STAGE TRAVELLING. 2-J5 



March 26th. I am again on the road, this 

 time bound to Grass Valley. A clumsy railway 

 with cars, or carriages, like the yellow caravans 

 giants, dwarfs, and wise pigs travel in, bumps 

 me out to Fulsome, about thirty miles off. Here 

 I am hustled into a stage, without a chance of 

 seeing anything but mud, in which the horses 

 are standing knee-deep. 



This stage is different from any I have seen ; 

 loops, straps, and other contrivances, clearly 

 meant to hold on by, evidence an inequality of 

 motion and tendency to upset that give rise to 

 disagreeable forebodings. Constructed to hold 

 nine inside, the centre seat swings like a bale 

 dividing horses in a stable, and being somewhat 

 rounded and padded, looks very like it. Five 

 passengers seat themselves. I have hardly time 

 to look at them, when a loud cracking of whips, 

 several voices yelling ' Hi ! git up ! ' ' Hi ! git 

 along ! ' and a sudden jerk sends me upon the bale 

 a general splash and scramble and we are off! 



We do the first ten miles with a bearable 

 amount of jolting, and stop to change horses. The 

 five insiders get out, and we take a nip at the 

 roadside house, or what would be such if there 

 were any roads. I observe four most perverse, 

 obstinate, wild-looking horses being cautiously 



VOL. i. o 



