ELDORADO 279 



bered scenes connected with those monthly recurrino^ 

 events. They were looked forward to as an agree- 

 able change from the monotonous routine of tiie 

 miner's life and by all with anxious anticipation of 

 news from home and friends "away back East." The 

 wharves on those occasions were thronged with a 

 motlev crowd. The bearded and l)ronzed miner with 

 his woolen shirt, overalls and liigli toi)ped boots : the 

 Mexican, with his sombrero, serape. red sash, and 

 breeches decorated down the legs with gilt buttons. 

 John Chinaman, Kanaka, and Chilino in their native 

 costtnnes. made a most interesting combination of "all 

 sorts and conditions of men." 



Tt was a typical California May day when we cleared 

 the Golden Gate. The air was soft and balmy and a 

 light lireeze came in from the ocean. The receding 

 low-lying lands of Contra Costa across the bay. dotted 

 here and there with groves of grand old live oaks • 

 Mounts Tamalpais and Diablo ; the Coast Range ex- 

 tending far away north until lost in the blue horizon. 

 united to form a panorama of one of nature's grandest 

 landscapes. For a day and night, after ])assing the 

 Farallones, the ocean was exceedingly rough. This 

 was the onlv unpleasant weather experienced during 

 the entire distance of thirty-five hundred miles to the 

 Isthmus of Panama. To the few who escaped sea- 

 sickness, it was amusing, if not interesting, to witness 

 the agonies of the unfortunates. The victims, in their 

 keenest distress, were only laughed at bv those wIk 

 seemed to think it a "good joke." One old o-entlem^'n 

 declared he had nothing left "wherewith to feed the 

 fishes but his boots." 



The monotonv of the voyage was occasionally 



