IN THE SIEKKA FOOT-HILLS 329 



erned apparently by the temperature. Contact with 

 Nature, and the habits of observation acquired in 

 gold-seeking, had made them all, to some extent, 

 collectors, and, like wood-rats, they had gathered 

 all kinds of odd specimens into their cabins, and 

 now required me to examine them. They were 

 themselves the oddest and most interesting speci 

 mens. One of them offered to show me around 

 the old diggings, giving me fair warning before 

 setting out that I might not like him, "because," 

 said he, "people say I 'm eccentric. I notice 

 everything, and gather beetles and snakes and 

 anything that 's queer ; and so some don't like me, 

 and call me eccentric. I 'm always trying to find 

 out things. Now, there 's a weed ; the Indians eat 

 it for greens. What do you call those long-bodied 

 flies with big heads ? " " Dragon-flies," I suggested. 

 "Well, their jaws work side wise, instead of up and 

 down, and grasshoppers' jaws work the same way, 

 and therefore I think they are the same species. 

 I always notice everything like that, and just be 

 cause I do, they say I 'm eccentric," etc. 



Anxious that I should miss none of the wonders 

 of their old gold-field, the good people had much to 

 say about the marvelous beauty of Cave City Cave, 

 and advised me to explore it. This I was very 

 glad to do, and finding a guide who knew the way 

 to the mouth of it, I set out from Murphy the next 

 morning. 



The most beautiful and extensive of the moun 

 tain caves of California occur in a belt of metamor- 

 phic limestone that is pretty generally developed 

 along the western flank of the Sierra from the Me- 



