LETTER NO. VIII 



Long Bar on the Yuba River, Cal., 



Sunday, February 8th, 1852. 



My Beloved Ones: — I hope you will not take it amiss 

 if I write only a few words to-day; I merely want you to 

 know where I am at present. As I wrote to you before, 

 my intention at first was to go to the Southern mines; 

 unfavorable reports from there, however, made me sud- 

 denly change my mind, the more so as on the 2nd inst. 

 (Monday) the younger of the Boettchers made up his 

 mind to accompany us and share our fate. 



The same day at 4 o'clock p. m. we four, that is 

 Boettcher, Griinhagen, Olias and myself, taking with 

 us only our blankets, arms and such clothing as was in- 

 dispensable, started on the steamer "I. Bragdon" for 

 Sacramento, on the river of the same name, where we 

 arrived on Tuesday morning at 5 o'clock. At 8 o'clock 

 we continued our trip up the river on board the "Fash- 

 ion" and reached Marysville at the junction of the Yuba 

 with the Feather river, a tributary of the Sacramento, 

 at 5 p. m. At Marysville we remained over night, and 

 on Wednesday morning we started upon our journey, of 

 course afoot. In the evening we arrived here. We found 

 the bar already taken possession of; not a place left open 

 that offered a tolerable "prospect," but on the follow- 

 ing day, in the evening, an American offered to sell us 

 his claim. We bought it for 75 Dollars, and since noon 

 of day before yesterday we have been hard at work. Up 

 to the evening yesterday we had taken out only 10 Dol- 

 lars; but considering that none of us four are used to 



*This Long Bar and Yuba Mining letter is the late Dr. Theo- 

 dor Wollweber's translation. — J.C.B. 



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