i88 Audubon's Western Journal 



from the south; the mud, if anything, more dis- 

 agreeable to walk through. One wonders at the 

 way in which men stay here day after day, gamb- 

 ling going on incessantly. Of course, the sharpers 

 and experts get all the money, the poor dupes 

 continue to put down gold-dust, even though every 

 boat that leaves takes away professional card- 

 players, and they have to return to the mines to dig. 

 The craze for the mines is beyond all credence; 

 mechanics refuse sixteen dollars a day, to go to the 

 mines where half an ounce is the regular gain, 

 though sometimes ten times that amount. 



[No date.] We leave tomorrow for San Fran- 

 cisco; today I made a sketch of the east suburb of 

 the town, and as a proof of the good intentions of 

 the people to be honest, and keep up good princi- 

 ples, a gallows is the chief object in the foreground. 

 It was erected to execute a man for murder and 

 robbery. 



A party here got up a club called the ^'Hounds," 

 at first as a patrol, and were of real service, but 

 later bad habits crept in, such as knocking up any 

 bar-keeper at any hour of the night and making "a 

 night of it." For some time they paid for this on 

 the following day, always saying as they went out 

 "To the charge of the Hounds," but at last the 

 "charge" became the last of the matter; eventually 

 thefts were committed, and the thief was convicted 

 by a regular jury, and sentenced. The day for his 



