328 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



to be in the grand old gold-days. We were giants 

 then, and you can look around here and see our 

 tracks." But although these lingering pioneers are 

 perhaps more exhausted than the mines, and about 

 as dead as the dead rivers, they are yet a rare and 

 interesting set of men, with much gold mixed with 

 the rough, rocky gravel of their characters; and 

 they manifest a breeding and intelligence little 

 looked for in such surroundings as theirs. As the 

 heavy, long-continued grinding of the glaciers 

 brought out the features of the Sierra, so the in 

 tense experiences of the gold period have brought 

 out the features of these old miners, forming a 

 richness and variety of character little known as 

 yet. The sketches of Bret Harte, Hayes, and Miller 

 have not exhausted this field by any means. It is 

 interesting to note the extremes possible in one 

 and the same character: harshness and gentleness, 

 manliness and childishness, apathy and fierce en 

 deavor. Men who, twenty years ago, would not 

 cease their shoveling to save their lives, now play 

 in the streets with children. Their long, Micaw- 

 ber-like waiting after the exhaustion of the placers 

 has brought on an exaggerated form of dotage. I 

 heard a group of brawny pioneers in the street 

 eagerly discussing the quantity of tail required for 

 a boy's kite; and one graybeard undertook the 

 sport of flying it, volunteering the information 

 that he was a boy, " always was a boy, and d n 

 a man who was not a boy inside, however ancient 

 outside ! " Mines, morals, politics, the immortality 

 of the soul, etc., were discussed beneath shade- 

 trees and in saloons, the time for each being gov- 



