(or rain) on the 28th of
February, and proved himself a perfect Proteus during his residence
with us. For one entire week he descended daily and nightly, without an
hour's cessation, in a forty Niagara-power of water, and just as we
were getting reconciled to this wet state of affairs, and were thinking
seriously of learning to swim, one gloomy evening, when we least
expected such a change, he stole softly down and garlanded us in a
wreath of shiny snowflakes, and lo! the next morning you would have
thought that some great white bird had shed its glittering feathers all
over rock, tree, hill, and bar. He finished his vagaries by loosening,
rattling, and crashing upon this devoted spot a small skyful of
hailstones, which, aided by a terrific wind, waged terrible warfare
against the frail tents and the calico-shirt huts, and made even the
shingles on the roofs of the log cabins tremble amid their nails.

The river, usually so bland and smiling, looked really terrific. It
rose to an unexampled height, and tore along its way, a perfect mass of
dark-foamed turbid waves. At one time we had serious fears that the
water would cover the whole Bar, for it approached within two or three
feet of the Humboldt. A sawmill, which had been built at a great
expense by two gentlemen of Rich Bar in order to be ready for the
sawing of lumber for the extensive fluming operations which are in
contemplation this season, was entirely swept away, nearly ruining, it
is said, the owners. I heard a great shout early one morning, and,
running to the window, had the sorrow to see wheels, planks, etc.,
sailing merrily down the river. All along the banks of the stream, men
were trying to save the more valuable portions of the mill, but the
torrent was so furious that it was utterly impossible to rescue a
plank. How the haughty river seemed to laugh to scorn the feeble
efforts of man! How its mad waves tossed in wild derision the costly
workmanship of his skillful hands! But know, proud Rio de las Plumas,
that these very men whose futile efforts you fancy that you have for
once so gloriously defeated will gather from beneath your lowest depths
the beautiful ore which you thought you had hidden forever and forever
beneath your azure beauty!

It is certainly most amusing to hear of the different plans which the
poor miners invented to pass the time during the trying season of
rains. Of course, poker and euchre, whist and ninepins, to say nothing
of mont