week has elapsed since I last opened my
diary. On Tuesday, we set to work upon our cradle. We resolved upon the
construction of two; and, for this purpose, went down to the store in a
body, to see about the boards. We found the timber extravagantly dear,
being asked forty dollars a-hundred. After some bargaining, we obtained
sufficient for our purpose, at the rate of thirty-five dollars.

The next question was, as to whether we should hire a carpenter. We
were told there were one or two in the diggings who might be hired,
though at a very extravagant rate. Accordingly, Bradley and I proceeded
to see one of these gentlemen, and found him washing away with a hollow
log and a willow-branch sieve. He offered to help us at the rate of
thirty-five dollars a-day, we finding provisions and tools, and could
not be brought to charge less. We thought this by far too extravagant,
and left him, determined to undertake the work ourselves. Meantime,
Horry had brought down two of our horses with him to the store. We
loaded them immediately with boards, and returned to our tent.

After breakfast, which consisted of coffee without milk, flour cakes,
and strips of dried beef, roasted on the embers, we set to work. We had
a sufficient number of axes and a good stout saw, one large plane, and
a few strong chisels, with plenty of nails. As may be expected, we
proved to be very awkward carpenters. Mr. Lacosse was perhaps the
handiest, and Malcolm not much inferior to him, until the latter
unfortunately received a severe cut with a chisel, extending in a
transverse line along the joint of the forefinger of the left hand. I
strapped up the wound, but the rough work soon tore away the diaculum:
no bad consequences, however, ensued. The wound, in spite of the hard
treatment which it received, closed and healed by the first
intention--proving the healthy habit of body engendered by temperance
and constant exercise in the open air.

In building our cradles, or "gold canoes," as the Indians called them,
we found that to mortice the planks into each other was a feat of
carpentering far above our skill, particularly as we had no mortice
chisels. We were therefore obliged to adopt the ruder experiment of
making the boards overlap each other by about an inch, nailing them
firmly together in that position. As, however, the inequality of
surface at the bottom of the cradle, produced by the mode of building,
would have materially impeded our operations,