as I forced my way into the circle, the operator,
astrologer, magician, or what not, grasped the two ends of the split
firmly in his hands, giving the whole nearly the form of the letter
Y, when a pan of gold being placed under the point, it was at once
depressed from a horizontal to a vertical position, as if drawn by
some mysterious and irresistible attraction.
Having with some difficulty persuaded the owner to trust his magic
in my profane hands, I found that the weight of the rod caused it to
twist with considerable violence; but if this were to be regarded as
any indication of the presence of gold, the whole floor of the tent
must be underlaid with that precious metal.
Our Dutchman, however, still maintained that in his hands it
manifested this dipping propensity only over the pan of gold, and
explained its perversity when in my keeping by the same theory
as that advanced by the believers in animal magnetism, that some
constitutions are more susceptible or impressible than others. While
he was defending his opinion, with a good deal of volubility and
ill-temper, a buckskin purse was brought in half full of black sand,
and laid upon the ground for a second experiment. On being held over
it the point sunk as rapidly as before, whereupon the unbelievers set
up a laugh, and even the faithful looked somewhat disconcerted; but
the wary conjuror, nothing daunted on learning the contents of the
purse, ingeniously contended that this was a stronger proof of his
position--that there must be, of course, a few grains of gold still
sticking in the corners, and that they had affected the delicate
nerves of his divining-rod.
He even had the assurance to offer his services in discovering
rich deposits, demanding only ten per cent. for his own share;
but, the miners being generally unable to appreciate the value of
his invention, he joined himself to a party possessed of superior
discernment, who, trusting to the guidance of the witch-whalebone, (I
never knew whether its having been part of an umbrella had anything to
do with its remarkable properties,) dug one hole after another on the
banks of Otter Creek, and would undoubtedly have at length discovered
the treasure, had not the same envious, and malignant sprites that
guard the spoils of Captain Kidd hurried it away, just as they were on
the point of success.
As we were now in constant expectation of receiving an answer to the
letter I had written in February, in regard to the submarine armour,
we walked to Georgetown as often as we could muster courage to ascend
the hill; and, though we were often disappointed in the object of
our visit, we never failed to be rewarded for our labour. After
living so long in that narrow valley, the high rolling country above
seemed almost like a new creation. Our thoughts expanded with the
horizon, and we breathed purer and easier, as if we had just escaped
from prison, or the dismal depths of a mine. We stopped repeatedly
to satiate our eyes, long unused to such telescopic vision, on the
circling prospect, and to inhale the larger air that came sifting
through those giant pines. Every thing about us was on a grander and
more magnificent scale, and Ford's Bar seemed a baby-house, a world in
miniature, where the sky, the trees, the winds, were all alike stunted
and Lilliputian.
In fact, we were becoming heartily tired of Ford's Bar, and of the
Middle Fork, and not without reason; for neither was exactly the
place that one would choose for a summer residence. By the first of
July, the heat had become almost intolerable; pent up in such close
quarters, it was reverberated from mountain to mountain, till their
dark, slaty sides became charged like immense reservoirs, from which
it was poured down upon our heads. By shortening the sun's reign,
however, several hours, morning and evening, the hills sensibly
diminished the evil; and a fresh breeze that flowed through the valley
all the middle of the day, still farther reduced the temperature. But
when, as was sometimes the case, the surrounding atmosphere was warmer
than our bodies, the breeze seemed rather like the breath of an oven,
and the coolest place was that least exposed to its influence.
The mercury often stood at a hundred, and rose several times to
one hundred and ten; when the only way of obtaining relief was to
sit down, up to our chins in the water of the Creek, like so many
pond-lillies just raising their heads above the surface.
To make any exertion in such weather, was not to be thought of for
a moment. We had read all the books in the circulating library--Dr.
Tabisch had returned to Mormon Island--Dr. Browne had also gone
thither on a visit--the river fell slower than it was ever known to do
before--and, in short, everything conspired to make the state of ennui
to which we were now reduced more and more intolerable.
Under these circumstances, it is not very wonderful that we tired
of our way of life--of sleeping on the ground--of cooking our own
food--of wearing dirty clothes--of talking of our unvaried theme; or
that we should long for some rational amusement--for white sheets and
table-cloths--for cream in our coffee, and ice on our butter--for
carpets and easy-chairs--for books and music, and the sight of a
pretty face, whether of child or woman--and for a New England Sabbath.
It was not till the middle of July that the shrinking of the river
brought a temporary interruption to this indolent existence, by
enabling us at length to take undivided possession of our claim. The
earth paid from fifteen to fifty cents to the bucket; but there was
so little of it, that we were compelled to put a prudent restraint
upon our energies, and work only half the time, lest we should be left
entirely without occupation.
About this time, the miners who camped on Otter Creek were horribly
scared by the nocturnal visits of a large grizzly bear, who came
prowling round their tents, and carried off sundry legs of bacon
that were hanging on trees before their doors. As our tents would
prove a slight protection, in case he should desire to extend his
acquaintance, it was determined, if possible, to rout the enemy out
of the neighbourhood.
Accordingly, one fine morning, long before the sun had gilded the
topmost edge of our western boundary, a party of ten or twelve bold
hunters started off in pursuit, firmly resolved not to return without
a trophy; and, though I had never been hunting in my life, I could not
withstand the temptation to accompany them.
I slung a heavy rifle over my shoulder, and the whole party, after
advancing several miles up the Creek, began slowly to ascend the
mountain, following without difficulty the rude trail of the slouching
monster; till being at length, as we supposed, somewhere in his
vicinity, we halted to arrange our plan of operations. The place where
we stood was directly under a low, steep bank, and had evidently been
occupied as a lair by the animal, as it was easy to see the hollow
he had scooped out for his bed, and the coarse dark hair sticking in
little tufts, where he had rubbed himself against the rocks.
"Now, boys!" said our leader, who had taken that office upon himself,
by virtue of his greater skill and experience, "the plaguey varmint
is somewhere here about, I reckon; so we may as well be all ready
for him; for when he does come, he'll likely be pooty sudden and
uproarious. But don't go to being skeered, but jist wait till you ken
see the white of his eyes, and then blaze away."
"Never mind, cap'n, about our being afraid, but just tell us how we're
agoing to find him; we might scuttle about among these everlasting
bushes for a month without--"
"Oh, don't you be alarmed," interrupted a third, "we'll find him soon
enough, I'll warrant;" and the words were hardly out of his mouth,
before they were followed by a something between a snort and a roar,
that seemed to come from over our heads, and almost in our very ears.
Raising our eyes all at once to the bank above, we saw the bushes
parted by the pointed head, leg-of-mutton-paws, and monstrous front of
a full-grown grizzly, apparently in the very act of springing upon us.
His coming had, indeed, been sudden and uproarious in the last degree;
no one thought of waiting till he could see the white of his eyes, but
away we went, over rocks and bushes, like a bevy of partridges, in
every direction; and, so successfully did we execute this manoeuvre,
that no two of us were left together, and we came into the camp,
one after the other, all the rest of the day, with the unanimous
conviction, that if we had frightened the bear half so much as he had
frightened us, he would never pay us a second visit.
This incident produced a good deal of mirth at our expense, and was
the occasion of several entertaining stories. An old backwoodsman
who had lived many years in Oregon was listened to with the greatest
attention.
He was hunting one day in the mountains with a single companion,
when coming to a little clump of rocks and bushes, they each took a
different path intending to meet at the other end. On reaching the
spot, however, he saw nothing of his companion; but hearing just then
the report of a rifle, he walked round the other side to see what was
going on. He had not gone far when he came upon a large grizzly bear
sitting upright on the snow like a dog, but not a man was in sight.
Wondering what all this could mean he took deliberate aim and fired,
when the brute sprang growling towards him, but suddenly stopped and
then walked slowly off in another direction.
Anxious to learn what had befallen his friend the hunter left the
bear, and continued his search; and the next moment coming to the
place where the bear had been sitting, he found his companion pressed
down into the snow, and almost suffocated by his close confinement.
It seems he had fired at the bear, who had rushed upon him before he
could reload, and throwing him down without inflicting any serious
injury, had then expressed his contempt in the most emphatic manner
by seating himself directly upon his prostrate foe.
Another anecdote still better illustrated the almost human cunning
of this dangerous brute. A party who were out in pursuit of cattle
encountered a bear of unusual size; and being desirous of taking him
alive, attacked him with their lassoes. The sagacious animal no sooner
found his progress impeded by the lasso which had been thrown over his
hind leg, than sitting upright on his haunches he seized the line in
his forepaws and proceeded to draw towards him the luckless horse and
rider, just as a fisherman would pull in a cod or halibut.
The whole thing was so sudden and unexpected that no one had time
to interfere,--in an instant he laid open the horse's belly by a
single blow, and the rider only avoided the same fate by falling off
backwards and thus making his escape. This bear was afterwards killed,
and found to weigh when dressed upwards of a thousand pounds.
On the 22d of July, having walked over to Georgetown, I received the
long-expected letter announcing that a diving dress had been shipped
from New York according to my directions; and St. John coming the same
day from Big Bar with an unfavourable report of the aspect of affairs
at that place, we determined to sell our share as speedily as possible.
In the evening a party of poor fellows just arrived in the mines were
sitting round their camp-fire before the store. Leaning against the
door-post, I looked at them awhile with half-shut eyes, and presently
I began to laugh. In fact, I couldn't help it. I couldn't hear what
they were talking about, but I knew just as well as if I had. I even
knew their very thoughts. Poor simpletons! what a bitter experience
was before them! what a sad seesaw of fear and faith! hope slow
drowning, like a nine-and-a-half-days' puppy, opening its eyes just in
time to die.
Then my eyelids drooped still farther, and my inward sight grew
stronger. I saw the waiting ones at home--the young wife--the widowed
mother--the helpless orphan--waiting--watching--weeping--oh how
wearily!--the death-list, and the long despair.
When I opened my eyes again, the party in which I had insensibly
become so interested, were just stooping to enter their tent; I flung
off the chills and damps that were creeping over me, and walked
swiftly up the creek.
A few days after I walked to Coloma to receive the price of our
armour. Passing through Georgetown without stopping, I arrived at
Coloma about noon; and after resting a few hours, as my man had not
yet arrived, I thought I could do no better than to take a walk down
the river to the bar that Number Four and I had prospected a year
before.
I found the selfsame hole that we had dug with so much fruitless
labour, and moralized over it in the most edifying and affecting
manner. It was, in good sooth, fitted to excite "a most humorous
sadness," and I could have wept it full of tears to think of all the
brilliant hopes that had faded and gone out since we first struck our
spades into the gravel. A number of miners were at work hard by, and
from them I learned that the place paid only four or five cents to the
bucket, and had hence received the significant title of Poverty Bar.
"Only four or five cents!" I repeated; "surely you must be mistaken. A
friend of mine, a very scientific man, assured me that the formation
was unusually promising."
"Formation be d----d," replied the other; "I've been at work here
these three weeks, and the most I've made any day yet is four dollars
and a half; but perhaps," he added, with a leer, "I don't go to work
in a scientific fashion."
Turning my back on Poverty Bar, with a feeling of secret satisfaction
that our conclusions had been so fully verified, I took a short cut
across the hills, and presently came to a bend in the river where a
large party of Dutchmen had commenced the most extensive damming
operations I had yet witnessed. The river at this point made almost a
complete circle, so that by digging through a hill a quarter of a mile
in width they drained a mile and a half of the channel. The tunnel was
about ten feet square, dug through a ledge of rotten granite. The work
went on day and night, and a wooden railroad with small hand-cars was
employed to remove the rubbish. When completed the tunnel was found
too small to conduct the river, and the lateness of the season obliged
the company to postpone further operations till the next summer.
I took supper at a boarding-house kept by the most enterprising
merchant in all that section. The extent of his business operations
may be inferred from a single fact. At a time when flour was worth a
dollar a pound, he was said to have from one to two hundred thousand
pounds in store, and other staples in nearly equal proportions. His
warehouse at Coloma was a long low building, stuffed with goods of
every description, from which he supplied the trading posts he had
established at Ford's Bar, and other places on the Middle Fork.
The company assembled at table was of a very mixed character, and the
conversation, which had by some strange accident strayed from mining
to politics, was more free and easy than is usual on such occasions. I
was not a little amused by one of the company, a Col. Somebody, from
Ohio, who asserted, in the same tone as if he were stating a truism,
that Andrew Jackson was the greatest man that ever lived except St.
Paul. I leave it to more theological politicians, or more political
theologians than I, to settle this knotty question.
The next morning, having received my money, I set out on my return,
but after walking about two miles remembered an important errand I had
neglected, and was obliged to retrace my steps to Coloma. This was
but a foretaste of what was to follow. A new road had recently been
constructed by the merchants of Georgetown and Coloma, winding in a
very picturesque manner along the face of the mountain, and reminding
me, to compare great things with small, of Napoleon's road over the
Simplon. Having reached the summit, and turned my back upon the vast
panorama that had presented itself in so many different aspects as
the road dragged its length like a wounded snake in irregular curves
from point to point, I walked on more rapidly, without paying much
attention to my path, till an uneasy instinctive impression that I had
lost my way brought me to a sudden pause.
The old and new roads came together seven miles from Coloma; but
though, as I supposed, I had walked much further than that distance,
there was yet nothing about me that I remembered to have seen before.
I found myself in a narrow winding footpath that ran along the
elevated ridge or backbone of the mountain, and in the midst of a dark
pine forest. The solitude was most profound. It seemed an immense
manufactory of silence, enough to supply the whole world, where
nothing was ever heard but the melancholy cry of the mourning-dove,
the only safety-valve of a stillness pent up till it was like to
burst. This bird is the most skilful of all ventriloquists; for,
though he may be perched directly over your head, his voice seems
always to proceed from a great distance, which gives it a startling
unearthly sound impossible to be described.
After walking irresolutely back and forth a few minutes, I determined
to proceed, trusting soon to meet some one who could give me the
necessary information. The narrow footpath presently led me to the
brow of the hill, when, instantly recognising the wide road that
skirted its base as the one I had travelled the preceding day, I
descended with a bound, inwardly congratulating myself on the sagacity
and good fortune that had prevented me from turning back as I had
at first intended. Meeting a wagon soon after, I asked the driver
with the utmost confidence how far it was to Georgetown, to which he
replied with a grin that, if I meant Greenwood Valley, it was not
more than five or six miles, but Georgetown was in a very different
direction.
On explaining my situation, he very good-naturedly informed me that
I was in the wrong road entirely; and that I ought to have taken the
right hand turning several miles back, at somebody's ranch. I thanked
him, and promised to follow his directions to the very letter, if ever
I travelled that way again, but what I wanted to know then was the
nearest way to Georgetown. Opening his mouth, and setting his eyes
very hard on vacancy, while he pressed his forefinger on his nether
lip, he appeared to meditate for a moment; and then replied, pointing
with his whip, that the nearest way was over that hill yonder, but if
he was me he should go right on to Greenwood Valley and take a clean
start from there.
I very reluctantly followed his advice, and having obtained a drink
of water from a lonely shingle-maker I encountered in the forest,
I hastened on, and came in due time to the prettiest village I had
seen in California. The single broad street with its bright white
houses, of canvass indeed, instead of painted clapboards, reminded me
strongly of New England; but I had just then little relish of beauty
of any sort, and was passing through in very ill humour, when I was
saluted with, "Hullo, stranger! is that you?" and turning round, I
recognised, to my equal pleasure and surprise, one of the company who
had started with us from Mormon Island and afterwards left us, as
already narrated, on their way to Rector's Bar. The judge was there
also, keeping a bowling alley and its usual concomitants; and a little
further down the street two more of the company partners in a store
and boarding house. They confirmed the accounts we had already heard
of Rector's; on their arrival at that place in April, they found the
ground white with snow, provisions enormously dear, and no possibility
of doing any thing for months. They finally broke up their camp, and
came down to Greenwood, where they had been so far successful as to
make them forget their former losses.
A tedious walk of eight miles brought me to Georgetown, where I
stopped half an hour to rest, very foolishly as it happened; for
when I prepared to go, I could hardly rise from my seat, and did not
succeed in gaining an erect position till I reached the bottom of the
hill at Cañon Creek. Sitting down on a log that bridged the sluggish
current, I bathed my feet in the muddy water, and, thus refreshed,
made my way down the mountain at Ford's Bar, just as the miners were
returning from their day's work.
The next morning, the river having now fallen sufficiently, we made
trial of the spot where we had designed building a wing-dam, but
found that the great depth of water at that place rendered such
an undertaking altogether impracticable. We spent several of the
succeeding days in running up and down the river, in pursuit of some
of those rich pickings we had so confidently expected; but without
success. Lest the reader should think this was entirely our own fault,
I would add, that we did not find them, because they were not there.
The banks, instead of improving as the waters receded, became even
worse and worse--the first miners, naturally, commenced at low-water
mark, and they had done their work so effectually, that nothing was
left for their successors.
Before leaving Ford's Bar, we determined, however, to make one more
trial of damming, and selected for that purpose a portion of the river
just above the mouth of Otter Creek. For two whole days I stood up to
my middle in water, painfully scooping out the sand and gravel with
a long-handled shovel; and, in all that time, owing to the peculiar
difficulties of the situation, only succeeded in digging a hole four
feet in depth. As there was very little gold in any of the earth I
had thrown out, we went no further; but another party, undeterred
by our example, at once took possession, and having, after several
weeks, completed their dam, found, to their own chagrin and our
equal complacency, that the place was, as we had concluded, entirely
worthless.
We now made up our minds to leave the Middle Fork as soon as possible,
and sent Tertium on in advance to make a rapid and comprehensive
survey of the diggings for a distance of ten or fifteen miles above
Mormon Island.
While he was gone, we still continued to mine here and there along
the banks. Returning, one day, from a longer tramp than usual, we
came to a tent occupied by a party we had met several months before,
on their first arrival in the mines. They were then in fine spirits;
not even the clumsy packs, that bent them almost double, could crush
their vigorous hope; and though I tried, with most disinterested
benevolence, to moderate their extravagant expectations, it was easy
to see that they gave no credit to my assertions. One of their number
now lay in his graveclothes before their door; and his companions,
themselves enfeebled by sickness, were waiting till some one should
pass who would assist in carrying the body to the grave.
We offered our services, and, each taking a handle of the rude bier
to which the body was lashed, we walked on in silence, our companions
leading the way. After proceeding a quarter of a mile down the river,
over such a path as we have already described, we turned to the left
and began to ascend the mountain at the only place practicable in that
neighbourhood. It was extremely steep and slippery; and it was only
by clinging to the bushes, and sliding the bier along the ground,
that we at length reached the elevated shelf or plateau where the
grave had been dug. A few handfuls of fern were thrown over the body,
wrapt simply in a blanket; two boards laid upon it, in the form of a
roof; the earth thrown in, and all was over. Our companions thanked us
for our assistance, and we returned to the bar, to inform the doctor
that the patient he had seen almost well the day before, was dead and
buried.
Sunday, came a letter from Tertium, advising us to return to Mormon
Island, or Natoma, as it was now called; and the next Wednesday we
packed our luggage on two mules, almost extinguishing them beneath the
cumbrous load, and began, for the last time, painfully to ascend the
winding path by which alone we could reach the lofty table-land above.
We were obliged to halt repeatedly to re-adjust some perverse rocker
or impracticable frying-pan; and, once or twice, the whole concern,
mule and all, was only saved from rolling, in an avalanche of legs
and tin kettles, down the mountain, by our catching sudden hold of
the bridle, and, with the other hand, griping fast the bushes. Having
reached the top in safety, we stopped awhile to breathe; then, filing
softly on through the glorious pine forest, demolishing a whole colony
of ant-lions at every step--like some moon-headed giant, striding from
one planet to another, and unwittingly dusting away with his foot
Broadway or St. Paul's--we came in a few hours to Georgetown, where we
stopped till the next day.
We took supper at an eating-house kept by an honest Missourian, who
had come across the Plains, and brought with him his whole family. He
had the highest opinion of California, and well he might; one of his
children, an interesting little girl of five, having already received
quite a handsome dowry, a pint cupful of gold, presented to her at
different times by the hard-fisted miners, whom her infantile grace
had so pleasantly reminded of their own distant firesides.
We found very comfortable and genteel lodgings under an immense
hay-rick, containing several hundred tons, in one corner of the
village; and the next morning, having found a wagon going down to
Sacramento, engaged the driver for ten dollars, to carry our luggage
as far as Natoma. We rode this last part of the way, and had thus
an opportunity of learning each other's experience. Our driver was
comparatively a novus homo; he had been but a few months in the
country, yet had already made several thousand dollars, and evidently
placed no faith in our assertions, that we had, thus far, met with
nothing but disappointment. He could not understand how a man could
be a whole year in California without acquiring at least a moderate
fortune. He had a store far up on the Middle Fork, where he was doing
a fine business; and was now going down to Sacramento for a fresh
supply of goods. It was not in human nature to feel no touches of
envy, as we listened to his confident anticipations; yet I was really
sorry on hearing, several months after, that he had lost his whole
property by the failure of an extensive damming operation, in which he
was largely interested. This is but a specimen of the ups and downs of
California life.