Here we learned that Gold Lake was not as rich as reported, so we
concluded to take the road and go to Coloma, the place where gold was
first found on the American River.

We camped at Coloma all night. Mr. Bradford got his mule shod and paid
sixteen dollars, or in the mining phrase, an ounce of gold dust. I
visited the small town and found that the only lively business place in
it was a large gambling house, and I saw money (gold dust) liberally
used--sometimes hundreds of dollars bet on a single card. When a few
hundred or thousand were lost more would be brought on. The purse would
be set in the center of the table and the owners would take perhaps
twenty silver dollars or checks, and when they were lost the deposited
purse would be handed to the barkeeper, the amount weighed out and the
purse returned. When the purse was empty a friend of the better would
bring another, and so the game went on almost in silence. The game
called Monte seemed to be the favorite. How long these sacks of gold
lasted or who eventually got the whole I never knew. This was a new
country with new people, and many seemed to be engaged in a business
that was new, strange and hazardous. The final result of all this was
what puzzled me.

We now followed the road up the mountain to Georgetown. Here was a small
village on the summit of the ridge and it seemed to be in a prosperous
mining section. After some inquiry about a good place to work we
concluded to go down a couple of miles northeast of town on Canon creek
and go to work if vacant ground could be found. There was a piece of
creek bottom here that had not been much worked. Georgia Flat above had
been worked and paid well, and the Illinois and Oregon canons that
emptied into the bottom here were rich, so we concluded to locate in the
bottom. Claims here in the flat were only fifteen feet square. I located
one and my notice told others that I would go to work on it as soon my
partner came from Sacramento. I sent my partner, Mr. Bennett a note
telling him to come up.

While waiting for Mr. Bennett I took my pan and butcher knife and went
into a dry gulch out of sight of the other campers and began work. As
the ground was mostly bare bed rock by scratching around I succeeded in
getting three or four pans of dirt a day. The few days I had to wait for
Bennett I made eight dollars a day until my claim was worked out.

I then went to Georgetown to meet Bennett and family, and soon after my