CALIFORNIA AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 805 



the moral effect of gold-hunting on a man whose principles are 

 not as fixed and immovable as the rock. It begins in a 

 lottery and ends in a lottery, where the blanks out-number 

 the prizes ten to one. 



" But you are hungry — want a breakfast — turn into a re- 

 staurant — call for ham, eggs, and coffee — then your bill. Six 

 dollars ! Your high boots, which have never seen a brush 

 since you first put them on, have given out ; you find a pair 

 that can replace them ; they are a tolerable fit ; and now 

 what is the price? Fifty dollars ! Your beard has not felt a 

 razor since you went to the mines ; it must come off, and your 

 frizzled hair be clipped. You find a barber ; his dull shears 

 hang in the knots of your hair, like a sheep-shearer's in a 

 fleece matted with burrs. The razor he straps on the leg of 

 his boot, and then hauls away, starting at every pull some new 

 fountain of tears. You vow you will let the beard go, but then 

 one side is partly off, and you try the agony again to get the 

 other side something like it. And now what is the charge for 

 this torture 1 Four dollars ! Night is approaching, and you 

 must have a place where you can sleep. To inquire for a 

 bed would be as idle as to hunt a pearl in the jungle of a 

 Greenland bear. You look around for the lee of some shanty 

 or tent, and tumble down for the night ; but a thousand fleas 

 dispute the premises with you — the contest is hopeless ; you 

 tumble out as you tumble in, and spend the remainder of the 

 night in finding a place not occupied by these aborigines of 

 the soil. 



" But you are not perhaps a gold-digger, as I had supposed. 

 You are a supercargo, and have a valuable freight which you 

 wish to land. You have warped your vessel in till her keel 

 rakes, and yet you are several hundred yards off. Some 

 lighter must be found that can skim these shallows — your 



