podrida of heterogeneous
merchandise". The author meets the banished gold-dust thief.
Subscription by the miners on his banishment. A fool's errand to
establish his innocence. An oyster-supper bet. The thief's statements
totally incompatible with innocence.

LETTER _the_ TENTH PAGE 133

AMATEUR MINING--HAIRBREADTH 'SCAPES, &C.

Three dollars and twenty-five cents in gold-dust. Sorry she learned the
trade. The resulting losses and suffering. Secret of the brilliant
successes of former gold-washeresses. Salting the ground by miners in
order to deceive their fair visitors. Erroneous ideas of the richness
of auriferous dirt resulting therefrom. Rarity of lucky strikes. Claim
yielding ten dollars a day considered valuable. Consternation and
near-disaster in the author's cabin. Trunk of forest giant rolls down
hill. Force broken by rock near cabin. Terror of careless woodman.
Another narrow escape at Smith's Bar. Pursuit and escape of woodman.
Two sudden deaths at Indian Bar. Inquest in the open. Cosmopolitan
gathering thereat. Wife of one of the deceased an advanced bloomer.
Animadversions on strong-minded bloomers seeking their rights.
California pheasant, the gallina del campo of the Spaniards. Pines and
dies in captivity. Smart, harmless earthquake-shocks.

LETTER _the_ ELEVENTH PAGE 149

ROBBERY, TRIAL, EXECUTION--MORE TRAGEDY

Theft of gold-dust. Arrest of two suspected miners. Trial and acquittal
at miners' meeting. Robbed persons still believe the accused guilty.
Suspects leave mountains. One returns, and plan for his detection
proves successful. Confronted with evidence of guilt, discloses, on
promise of immunity from prosecution, hiding-place of gold-dust.
Miners, however, try him, and on conviction he is sentenced to be
hanged one hour thereafter. Miners' mode of trial. Respite of three
hours. Bungling execution. Drunken miner's proposal for sign of guilt
or innocence. Corpse "enwrapped in white shroud of feathery
snowflakes". Execution the work of the more reckless. Not generally
approved. The Squire, disregarded, protested. Miners' procedure
compared with the moderation of the first Vigilance Committee of San
Francisco. Singular disappearance of body of miner. Returning to the
States with his savings, his two companions report their leaving him in
dying condition. Arrest and fruitless investigation. An unlikely
bequest of