me down wi' the water,
chokin' up the tail-race some. The run-off wouldn't get away fast
enough an' churned up under the water-wheel, causin' a loss o' power.

"To get the tail-race clear an' to widen her out a bit, Marshall,
he throws the wheel out o' gear, pulls up the gate o' the dam, an'
lets the whole head o' water in the mill-pond go a-flyin'. That water
hit into the tail-race like a hydraulic jet an' scooped her out clear,
carryin' a mass o' sand an' gravel into the river below.

[Illustration: SUTTER'S MILL.

Where Marshall discovered gold, January 19, 1848.]

[Illustration: THE RUSH TO THE GOLD MINES.

Scene in San Francisco in 1849.]

"Next day, that was January 19, 1848, Marshall goes down to the river
below the tail-race to see how she's shapin' an' if the cut-out is big
enough. He's walkin' along the bank when he notices something glitter.
He looks again, an' sees what he thinks is a bit o' Spanish opal, not
the real gem, Clem, but a soft stone they find out there which looks
even prettier'n an opal, but wears off an' gets dull in no time. They
sell 'em to greenhorns, still.

"Marshall don't worry none about that, but by-'n-by, seein' a lot
more, as he thinks, he figures to pick up some, jest to show.
Accordin' as he used to tell the tale, he didn't think it was worth
the trouble, but spottin' one that looks different from the rest, he
reaches down into the water an' fishes it out.

"It ain't no opal at all. It's a bit o' shiny white quartz wi' a line
o' yellow runnin' through. That's what makes the glitter. He hunts
around some, rememberin' that he'd seen other bits shinin' yellow the
same way, an' finds quite a few, all of 'em looking like scales o'
pure gold. They was jest about the size an' thinness o' the scales
that comes off a rattlesnake's skin after it's dry, an' for a while,
Marshall figured they was some kind o' scale or horn, washed down thin
by the water.

"In them times, the folks in Californy hadn't no idee o' minin'. It
was still Spanish territory, for one thing, an', for another, there
wasn't any minin' done. So Marshall wasn't thinkin' about gold. It was
jest curiosity what made him hunt up some more o' those queer yellow
scales.

"The more he found, the more puzzled he got. They was heavy; they bent
like a bit o' metal, a thing a stone won't never do; they could be
scratched with a pocket-knife; they didn't show no layers like horn
does when it's old. The biggest bit he