LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 29 



it. When the water thundered down the river it struck the aqueduct in the 

 middle, and it parted and went down the river like chaff before the wind. 

 One or two little incidents happened which I must mention. A man came 

 down the river on the opposite shore, he gazed at the water for some min- 

 utes, and then plunged in, thinking to swim that torrent. He was carried 

 down the stream, and we saw his head once in a while on the crest of the 

 waves. He finally landed on a rock, about fifteen feet from the shore on 

 the side he went in on. In a few minutes along came a grizzly bear, close 

 to us, but he paid no attention to us but plunged right into the river and 

 swam almost straight across. We were right at the head of a canyon, and 

 the water ran at a fierce speed, but that bear swam that river almost in a 

 direct line, and seemed to do it without any effort. 



So far as river mining was concerned we knew the season was over, 

 and the men began preparations to leave and go prospecting. About this 

 time a man came along who had owned the upper dam, with fifty-five Mex- 

 icans. He proposed to work our mine with his Mexicans on shares. He 

 proposed to throw in a wing dam, and turn one half the river on the other 

 side and give us one-Uiird of all he took out. Some of the men didn't have 

 much faith, but as he was bearing all the expense, they concluded to let 

 him go ahead. 



The usual method in building wing dams is to build two walls of rocks, 

 an outer and an inner wall, commencing at the shore, running out half way 

 across the river, and keeping them about two feet apart. The outer wall 

 is made tight with canvas on the inside, and the space between the two 

 walls is filled with sand, canvass preventing the water from washing the 

 sand away. This makes the dam tight. In the same manner the walls are 

 built down stream. Our company were all anxious to get away, and I was 

 asked to stay to look after the interest of the mine. Then Jim Murrell, the 

 man who had leased the mine, wanted me to take charge of his work, as I 

 was going to stay anyway. But I couldn't talk Spanish fluently, so I hesi- 

 tated, but finally agreed to take charge of the work for a half ounce a day. 

 Jim stayed around for a day or two, and then he was off. In fact he was a 

 Texan gambler, and didn't give his personal attention to any work. I didn't 

 see anything more of him for about two weeks, and by this time I had the 

 work well in hand, and he seemed to be much pleased with the condition 

 of things. 



I think I never had charge of a better crew of men, they worked will- 

 ingly and well. Maybe it was because they hadn't had their summer's pay 

 as yet, but however, they seemed to take an interest, and worked splen- 

 didly. The next time Jim came around I had commenced taking out gold, 

 and It was just as rich as ever. At night I had to keefp close watch for 

 fear the gold would be stolen from before my eyes. If the gold was stolen 

 it wasn't because I didn't keep close watch, but because they were too 

 quick for me. Sometimes I would have many thousands of dollars on hand 

 and only a bush shanty for protection, then I would pack it in with one 

 of the men and take it up to Jacksonville, where there was a store and a 

 safe to deposit it. 



This was done over and over again, the distance to Jacksonville being 

 about two miles and a half. We worked until December, as the season hap- 

 pened to be fairly dry, but soon the rain came and we ceased operations 



