SECOND DAY IN THE MINES. 
75 
some distance, I found a place which combined, as I thought, 
every indication of a rich deposit, and my only surprise was, 
that it had not been discovered before. It was on the lower 
side of a large rock, which must, at high water, break the cur- 
rent, forming an eddy below, where the gold must settle. On 
discovering a “ lead,” one has only to leave his pick, and his 
title is indisputable. I left my implements, and hurried up to 
the tent. After dinner we carried our machine to the spot, and 
were soon in a profuse perspiration. “Bent” would frequently 
lift the screen, and it was very apparent that the prospect 
beneath was not brilliant. He had become a kind of ther¬ 
mometer to our success, and at every inspection his energy 
would lag, and my bucket would grow the heavier. Late in 
the afternoon we washed down our half-day’s work, and went 
up. Harry and Sam were writhing with fatigue. Harry 
had over-heated himself; Sam, being a mulatto, could endure 
the heat,—but his muscles had lost their tension, and every 
bone was cracked. He was willing to stay, if I wished him to, 
but Harry was bound for Sacramento. Bent said but little, 
still I could plainly see a cloud in his horizon. He had an im¬ 
pediment in his speech; and when I asked him what he thought 
of the prospect, he got into close proximity to some very hard 
words, and, with great magnanimity, wished the mines in the 
possession of an individual of brimstone notoriety, whose name 
I will not mention. After supper, we weighed our afternoon’s 
work, and had seventy-five cents. The man for whom Harry 
and Sam had been working, had taken possession of a bar, 
which was paying him well. As a general thing, the bars had 
been “prospected,” and the parts that would pay taken possession 
of. There was, however private “ leads ” opened daily, from 
which something could be made. Harry and Sam were too sore 
to start down the next day, consequently they resolved to rest; 
and Bent was willing to work the machine another day. As 
for myself, I must confess that the camp-kettle had lost one coat 
of its gilding, and the rocks were about the same color as those 
in the States. 
We took an early start, and devoted an hour to “prospect¬ 
ing.” This time we were more successful, we found a “lead” 
from which we got twenty particles of gold in the first pan-full. 
