i899 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS I5 



States, or, may be, from far away England, or Ireland. 

 There are but few birds, chiefly, perhaps, because there is 

 not much insect life, no end of rattle snakes, a few bears, 

 but plenty of deer, who do not show themselves much by 

 daytime. And the Creek is full of excellent trout, which 

 arc as yet sufficiently unsophisticated to allow them- 

 selves to fall easy victims ; though I must confess that 

 the baskets secured by the miners, with a stick, a bit of 

 cord, and a grasshopper, put to shame my European rod, 

 fine tackle, and artificial flies. 



About half way up the valley the mining camp has been 

 fixed, and there I spent several days of unalloyed happi- 

 ness. I lived with the manager, who is brother to one 

 of the chief owners of the property, a most charming 

 man with a wonderful experience of life in many climes, 

 and under varied conditions. He has a little wooden 

 house of his own ; but we lived entirely with the men, 

 who are all catered for in one large mess room, the 

 kitchen department being presided over by a couple of 

 Chinamen, one of whom woke up the camp every morn- 

 ing by making a most fiendish row on a sort of gong 

 formed of a steel bar bent into triangle form. Three real 

 square meals a day forms the rations ; and as tea and 

 coff"ee are drunk at all three, and the piece de resistance is 

 always beef or venison, with the unlimited cakes, pies, 

 and waffles that gladden the heart of the American miner, 

 it is not easy to tell from outward signs whether the meal 

 is breakfast, dinner, or supper ; and the same keen 

 appetite is invariably ready to form the sauce to all of 

 them. 



Besides the mess room and kitchen, there are large 

 dormitories for the men, workshops, and store rooms. 

 There is also the Store, which is kept up not only for the 

 use of the camp, but to supply the needs of the scattered 

 l)opulation of a very large district ; and, as the Store is 



