i8o ELDORADO 



and I fell headlong upon the earth. In another instant 

 I should have fallen a victim to old bruin's rage, but a 

 well directed ball from my companion's rifle entered 

 his brain and arrested his career. The whole party 

 now came to my assistance and soon dispatched Mr. 

 Grizzly. Dragging him to camp we made a hearty 

 supper from his fat ribs and as I had probably been 

 more frightened than either of the two I claimed as an 

 indemnity his skin, which protected me afterwards 

 from the damp ground many a cold night. He was a 

 monstrous fellow, measuring four feet in height, and 

 six in length, and a stroke from his huge paw would — 

 had he caught us — have entirely dissipated the golden 

 dreams of Higgins and myself." 



When I came to the coast, California was a pastoral 

 country in its broadest sense. Tools, and agricultural 

 implements used l)y the natives were of the rudest and 

 most primitive kind. A forked limb of a tree with a 

 strap of iron fastened on one end of the fork was the 

 only kind of a plow in use and this was drawn in a 

 "criss cross'" fashion over a patch of ground (on 

 which to raise peppers and "frijoles") by either one or 

 two iViexican steers, with a stout stick lashed by strips 

 of rawhide to the forehead in place of a yoke. Raw- 

 hide material was also used to take the place of chains. 

 The "carreta," a two-wheeled cart with solid wheels of 

 wood, was the only vehicle used. 



The Mexican would attach his lasso to the tail of a 

 dried rawdiide, and with the other e\u\ wrapped around 

 the horn of his saddle, would draw his wife and chil- 

 dren to the fandango, possibly a mile away. I have 

 often seen the Mexicans, with a well-trained bronco. 



