310 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



Four of us started soon after my arrival to go fishing 

 in earnest and the plentiful harvest of white fish and 

 even sharks brought satisfaction to all. I learned to dry 

 fish as well as to salt and pack them like herrings; then 

 we drew the oil from the shark's liver. The beginning 

 of August sees the end of this sport and to be useful I 

 volunteered to bum shells, a new trade for me, after 

 which I proceeded to excel as master bricklayer by 

 building a new trough for the cattle. 



My employer settled with me and being fifteen dollars 

 richer I return to San Pedro. Upon Belm's urgent rec- 

 ommendation I obtained a clerkship at A. W. Timms at 

 seventy-five dollars a month and board, which I now 

 enjoy. 



December, 1857. 

 Am still at Timms', who raised my salary last October 

 to one hundred a month, so that I figure my credit at 

 nine hundred and thirty dollars. Pretty good for a 

 clerk, I think. 



December, 1858. 



Eeverses in business, by which I barely managed to 

 get the amount due me, caused me to leave Timms, who 

 afterwards sold out to Goller, his principal creditor. 



After a short visit to San Francisco I returned to Los 

 Angeles, where Wm. Moore had become the uncrowned 

 head of the county, surveyor's office— who in reality was 

 a wagon maker by trade. Upon his request I surveyed 

 the Protestant graveyard, and drew a plan for the new 

 water supply of the city. I have done a little work for 

 private parties, namely, Juan Apablasa, 0. W. Childs, 

 John G. Downey, Mateo Keller's Malaga Ranch, and 

 drawn plans for the Catholic cemetery as well. Mean- 

 while there had been trouble in the Goller camp, as the 

 latter found it very up-hill work to run a commission 

 and forwarding house like that of Timms, especially as 

 he himself know little about it and was too busy at his 

 wagon factory to spend time to learn the inside details 



