Obeying instructions, Glen cleaned his fish, and gathered a quantity of
grass, which he wet in the stream. The hunter had scooped out a shallow
trench in the earth beside the fire, and had filled it with live coals.
Above these he now spread a layer of damp grass, on which he laid the
fish, covering them in turn with another layer of grass. Over this he
raked a quantity of red-hot embers, and then covered the whole with a
few handfuls of earth.

Ten minutes later the trout were found to be thoroughly cooked, and Glen
was both thinking and saying that no fish had ever tasted so good. After
eating this most satisfactory breakfast, and having hung the carcase of
the deer to a branch where it would be beyond the reach of wolves until
it could be sent for, Glen and his new companion started down the
valley. As they walked, the latter explained to the boy that, many years
before, while trapping on that very stream, he had discovered gold in
its sands. Recently he had employed a number of Mexicans to work for
him, and had started some placer diggings about a mile below where they
then were.

This interested Glen greatly; for all of his dreams had been of
discovering gold somewhere in this wonderful Western country, and he was
most desirous of learning something of the process of procuring it. As
they talked, they came in sight of several tents and brush huts,
standing near the inner end of a long sand-bar, that extended diagonally
nearly across the stream. A rude dam built along its upper side had
diverted the water from it, so that a large area of sand and gravel was
left dry. On this a dozen men were at work, digging with shovel and
pick, or rocking cradles. Glen had heard of miners' cradles, or
"rockers," but he had never seen one. Now he laughed at the resemblance
between them and the low wooden cradles babies were rocked in.

They were rough boxes mounted on rockers, of which the one at the
forward end was a little lower than the other, so as to give the cradle
a slight slope in that direction. Each had an iron grating placed across
its upper end, and a few wooden cleats nailed crosswise of its bottom. A
hole was cut in its foot-board, and a handle, by means of which it was
rocked, was fastened to its head-board. There were two men to each
cradle: one to shovel dirt on to its grating, and the other to rock it
and pour water over this dirt to wash it through. The grating was so
fine that only the smallest pebbles coul