s were the rough, hearty men from "old England," "owld Ireland,"
and from the Western States; with all of whom he had many a pleasant and
profitable hour's conversation, and from many of whom, especially the
latter, he obtained valuable and interesting information in reference to
the wild regions of the interior which he longed so much to see.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE WILDERNESS AGAIN--A SPLENDID VALLEY--GIGANTIC TREES AND WATERFALLS--
TOM MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT--BOTH MEET WITH MANY SURPRISES--MYSTERIES,
CAVERNS, DOLEFUL SOUNDS, AND GRIZZLY-BEAR-CATCHERS.

Mounted on gallant steeds, Ned and his friend again appear in the
wilderness in the afternoon of a beautiful autumn day. They had ridden
far that day. Dust covered their garments, and foam bespattered the
chests of their horses, but the spirits of men and beasts were not yet
subdued, for their muscles, by long practice, were inured to hardship.
Many days had passed since they left the scene of their recent
successful labours, and many a weary league had been traversed over the
unknown regions of the interior. They were lost, in one sense of that
term--charmingly, romantically lost--that is to say, neither Ned nor Tom
had the most distant idea of where they were, or what they were coming
to, but both of them carried pocket-compasses, and they knew that by
appealing to these, and to the daily jotting of the route they had
travelled, they could ascertain pretty closely the direction that was
necessary to be pursued in order to strike the great San Joaquin river.

Very different was the scenery through which they now rode from that of
the northern diggings. The most stupendous and magnificent mountains in
the world surrounded, on all sides, the valley through which they
passed, giving to it an air of peaceful seclusion; yet it was not
gloomy, for the level land was broad and fertile, and so varied in
aspect that it seemed as though a beautiful world were enclosed by those
mighty hills.

Large tracts of the valley were covered with wild oats and rich grass,
affording excellent pasturage for the deer that roamed about in large
herds. Lakes of various sizes sustained thousands of wild-fowl on their
calm breasts, and a noble river coursed down its entire length. Oaks,
chestnuts, and cypresses grew in groups all over the landscape, and up
on the hill-sides firs of gigantic size reared their straight stems high
above the surrounding trees.

But the point in the s