A WAY-SIDE HOUSE ON THE ROAD TO THE MINES. 359 



up, and after a few miles we reached table-land, 

 with a barren sandy soil, thickly covered with small 

 spruce, and intersected by numerous lakes. The 

 accommodation along the road was everywhere 

 miserable enough, but after leaving Clinton it became 

 abominable. The only bed was the floor of the '' way- 

 side houses," which occur every ten utiles or so, and 

 are named the "Fiftieth" or "Hundredth Mile 

 House," according to the number of the nearest 

 mile-post. Our solitary blankets formed poor padding 

 against the inequalities of the rough-hewn boards, and 

 equally ineffectual to keep out the cold draughts which 

 whistled under the ill-fitting door of the hut. A way- 

 side house on the road to the mines is merely a rough 

 log hut of a single room ; at one end a large open 

 chimney, and at the side a bar counter, behind which 

 are shelves with rows of bottles containing the vilest 

 of alcoholic drinks. The miners on their journey up 

 or down, according to the season — men of every 

 nationality — Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen, 

 Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans, Yankees and 

 niggers, Mexicans and South Sea Islanders — come 

 dropping in towards evening in twos and threes, divest 

 themselves of the roll of blankets slung upon their 

 backs, and depositing them upon the floor, use them 

 as a seat, for the hut possesses few or none. The next 

 thing is to have a "drink," which is proposed by 

 some one of the party less "hard up" than his 

 friends, and the rest of the company present are 

 generally invited to join in. 



After supper and pipes, and more " drinks," each 



