214 AMERICA : GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



but tea and coffee, or iced do., iced water or milk in tumblers 

 — of the latter you get any quantity — and this and the 

 bread and oatmeal porridge (admirably made) at breakfast 

 are my great supports. Of course quality of beef, &c, varies 

 in different States. The Americans are great and promis- 

 cuous eaters, and are too fond of talking of their foods. 

 Their fruits are simply contemptible, except the Californian 

 pears, which are splendid. (The apple season is not in.) 

 The peaches are great coarse things with a big mamilla 

 at the top, and decidedly compressed sides. The apricots, 

 though large, are also flattened and poor. The plums 

 shrunk up my tongue to the size of a snail. 



There are many Bubi and Vaccinia, all very poor. I 

 have seen nothing equal to a good Y. Myrtillus, or wild 

 strawberry or raspberry. The Bubi are greatly eaten at all 

 meals, raw, stewed, or in tarts called pies. A good account of 

 the native and cultivated native fruit is greatly wanted. 



Beds are remarkably clean and good but the pillows too 

 soft. Even in out-of-the-way mining districts we got good 

 food, clean beds, and civil service. The scale of living 

 amongst all classes West here is enormously high. Here 

 (I am now at Carson City, Nevada, Aug. 23rd) gold is the 

 currency, paper loses 6 per cent. ; and nothing less than a 

 silver 10 cent piece is taken. The miners' and labor wage 

 generally here is four dollars a day, and the men live like 

 fighting cocks, as to eating and drinking especially. 



Gray and I took a trip into the Wahsatch Mts. (E. of 

 Salt Lake), and at 10 or 12,000 ft., in a hut of seven miners 

 with some women and children, we found a dinner fit for a 

 prince preparing — clean plates, knives, forks, castors, &c, 

 &c, &c. Before every cabin door are heaps of empty 

 tin cans (of fruit, vegetables, and luxuries), clean unbroken 

 bottles, good new empty casks, and often hundreds of play- 

 ing cards — and this over whole States. Wealth is largely 

 distributed. The poor are starved out and seek the towns. 

 Here I am in the centre of the greatest gold and silver pro- 

 ducing mines in the world. Virginia City, 6000 ft. above the 

 sea, is built at the mines 21 miles from here. We went there 

 yesterday. The country is a hideous desert, but full of 

 good plants : lots of Erigone, Grayia, Ephedra, Pinus mono- 

 'phylla, Juniperus, scattered with tufts of Artemisia, Bige- 



