MAJOR RADDON'S RANCH. 2.47 



I could have pistolled the rascal there and 

 then, but the mules had to be recovered ; so I 

 bottled up my wrath, roused all my sleeping 

 camp, and we started in pursuit of the missing 

 culprits. 



May th. Three days have elapsed. I have 

 s;ot the mules together, but three are still absent. 



O O 



Again we started. I made a long march, cross- 

 ing Cottonwood Creek, through Major Raddon's 

 ranch one of the finest in California for 

 grazing - - struck the Upper Sacramento, and 

 camped about sundown on a creek called Still- 

 water. 



May 5th. In the night it came on a deluge of 

 rain, that regularly soaked through everything; 

 but it cleared towards morning, and we dried 

 ourselves in the sun as we rode along. 



The next three days we travelled through a 

 beautiful parklike country, very lightly tim- 

 bered, covered with grass, and thickly dotted 

 with magnificent ranches (farms) ; we struck 

 Pitt river on the fourth day, crossed it safely, 

 swam the mules, and ferried over the packs. 



May 9th. Our journey for the first twelve 

 miles lay through a narrow rocky gorge the 

 trail ; simply a ledge of rock, barely wide enough 

 for a mule to stand upon. Three hundred feet 



