374 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



haste to give a reason for my appearance in his 

 solitude, explaining that I was anxious to find out 

 something about the mountains, and meant to make 

 my way up Eaton Creek next morning. Then he 

 kindly invited me to camp with him, and led me 

 to his little cabin, situated at the foot of the moun 

 tains, where a small spring oozes out of a bank 

 overgrown with wild-rose bushes. After supper, 

 when the daylight was gone, he explained that he 

 was out of candles; so we sat in the dark, while he 

 gave me a sketch of his life in a mixture of Span 

 ish and English. He was born in Mexico, his 

 father Irish, his mother Spanish. He had been a 

 miner, rancher, prospector, hunter, etc., rambling 

 always, and wearing his life away in mere waste ; 

 but now he was going to settle down. His past 

 life, he said, was of " no account," but the future 

 was promising. He was going to "make money 

 and marry a Spanish woman." People mine here 

 for water as for gold. He had been running 

 a tunnel into a spur of the mountain back of his 

 cabin. " My prospect is good," he said, " and if I 

 chance to strike a good, strong flow, I '11 soon be 

 worth $5000 or $10,000. For that flat out there," 

 referring to a small, irregular patch of bouldery 

 detritus, two or three acres in size, that had been 

 deposited by Eaton Creek during some flood sea 

 son, "that flat is large enough for a nice orange- 

 grove, and the bank behind the cabin will do for a 

 vineyard, and after watering my own trees and 

 vines I will have some water left to sell to my 

 neighbors below me, down the valley. And then," 

 he continued, "I can keep bees, and make money 



