s, and, putting
the pieces on one, I pounded them with the other. It was soft, and
didn't break! It must be gold; but was probably largely mixed with some
other metal, possibly silver, for I thought that pure gold certainly
would have a brighter color.

"I don't know just how long I sat there, looking at them two little bits
of yellow metal in my hand and thinking hard of all that it might mean
to me and the men with me, if it should really prove to be gold, for I
sure was some excited; but, when I got back to our cabin, the men had
finished their breakfast and were beginning to wonder a little what had
become of me. I showed them the two pieces, and told them where I had
found them, and that I thought they were gold. This excited the men a
good deal; and I had some trouble to keep them from dropping everything
and going to gold hunting, leaving me finish my job alone. However, I
told them that as soon as we had the mill finished we would give a week
or two to gold hunting and see what we could make out of it, and this
satisfied them for the time, none of them then dreaming there was enough
gold there to amount to much.

"After this, while at work in the race, we all kept a sharp lookout, and
in the course of three or four days we had picked up about three ounces,
our work going on the same as usual; for none of us at that time
imagined that the whole country was sown with gold. If we had--that mill
sure would never have been completed," and Marshall smiled a little
bitterly.

"Four or five days after I picked up those two little pieces of yellow
metal I had to go to Sutter's Fort; and, wishing to get all the
information I could respecting the real value of the metal, I took all
that we had collected with me, and showed it to Captain Sutter. He at
once declared that it was gold; but, like me, thought it was largely
mixed with some other metal. We now tried to hit upon some means of
telling the exact quantity of gold found in the alloy; but couldn't
figure out how to do it, until we stumbled upon an old American
cyclopedia, that gave the specific gravity of all the metals and rules
to find the quantity of each in a given bulk. We now wanted some silver,
with which to compare our metal; and, after hunting over the whole fort
and borrowing from some of the men, we managed to get three dollars and
a half in silver. Captain Sutter had a small pair of scales; and, with
the aid of these and the cyclopedia, we soon ciphered