towns and rushed off to the mines. Nearly all of them expected to
return by winter.

I think I must stop right here and tell about the California carriages
of which I had seen several at Los Angeles and at the Missions along our
road. The first time I saw one it was a great curiosity, I assure you.
The wheels were cut off the end of a sycamore log a little over two feet
in diameter and each section about a foot long. The axle was a piece of
wood eight inches square with a tongue fastened to it long enough to be
used with a yoke of oxen, and the ends of the axle were roughly rounded,
leaving something of a shoulder. The wheels were retained in place by a
big lynch-pin. On the axle and tongue was a strong frame of square hewed
timbers answering for bed pieces, and the bottom was of raw-hide tightly
stretched, which covered the whole frame. Tall stakes at each corner of
the frame held up an awning in hot weather. The yoke was fastened to the
horns of the oxen by strong, narrow strips of raw-hide, and the tongue
was fastened to the yoke in the same way. The driver was generally an
Indian, armed with a small pole six or eight feet long, who marched on
before, the oxen following after. I saw many a wagon like this, the
platform well filled up with women and children, and a pack of dogs
following along behind, slowly rolling over the country, and this is the
way they traveled when they went visiting friends who lived a few miles
in the country. Sometimes the wheels gave perfectly agonizing shrieks as
they revolved, and when they made so much noise that their strong
Spanish nerves could stand it no longer, if there was any green grass to
be found the drivers would crowd in a quantity around the axle, and
there was generally room for a good lot of it, to answer for a
lubricator.

We passed on from Soledad and shortly rose into the table land we had
seen for some time before us. From here we could look north for a long
way with no hill or mountain in sight; but our road led along on the
east side of this treeless plain, so thickly covered with grass that we
recalled some of the old tales of the grassy plains. We passed a
landholder's house on the road, then crossed a range of low mountains
and came to the Mission of San Juan (St. John) situated near the
foot-hills, overlooking a level, rich appearing extent of valley land
with a big vegetable growth all over it; in some places wild mustard
which stood thickly and was from four t