roached the point where the great plateau of Nevada falls
abruptly down to the low lands of California many thousand feet below.
Here the hunters bade farewell to the emigrants, whom they had so long
escorted. All danger of Indians had been long since passed, and they
were now within a short distance of the gold regions.

Very deep and sincere were the thanks which were poured upon them by the
emigrants, who felt that they owed their lives entirely to the vigilance
and bravery of Abe and his companions. They expected to meet again ere
long at the gold-fields, and many were the assurances that should by any
chance better luck attend their search than was met with by the hunters,
the latter should share in their good fortune.

The change in the character of the scenery was sudden and surprising.
Hitherto the country had been bare and treeless, but the great slopes of
the Nevada mountains were covered from top to bottom with a luxuriant
growth of timber. Nowhere in the world are finer views to be obtained
than on the slopes of the Nevada Mountains. The slopes are extremely
precipitous, and sometimes, standing on a crag, one can look down into a
valley five or six thousand feet below, clothed from top to bottom with
luxuriant foliage, while far away in front, at the mouth of the valley,
can be seen the low, rich flats of California.

On the lower slopes of these mountains lay the gold deposits. These were
found in great beds of gravel and clay, which in countless generations
had become so hardened that they almost approached the state of
conglomerate. The gold from these beds had been carried, either by
streams which ran through them, or by the action of rain and time, into
the ravines and valleys, where it was found by the early explorers.
These great beds of gravel have been since worked by hydraulic
machinery, water being brought by small canals, or flumes, many miles
along the face of the hills, to reservoirs situated one or two hundred
feet above the gravel to be operated upon.

From the reservoirs extremely strong iron pipes lead down to the gravel,
and to the end of these pipes are fitted movable nozzles, like those of
fire-engines, but far larger. The water pours out through these nozzles
with tremendous force, breaking up the gravel, and washing it away down
a long series of wooden troughs, in which the gold settles, and is
caught by a variety of contrivances.

But in the early days of gold discovery the very e