[COYNE] RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE— A SKETCH 165 



and it is needless to say that yve did full justice to these and the hot 

 coffee served with them." 



Two days later members of the th.ird and fourth parties came in. 

 They had been less provident in their supplies, and less fortunate in 

 fighting than Bucke's party. The Indians had robbed them of every- 

 thing; five of their number were killed or missing; the rest had tra- 

 velled 175 miles, practically without food, except some seed-pods and 

 a duck they had killed, 



8. 



His next occupation was that of a gold miner. 



After a few days' rest, he writes, " We crossed the great American 

 desert from the sink of the Humboldt to the Carson river and marched 

 up the Carson to Gold Caiion." They sold their horses and waggon; 

 some of them, including Bucke, took up claims, bought mining tools, 

 '' and settled down to work gold mining." 



Gold Canyon he describes as '" a broad and shallow ravine, dry 

 in summer, but, in winter, spring and fall, sending a diminutive tribute 

 of muddy water to the Carson river." Here he remained about a year, 

 " a member of a small communit}^ who, by the aid of rockers, tomp, 

 and sluices, extracted a precarious livelihood from the placer diggings." 

 The miners numbered three or four dozens in all; the whole settle- 

 ment, including ranchers, about one hundred, " scattered over a country 

 thirty or forty miles across in each direction. To the east, our nearest 

 neighbours lived seven hundred miles distant, on the shore of the Great 

 Salt Lake; across the mountains to the west, we reached by a walk 

 of a little over a hundred miles the westernmost mining camps of 

 California ; north and south as f^r as our knowledge extended the 

 barren slopes of the foot-hills were still in the undisturbed possession 

 of Washoe and Piute Indians; along the highlands towards the head 

 of the canon, where now stand Virginia City. Silver City and Gold 

 Hill, the mountain sheep suckled her young, unmolested except by the 

 gray wolf." 



" The social state of this small community," says Bucke, " was 

 genuinely Arcadian in its simplicity. Xo civil, military or ecclesias- 

 tical organization existed among us. Utah Territory, in which we 

 lived, had at that time no laws or courts, and Gold Canon possessed 

 no church of any denomination. In spite of the absence of these 

 signs of civilization, T have never known a community the members of 

 which were better disposed or conducted. There was no theft, no 

 violence, and hardly ever even an instance of drunkenness or a quarrel. 

 Each worked steadily all the week, and, after a general wash-up on 

 Sunday morning, it was the rule to adjourn to our general headquarters 



