IX THE MINING DISTRICT 213 



ning meal. Yonder the Yuba— a river now in the spring 

 fully as broad as the Pregel — lines the bar as with a band 

 of silver, and its bank beyond with the same character- 

 istics you observe on this side, ends the panorama in 

 that direction. 



And now a look toward the West over the broad, level 

 savanna, where the Yuba empties into the Feather river, 

 and this again further on into the Sacramento. This im- 

 mense plain extends almost without any interruption up 

 to the chain of mountains, which line the Pacific coast, 

 far beyond our horizon. The vista, is broken by the 

 "Butes" only— eight or ten conical mountains, six or 

 eight hundred feet high, rising abruptly out of the plain 

 between the Sacramento and Feather rivers, and close to 

 one another, but separated by deep ravines, whose bot- 

 toms are densely wooded — the abode of numberless griz- 

 zly bears. 



I feel, nay I am convinced, that my description of the 

 scenery here cannot impress you in such a manner as to 

 do it justice. If, however, you were to read it on a mild, 

 fair evening in summer, somewhere in the quiet, pleasant 

 Simserthal, you might conceive a better idea of what it 

 really is. Now let us return to the Bar. 



I told you before that gold is washed out by different 

 kinds of machines. Here at the bar there are four dif- 

 ferent kinds in use. The Rocker or Cradle, the Bull- 

 rocker, the simple and the double Long Tom. 



Anyone who prefers to remain by himself and wants 

 to do without a partner, has to use the rocker, because 

 the last named three machines cannot be worked by one 

 man alone, but require more hands. The rocker or cra- 

 dle, as some call it, with which I, too, have worked, is a 

 box 18 inches wide and l 1 /^ or 5 feet long. It rests slight- 

 ly inclining forward on two runners, or rockers, so that 

 by means of a handle (a), which is fastened to its left 

 side, it may easily be rocked ju^t like a cradle. On top 

 of the rear end, i. e., the higher end of the rocker, is a 

 sieve (b), made of sheet iron about two feet long and of 

 the same width as the rocker, which can be removed. 



