54 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 



the surrounding country. Another time I had made a lucky escape, which 

 is another evidence that we don't always know what is best for us; in fact, 

 we seldom do know what is best for us. 



We made pretty slow progress up through Nevada, via Quinn River, 

 Owihee, and so on up to Boise City. The only trouble we had with Indians 

 was on Quinn River, where they ran a part of our horses away. We were 

 up early enough to see their dust just at daylight, going into the mouth of 

 a box canyon, three or four miles away. Another man besides myself hap- 

 pened to be on guard and saw them. We started after them, and followed 

 them up the canyon as far as they could drive, and at the head was a nice 

 place to hold them. We recovered all the horses and did not see any Indi- 

 ans. They no doubt saw us though. We had heard that on the Owihee, the 

 Indians were quite troublesome at that time, and had killed people just 

 ahead of us, but we were pretty strong in numbers, being seventeen in the 

 company. When we had gotten within about two hundred miles of our 

 destination, two owners went ahead to try and sell the sheep. By the time 

 they arrived there I received a letter sent by express rider, stating to remain 

 there on good feed, until they returned. By the way, they had left me in 

 charge of the train. I held the sheep there for a couple of days and the 

 herders got together at night and mutinied, and the next morning hitched 

 up the teams, and were going away, all I could do was to go along or stay. 

 They had gotten too close to the mines and had the fever. I could do noth- 

 ing with them, there were too many against one. 



However, we met the owners coming back that day, and as soon as we 

 arrived at Boise City, they discharged every herder, and they had to get on 

 to the mines the best way they could. After a little time my friends dis- 

 posed of their sheep and I went on up to Idaho City with them. I soon got 

 a job at $6.00 a night shoveling in the sluices. I fell in with some old 

 acquaintances, and we took up some claims and went to work on them. 

 We did fairly well, but didn't strike anything rich, a little better than sim- 

 ple wages. We worked on in this manner until winter set in, and we 

 could not do any more. We had a good log cabin, but it was pretty cold 

 until it got all covered up in ten feet of snow, and then it was warm and 

 comfortable. We could not do much through the winter, except saw out 

 our lumber for sluice boxes, that we wished to use on some claims we had 

 taken up. We sawed all our lumber with whip-saws, and spent a good 

 deal of time snow-shoeing. We used skies there altogether, and got to be 

 quite expert before spring. It was May before we got to work on our 

 claims and when we did, it was with only moderate success, and in the fall 

 I think about September, I went down to Oregon to see what kind of a 

 country that was. Landed in Portland, and Portland at that time was not 

 much of a place. You went about three or four blocks from the river and 

 right into the woods. I stayed there but a few days, and went on up to 

 Oregon City, and helped to put in that dam and breakwater. I remained 

 in Oregon until sometime after the holidays and then returned to San Fran- 

 cisco, I forgot to mention in winding up my business on the San Joaquin, 

 I lost my interest in the ranch. Fremont claimed that it belonged to him, 

 he and his wife Hessie, came there once while we were there and slummed 

 three leagues of land running up and down the river, but we didn't think, 

 neither do I think yet, that he ever had any title to the land he claimed, but 



