306 CALIFORNIA AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



own boats will not do. After waiting two or three weeks 

 you get the use of a scow, called a lighter, for which you pay 

 one hundred and fifty dollars a day. 



" To-morrow you are going to commence unloading, and wake 

 betimes ; but find, that, during the night, every soul of your 

 crew has escaped, and put out for the mines. You rush about 

 on shore to find hands, and collect eight or ten loafers, who 

 will assist you for fifteen dollars a-day each. Your cargo 

 must be landed, and you close the bargain, though your fresh 

 hands are already half-seas over. The scow is shoved from 

 shore, brought along-side, loaded with goods, which are tumbled 

 in as an Irishman dumps a load of dirt, and then with your oar 

 and poles, push for the landing ; but the tide has ebbed too 

 soon ; you are only half-way, and there your scow sticks fast 

 in the midst of a great mud bottom, from which the last rip- 

 ple of water has retreated. You cannot get forward, and you 

 are now too late to get back ; night is setting in, and the rain 

 clouds are gathering fast — down comes a deluge, drenching 

 your goods and filling your open scow. The returning tide 

 will now be of no use — the scow wont float except under water, 

 and that is a sort of floating which don't suit you ; skin for 

 skin — though in this case not dry — what will a man not give 

 for his own life 1 So, out you jump, and by crawling and 

 creeping, make your waj r through the mire to the landing, and 

 bring up against a bin, where another sort of wallower gives 

 you a grunt of welcome. Your loafers must be paid off in the 

 morning and the scow recovered, or its loss will cost you half 

 the profits of your voyage. But the storm last night has driven 

 another brig into yours, and there they both are, like a bear 

 and bull, that have gored and crushed each other. But 

 ' misery loves company,' and you have it. The storm which 

 swamped your scow and stove your brig last night, has been 



