h wasting ink upon has occurred for some time, except the
capture of two grizzly-bear cubs by the immortal Yank. He shot the
mother, but she fell over the side of a steep hill and he lost her.
Yank intends to tame one of the cubs. The other he sold, I believe for
fifty dollars. They are certainly the funniest-looking things that I
ever saw, and the oddest possible pets. By the way, we receive an echo
from the outer world once a month, and the expressman never fails to
bring three letters from my dear M. wherewith to gladden the heart of
her sister, Dame Shirley.

LETTER _the_ SEVENTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _June_, 1855]

SUPPLIES _by_ PACK-MULES--KANAKAS _and_ INDIANS

SYNOPSIS

Belated arrival of pack-mule train with much-needed supplies.
Picturesque appearance of the dainty-footed mules descending the hills.
Of every possible color. Gay trappings. Tinkling bells. Peculiar urging
cry of the Spanish muleteers. Lavish expenditure of gold-dust for
vegetables and butter. Potatoes forty cents a pound. Incense of the
pungent member of the lily family. Arrival of other storm-bound trains,
and sudden collapse in prices. Horseback ride on dangerous trail. Fall
of oxen over precipice. Mountain flowers, oaks, and rivulets. Visit to
Kanaka mother. A beauty from the isles. Hawaiian superstition. An
unfortunate request for the baby as a present. Consolatory promise to
give the next one. Indian visitors. Head-dresses. "Very tight and very
short shirts". Indian mode of life. Their huts, food, cooking,
utensils, manner of eating. Sabine-like invasion leaves to tribe but a
few old squaws. "Startlingly unsophisticated state of almost entire
nudity". Their filthy habits. Papooses fastened in framework of light
wood. Indian modes of fishing. A handsome but shy young buck. Classic
gracefulness of folds of white-sheet robe of Indian. Light and airy
step of the Indians something superhuman. Miserably brutish and
degraded. Their vocabulary Of about twenty words. Their love of
gambling, and its frightful consequences. Arrival of hundreds of people
at Indian Bar. Saloons springing up in every direction. Fluming
operations rapidly progressing. A busy, prosperous summer looked for.

Letter _the_ Seventeenth

SUPPLIES _by_ PACK-MULES--KANAKAS _and_ INDIANS

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_May_ 25, 1852.

The very day after I last wrote you, dear M., a troop of mules came
onto the Bar, bringing us almost-forgotten luxu