i6o EIvDORADO 



alteration the narrow channel was considerably en- 

 larged and a mass of sand and gravel was carried off 

 by the force of the current. Early in the morning 

 after this took place, he (Mr. Marshall) was walking 

 along the left bank of the stream when he perceived 

 something which he at first took for a piece of opal — 

 a clean transparent stone very common here — glitter- 

 ing on one of the spots laid bare by the sudden crumb- 

 ling away of the bank. He paid no attention to this ; 

 but while he was giving directions to the workmen, 

 having observed several other glittering fragments, 

 his curiosity was so far excited that he stooped down 

 and picked one of them up. 'Do you know,' said Mr. 

 Marshall to me, 'I positively debated within myself 

 two or three times whether I should take the trouble 

 to bend my back to pick up one of these pieces and had 

 decided not to do so when, further on, another glitter- 

 ing morsel caught my eye — the largest of the pieces 

 now before you. I condescended to pick it up and to 

 my astonishment, found that it was a thin scale of 

 what appears to be pure gold.' He then gathered 

 some twenty or thirty similar pieces which, on exam- 

 ination, convinced him that his suppositions were 

 right. His first impression was that this gold had 

 been lost or been buried there by some early Indian 

 tribe — perhaps some of those mysterious inhabitants 

 of the West of whom we have no account, but who 

 dwelt on this continent centuries ago and built those 

 cities and temples, the ruins of which are scattered 

 about these solitary wilds. On proceeding, however, 

 to examine the neighboring soil, he discovered that it 

 was more or less auriferous. This at once decided 



