THE BA TOTH.AS DISTRICT. 
339 
journey. It was now nearing the rainy 
season, and even if we made haste we 
would only just escape this unpleasant 
and rather dangerous time in the high 
sierras, for there the floods pour down 
and often carry out large portions of the 
trail on the steep and narrow mountain 
passes. Our pack train consisted, all 
told, of about seventy or eighty mules, 
twenty to thirty of them loaded with 
silver bricks for Chihuahua, the rest of 
the train being the pack and riding 
mules of the various drivers and attend¬ 
ants of the “ conductor,” as the principal 
personage in charge of the bullion is 
called. 
This person was an immense quadroon, 
a person of unusual executive ability in 
that position, and thoroughly trusted by 
the superintendent, ex-Governor Alex- 
