SAN FRANCISCO. 35 



otherwise ; but found them best made into omelettes. Thev 

 keep good for a long time, so you can have some nearly all 

 the year round. 



The population of San Francisco was very changeable in 

 consequence of the new arrivals. Every day, ships of all 

 nationalities arrived in San Francisco bringing passengers. 

 Few remained in town, the majority of them were bound for 

 the gold placers, which were all the rage at the time. There 

 was such a run for them, that very often all the sailors deserted 

 their ships, and it was impossible to find new hands, so the 

 ships had to remain in San Francisco for several months. 

 Nearly all the passengers of our ship did like the others, but 

 I am sorrv to sav that verv few of them did well. One of 

 them, Mr. Garnier, a non-commissioned officer who had been 

 through the African campaigns, and whom I saw several 

 months after my arrival in California, was partly successful, 

 and showed me some fine specimens of gold nuggets ; but he 

 said that it was verv hard work, scarcelv worth the trouble. 

 It is a fact that very few of the diggers return with a fortune, 

 a great many of them dying in the placers. Many others who 

 are successful only come back to San Francisco to spend their 

 money in all sorts of ways, and more especially in the magnifi- 

 cent gambling saloons which are abundant in the town, and 

 where they leave the whole, or the better part of their gold. 



Many of these houses were flourishing at that time, and 

 they offered all sorts of attractions to allure the miners; drink^ 

 women, concerts, etc. With good reason they were called 

 Gambling Hells. Scarcely a day passed without murders 

 being committed in these infernal abodes, the place of resort 

 of all that was bad. Pistols were taken out from their cases, 

 and shots freely fired for nothing at all, and unfortunatelv 

 sometimes missed their aim, and inoffensive lookers-on were 

 murdered. The body was carried away immediately, and left 

 in the street, and five minutes after the gambling was resumed 

 as if nothing had happened. Occasionally, there was a free 

 light, everybody shooting one another, until several were 

 killed or wounded. 



Another enemy of the miners was the decoying shark, 

 who waited for them on the quays, and after making friends, 

 as compatriots or something else, drugged and murdered 

 them. So that after all, with few exceptions, the only ones 

 which I heard of having made a fortune in the placers were the 

 hotel and bar keepers, and others of the same category, who 

 established themselves at the diggings, exchanging their 



