222 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
in every detail ; does all the pumping, and cleans 
the knives. 
Adjoining the dining-room is a well-selected 
library, general reading-room, and museum, con- 
taining a capital collection of stuffed birds, and 
other useful objects of Natural History. The rate 
each miner pays is five dollars, equal to 1/. per 
week: this includes eating and drinking. The 
house is strictly a temperance one, no fermented 
liquor being allowed within it. 
Wandering about San Francisco would be much 
more enjoyable, if the hills were less steep, and the 
wind, which is everlastingly blowing, freighted 
with fine sand, that finds its way into your very 
watchease, could be stiiled. 
March 11th.—Steaming across the bay in a 
white steamer called the ‘ Eclipse,’ propelled by 
the largest paddlewheels I ever saw. We are 
en route to Sacramento, which we reach late at 
night. 
March 12th.—Strolled about. Hardly believe 
so vast a place can have grown up in ten years. 
I think I like it better than San Francisco. The 
streets running east and west are marked by 
numbers—1st street, 2nd street, and so on; those 
having a north and south bearing by letter, as— 
A street, B street, &c. Received a telegram 
from the Commissioner, who had just reached 
