224 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
‘to drown out the darned cusses!’ Their habits 
are strictly diurnal; and pretty lively little fel- 
lows they are, scampering off to their holes on 
the approach of danger, where they sit up 
on their hind-legs, peering curiously at the 
intruder. You may come very near now: there 
is a safe retreat behind, and he knows it. When 
too close, however, for safety’s sake, the squirrel 
gives a shrill defiant whistle, like the laugh of 
a sprite, and dashes into its burrow. 
Purchased twenty-one mules, at 150 dollars 
per head; the others were team-mules, and too 
large for pack animals. My mules are to remain 
on the ranch until I have completed my other 
purchases. 
March 25th.—Cross in the stage from Stockton 
to Sacramento, a distance of about forty miles, 
through a country fertile in the extreme. Wild 
flowers, in endless variety of colour, decked 
the grass-land. The hawthorn, white with blos- 
som, perfumes the air; and the waving green 
cornfields contrast pleasantly with the foliage 
of the oaks and chestnuts scattered about in 
eraceful clumps. We change horses at Wood- 
bridge, Fugit Ranch, and Elk Grove, and at 
four o’clock pull up at the St. George’s Hotel, 
Sacramento. 
