274 ELDORADO 



tant foothills. I often traveled the same route in later 

 years, but never with the same exuberance and buoy- 

 ancy of spirits as on that lovely May day with wife 

 and child in the old lumbering stage coach. 



The charm that surrounded many of the experiences 

 of pioneer days can never be forgotten. The sun, how- 

 ever, shines as brightly now, the air is as balmy, the 

 flowers are as fragrant, the doves coo as lovingly, 

 and the magpies chatter as entertainingly, as at twenty- 

 nine, and life has lost none of its charm at seventy- 

 five. 



Arriving at Red liluli we found a little hamlet 

 perched upon a high red clay bluff, from which it de- 

 rives its name, on the right bank of the Sacramento 

 river. We proceeded fifty miles farther, over an unin- 

 habited, broken country, to Shasta, one of the liveliest 

 mining towns in all that northern region. Here we se- 

 cured comfortable quarters and clean bunks in which 

 to sleep. Upon making inciuiries with reference to 

 continuing our journey over the mountains into Ore- 

 gon, we learned that the Klamath and Rogue river In- 

 dians were hostile, that several packers and miners 

 had been killed, and that no trains were likely to make 

 the trip for some time. We therefore determined to 

 return by stage to Sacramento and from thence go 

 to San Francisco bv steamer, which we accordingly 

 did. 



About twenty years later I again visited Shasta and 

 Red Blufif, when I was also an "occasional" for the 

 Sacramento Union. The following extract is from a 

 letter written at that time, October ist, 1875, just a 

 quarter of a century ago : 



"Leaving Red Blufif by the evening express of Sep- 



