224 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



' to drown out the darned cusses ! ' Their habits 

 are strictly diurnal; and pretty lively little fel- 

 lows they are, scampering off to their holes on 

 the approach of danger, where they sit up 

 on their hind-legs, peering curiously at the 

 intruder. You may come very near now : there 

 is a safe retreat behind, and he knows it. When 

 too close, however, for safety's sake, the squirrel 

 irives a shrill defiant whistle, like the laugh of 



O O 



a sprite, and dashes into its burrow. 



Purchased twenty-one mules, at 150 dollars 

 per head; the others were team-mules, and too 

 large for pack animals. My mules are to remain 

 on the ranch until I have completed my other 

 purchases. 



March 25^. Cross in the stage from Stockton 

 to Sacramento, a distance of about forty miles, 

 through a country fertile in the extreme. Wild 

 flowers, in endless variety of colour, decked 

 the grass-land. The hawthorn, white with blos- 



o 



som, perfumes the air; and the waving green 

 cornfields contrast pleasantly with the foliage 

 of the oaks and chestnuts scattered about in 

 graceful clumps. We change horses at Wood- 

 bridge, Fugit Ranch, and Elk Grove, and at 

 four o'clock pull up at the St. George's Plotel, 

 Sacramento. 



