208 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



Felipe," which was at that time the only known ap- 

 proach to the southern coast. 



Before reaching the mountains, some of the party 

 one evening climbed a low hill near camp, and no- 

 ticed that the dark outcropping rock was thickly 

 sprinkled with yellow metal. Strange to say, though 

 the men were interested enough to carry away speci- 

 mens, they seem not to have guessed that they had 

 found gold, until the year of 1848, with the historic 

 "strikes" on the Sacramento, turned all men's 

 thoughts to one idea. Then it was found that the 

 specimens brought from the desert knoll were phe- 

 nomenally rich in gold. 



Smith was then in San Francisco along with the 

 rest of the world. In 1850 he got together a party to 

 make a search for the precious butte. Before getting 

 well started, the loss of some of the equipment of 

 the expedition put the leader out of humor with the 

 affair, and it was abandoned : nor did he ever renew 

 the attempt. 



This is all ancient history, and it might seem 

 strange that the legend of Peg-Leg's find, rich as it 

 may have been, should have survived through two 

 generations. But from time to time there have oc- 

 curred seeming corroborations of the fact of such a 

 wondrous mine in just such circumstances of posi- 

 tion and "formation" as are named in the details 

 of the discovery. Indians figure largely in these 

 later evidences, and not merely to the extent of 

 word of mouth. There have been incidents showing 

 that they had access to some rich store of gold 

 In the region of Smith's memorable " strike," and 



