by
the Red Fox road; that is, the road by which Red Fox the chief and his
men used to go. After they had travelled a long distance over a pathless
country, without any sign of a trail, or climbed along the rocky banks
of streams, he asked his guide when they would reach the Red Fox road.
"This is it, you are on," was the reply. "Where?" eagerly inquired Ross:
"I see no road here, not even so much as a rabbit could walk on."--"Oh,
there is no road," answered the Indian: "this is the place where they
used to pass."

At another time, when he was travelling with an Indian guide, who was
accompanied by some of his relatives, the latter were left at a place
called Friendly Lake, and were to be called for on their return. They
went on to their journey's end, and on their way back, some days after,
stopped at the place; but no sign of the relatives appeared. The guide,
however, searched about diligently, and presently pointed to a small
stick, stuck up in the ground, with a little notch in it. He said, "They
are there," pointing in the direction in which the stick slanted,--"one
day's journey off." Exactly there they were found.

There was a kind of generosity about this "broke miner," that made us
ready to forgive a great deal in him. No doubt there would have been a
great deal to forgive if we had known him more. He was, very likely, in
the habit of drinking and gambling, like the others that we saw. I know
he was a terrible tobacco chewer and smoker. He has been seventeen years
on the Pacific side of the continent, came out as a "forty-niner," has
travelled a great deal, and taken notes of all he has seen, and said he
thought of making use of them some time, if his employments would ever
admit of it. I think he is the best fitted to describe the country, of
all the persons I have met.

He gave us quite a vivid idea of the semi-barbarous life of the
California pioneers, and of the intense desire they sometimes felt for a
glimpse of their homes, their wives, and children. I remembered Starr
King's saying that women and children had been more highly appreciated
in California ever since, on account of their scarcity during the first
few years. I rather think the sentiment of the miners was somewhat
intensified by the extreme difficulty they found in doing women's work.
One of them, now an eminent physician, pricked and scarred his fingers
in the most distressing manner, in attempting to sew on his buttons,
and patch the rents