i8 Reminiscences of 



civilization as well as many other social evils by 

 which humanity is retarded. 



It will be remembered that the history of the ani- 

 mal man has been very brief compared with time — 

 a history which extends back but a few thousand 

 years, and which by its extraordinary progress, 

 despite the horrors of war and kindred demoralizing 

 evils, will ultimately reach a level when a retro- 

 spection of present conditions will create surprise 

 that beings so intelligent as those now existing 

 could have submitted to such pernicious errors. 



The country beyond Sacramento to the placer 

 mines of Aubuni was the most attractive I had ever or 

 have since seen, comprising valleys and moderate hills 

 grown over with groups of live and white oaks, in- 

 habited by quantities of magjMes, robins, larks, and 

 other small birds. Beneath the trees were many 

 quails and hares, with antelopes to be seen in the 

 distance. 



It was midwinter, yet the weather was bright 

 and warm, and the temperature seldom fell to 

 freezing. 



How trivial are the incidents which oftentimes 

 become important in our after lives! The casual ob- 

 servation of a fellow foot -traveller who walked on 

 with me for a while, that it was an ideal sheep region, 

 gave a color to my thoughts, which half a dozen 

 years afterwards matured in my mind to the com- 

 mencement of an industr}' there in which I engaged. 



An elder brother had imported from Australia a 

 few hundred high-grade sheep, of which all but one 

 himdred and twenty had died upon the passage to 

 San Francisco, and my brother's death occurring 



