worthy the name of path,--wound through a sycamore
and white-oak grove that fringed the river, the sloping banks of which
were covered with an infinite variety of shrubs and evergreens, bearing
flowers and blossoms of most delicate beauty and exquisite fragrance,
amidst which tangled festoons of the indigenous vine drooped with
pendant bunches of purple grapes. Arbutus shrubs of immense size were
seen, and the landscape was in some places interspersed thickly with
manzanita rushes, the crimson berries of which are much in favour with
the Indians, also with the grizzly bear! Some of the plains they
crossed were studded with magnificent oaks, devoid of underwood, such as
one is accustomed to see in noblemen's parks in England.

But all this beauty and luxuriance made comparatively little impression
on Frank and Joe, for they could not forget that human life had probably
been sacrificed that day--a thought which filled them with sincere
regret that it had ever entered into their hearts to go digging for
gold.

CHAPTER SIX.

ARRIVAL AT THE GOLD-FIELDS, AND LESSONS IN GOLD-WASHING RECEIVED.

At last Bigbear Gully was reached, and our travellers--especially those
of them who, being new to the work, were all enthusiasm--pressed eagerly
forward, anxious to begin without delay.

Bigbear Gully--so named because of a huge grizzly bear that had been
shot there at the commencement of digging operations--was a wild and
somewhat gloomy but picturesque mountain gorge, the first sight of
which, with its lights and shadows, stupendous cliffs and clumps of wood
clinging to the hill-sides, called forth a burst of delight and
admiration from Frank Allfrey, whose mind at once leaped with loving
desire to the brush and the colour-box; but as these implements were at
that time packed among the baggage on the mule's back, and as the love
of art was not sufficiently strong in the guide to induce him to permit
of a moment's delay in the journey, our hero was fain to content himself
with visions of future indulgence in his favourite study.

The "diggings," which they first got sight of in the afternoon of a fine
and sunny but cool day, were at the mouth of a deep gorge at the lower
end of the gully, having an abrupt mountain acclivity about eight
hundred feet high on one side, and on the other a plain bounded by
mountains. Here numbers of tents of all sizes and various shapes were
pitched on the slopes and near the banks of the river