IN THE MINING DISTRICT 



247 



been told that they are found only in California and Ore- 

 gon. They are really dangerous to animals and human 

 beings, and are more numerous in the mountains than the 

 miners like to have them. In the week before I left Nelson 

 Creek, two of them were killed between Onion Valley and 

 Nelson Creek, and six between Nelson Creek and Jamison 

 Creek. One evening, as I was walking along Nelson 

 Creek, I saw a grizzly descend the other side going to 

 water. I was able to take a good look at him, because 

 I was on a higher ridge and near some houses. I was con- 

 siderably more scared, however, on my last trip here from 

 Nelson Creek, when— near Onion Valley— I saw the fresh 

 tracks and other signs of a grizzly on the road. The 

 tracks of the hind feet were more than 18 inches long, and 

 you may believe me that I kept my eyes and ears open, 

 because he certainly had passed there not more than 10 or 

 15 minutes previously,— the snow in the tracks being yet 

 freshly disturbed. I thought every moment I should see 

 the beast, and what made my position more unpleasant 

 was, that in the dense chaparral or copsewood there, I 

 could not see ten yards ahead, and my heavy load had 

 made me feel stiff and dull. 



Except these mentioned above, I do not know of any 

 animals of prey; but these should suffice without adding 

 the wild Mexican cattle; but we must not forget the fleas, 

 bedbugs and vermin which infest California by the 

 myriads, causing to us poor mortals a great deal more 

 trouble than those large beasts do. 



Snakes I have mentioned before. There are a great 

 many of them, and some of them very poisonous; but 

 they are not by far as dangerous as reported. To be 

 afraid of snakes in a country which is so full of them as 

 California, is quite as foolish as to be afraid of ghosts. 

 All a man has to do is to keep his eyes open in walking 

 through the grass, and to wear topboots of heavy leather, 

 and there is no danger. 



My sincerest thanks for the news you write to me. 

 None of you have the faintest idea, how even the smallest 

 trifles in that line interest me. Poor * * * I feel 



