om the river at an acute
angle, moved leisurely on through a broken country, intersected by many
water-courses, and overgrown with dense clusters of trees.

During our afternoon march we passed several deserted Indian
villages--the round-shaped skeletons of the huts alone remaining to
mark the former settlements. Not a member of the tribe, however, was to
be seen; the beaver may build and the deer pasture hereabouts in peace.
Towards evening we entered the valley drained by the stream called
Weber's Creek. Its appearance was very beautiful, and the stream
descended along a steep rocky bed, foaming round large boulder stones,
and tumbling down low ledges of granite. The grassy slopes of the
valley are cut up in all directions with rivulets, the courses of which
are marked by luxuriant underwood, rank grass, and groves of stunted
oaks. Two or three arbours were to be seen with one or two rude-looking
tents, all with blazing fires before them. We encamped forthwith,
hoping the next day to reach a station which we could make available
for our purpose.

We were early on the move this morning, and soon saw several parties of
threes and fours washing in the bed of the river, or exploring the
mountain gorges with their shovels and mattocks. The weather was
getting oppressively hot; indeed, the further we got from the
Sacramento the hotter did it become. The sea-breeze never penetrates
here to refresh us, and, except when an occasional squall comes
sweeping down from the hills, the air is very oppressive.

We travelled but slowly, still in an hour or so we reached a station,
about fifteen miles as the crow flies, or about twenty by the windings
of the stream, from the point of its junction with the Americanos,
where we determined to try our luck. There was quite a camp here--not
to the same extent as the Mormon diggings, but still the washers were
numerous, and the larger part of them were Indians. Some few worked in
the bed of the river, but the great majority were engaged in the
ravines leading up the mountains. The greatest quantity of gold dust
was found in the former, while the latter yielded the best specimens of
lump and scale gold. We were told that, though the side gullies were
very rich, yet they were more uncertain than the main stream. Lumps of
gold, weighing several ounces, were continually met with, but a morning
was often wasted and nothing found; whereas, if a man stuck to the main
stream, and washed all day l