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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Trip to California in 1853, by Washington
+Bailey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Trip to California in 1853
+       Recollections of a Gold Seeking Trip by Ox Train across the Plains and Mountains by an Old Illinois Pioneer
+
+
+Author: Washington Bailey
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2011  [eBook #38351]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA IN 1853***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Karin Praetorius and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
+available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 38351-h.htm or 38351-h.zip:
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+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38351/38351-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/triptocalifornia00bail
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Errors listed in the Errata have been corrected.
+
+      The original spelling and inconsistencies have been retained
+      except as listed at the end of the book.
+
+      The table of contents was generated for the reader's
+      convenience. The original does not contain a table of contents.
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+      Brief Biography Of The Author
+      CHAPTER I,   Uncle Joshua's Visit And Our Preparations
+                   For The West
+      CHAPTER II,  On The Western Plains--Some Of Our Experiences
+      CHAPTER III, Among The Foot Hills And Troublesome Indians
+      CHAPTER IV,  Over The Mountains Into California
+      CHAPTER V,   Prospecting For Gold--Some Hard Experiences
+      ERRATA
+      APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: WASHINGTON BAILEY]
+
+
+A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA IN 1853
+
+by
+
+WASHINGTON BAILEY
+
+Recollections of a gold seeking trip
+by ox train across the plains and
+mountains by an old Illinois pioneer
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LeRoy Journal Printing Company
+1915
+
+
+
+
+_Mr. Bailey was induced by some of his friends to put in writing his
+recollections of an overland trip made by "prairie schooner" to
+California, over sixty years ago. These recollections were published in
+the LeRoy Journal in series, and later collected and reprinted herewith
+in book form on the solicitation of his friends who desired a permanent
+record._
+
+
+
+
+BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
+
+
+Washington Bailey, the author of this narrative of a trip to California
+in 1853, was born October, 1831, in Adams County, Ohio. Afterwards he,
+with his parents, came to Fountain County, Indiana, from which place he
+went to California, returning in 1856 to Cheney's Grove, now Saybrook,
+Illinois.
+
+While in California, he sent money back to his father, who bought for
+him, fifty acres of land, where Bellflower village now stands, paying
+$5.00 per acre. This he sold in 1856, getting $6.00 per acre. He then
+bought 85 acres north of Saybrook, adding to it later 40 acres, at a
+total cost of $1,400. This was sold in 1864 for $1,875. The next year he
+purchased 141 acres in DeWitt County, Ill., where Mike Walden now lives,
+paying $22.00 per acre. He purchased more land bordering this farm until
+1891, when he moved to LeRoy, where he has since resided in a commodious
+home south of the city park.
+
+This farm of 261 acres was divided up among his children and afterwards
+sold. Mr. Bailey later invested in 160 acres in DeWitt County, which he
+now owns conjointly with his wife, having deeded 80 acres to her.
+Besides his residence, he owns another residence property in LeRoy.
+
+Mr. Bailey was married to Julian Brittin, March 19, 1857, and they are
+parents of three boys and three girls, all living. They are: A. G.
+Bailey, who was serving his second term as mayor of LeRoy, when this
+volume was published; Henry Bailey, of Normal; Lincoln Bailey and Mrs.
+Nancy Van Deventer, of LeRoy; Mrs. Sarah Brown, of Maroa, and Mrs. Emma
+Vance, of Farmer City.
+
+Mr. Bailey has served several terms as justice of the peace and school
+director. He has been a loyal member of the Methodist church since
+boyhood. He has a remarkable memory and has always took a lively
+interest in politics. His mind is a store-house of dates and facts
+concerning political affairs. He is a staunch foe of the liquor traffic,
+and holds to the Republican doctrine of McKinley and Roosevelt. He is a
+man of deep convictions and is always ready to advocate them on all
+occasions.
+
+Although about 84 years of age as this book goes to press, Mr. Bailey is
+enjoying good health and goes up town every day to greet old friends and
+acquaintances. Loved by all his children, respected by the whole
+community, still enjoying the companionship of his good wife, there are
+no clouds in the western horizon, and the sundown of his life is radiant
+with worthy motives and deeds of a three-quarters of a century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+UNCLE JOSHUA'S VISIT AND OUR PREPARATIONS FOR THE WEST
+
+
+In the spring of 1853, my uncle, Joshua Bailey, came from California to
+Ohio to see his mother and his brothers, uncle John Bailey, and my
+father, Eben Bailey. But my father had moved to Fountain County,
+Indiana, so uncle Joshua came through Indiana to see us.
+
+Joshua Bailey had gone to California in 1849, across the plains and had
+made over one hundred thousand dollars in gold. He hired my
+brother-in-law, William Reighley, to come out with him from Adams
+County, Ohio, to Indiana, to buy stock to take across the plains to
+California. My uncle had bought a span of mules in Ohio. Three of my
+cousins, William McNeal, Joel Bailey, George Bailey, and a man by the
+name of Bart Robins, brought the mules and some harness through to
+Indiana, so William Reighley, uncle Joshua and my cousins, were all
+together at my father's. My brother, Crawford Bailey, and my self,
+concluded to go along with them.
+
+Uncle Joshua Bailey had gone to the lead mines when he was a young man,
+had married and raised his family there. It was from there he had gone
+to the gold mines. I was twenty-one year old at the time of uncle's
+visit to our house in Indiana, and it was the first time I had ever seen
+him.
+
+My uncle poured out a pile of gold coins from a carpet sachel that was
+lined inside with buck skin and counted out several thousand dollars,
+enough to buy 250 head of cattle, 1,500 head of sheep and some horses
+and gave it to William Reighley, to go to Illinois to buy this stock and
+it did not look like you could hardly miss it out of the pile of gold
+coins on the table. He gave him more money than would be necessary to
+buy the stock and my brother, Crawford Bailey and cousin, William McNeal
+were to take what was left and pay the expense of feeding the stock and
+their lodging through to Indian Territory, where we were to start across
+the plains, and what was left, turn it over to uncle.
+
+Wm. Reighley, for his labor buying the cattle and covering his expenses,
+kept out $50. He had traveled over 800 miles in coming to Illinois and
+traveling over Piatt, Macon, DeWitt, Logan, Tazwell and Peoria counties,
+picking up the stock. When the stock was finally delivered to uncle
+Joshua, he was well pleased with the judgment William used in the
+buying.
+
+After uncle had made arrangements for the purchase of the stock, he went
+back to Wisconsin to his family and made preparations to move to
+California to make his home. After William Reighley had bought the stock
+in Illinois, he went with the boys as far as the Illinois River and then
+returned to Ohio. While the stock was being bought, I, with two other
+young men, were making preparations to go and overtake them. We had
+rented some land and had to dispose of that and sell some grain and some
+horses before starting.
+
+We were to meet the advance party at Independence, Mo., but when we were
+ready to start, heavy rains had set in and we were much delayed by
+swollen streams. At many places we had to swim our horses as there were
+but few bridges. We had to go out of the way ten miles at Danville, in
+order to get across the Vermillion River. When we got to Peoria, we
+learned that the roads were so bad that we took passage on a steam boat
+down the Illinois River to St. Louis. There we took passage up the
+Missouri River to Independence, Mo., where we expected to find the men
+with the stock.
+
+After reaching Independence and waiting several days, we were not able
+to hear anything of uncle or of the drove which he was driving through
+from Wisconsin. We learned that there were other places from which the
+overland trains started for the West. One was St. Joe, about eighty
+miles up the river, and two of my party went to St. Joe, while I
+remained at Independence. By watching at St. Joe and Independence, we
+expected to meet the train as we knew that we must be ahead of them. The
+men at St. Joe happened to run across uncle, who had been in St. Louis
+to buy supplies for the trip. They wrote me and I left for St. Joe.
+
+We told uncle that he had instructed the men who were driving stock
+through from Illinois, to go to Independence, but he did not understand
+it that way. He had instructed his family and the men who were bringing
+the stock from Wisconsin, to go to Cainsville, Iowa, which was
+twenty-five miles above Council Bluffs on the Missouri River, and about
+150 miles from St. Joe. Uncle bought a yoke of oxen and a wagon at St.
+Joe and he and I started for Cainsville.
+
+After we were in Cainsville for several days, the family and party, with
+the horses, wagons and cattle, came from Wisconsin. In the party, were
+Peter House, his brother-in-law and family, William Nailer, Thomas
+Roberts, John Feril, Allen Gilber, Horace Failling, Thomas Brooks, John
+Brooks and James Creek.
+
+We remained there for two or three weeks, hoping to hear from the drove
+from Illinois. Uncle finally came to the conclusion that he had told
+them to go to Independence, Mo., and he sent Jobe Spray to St. Joe to
+see if he could find trace of them. He was given money to buy a horse
+and saddle, and in case they had crossed the river at St. Joe, he was to
+follow and overtake them, in order to get the two parties together. When
+he reached St. Joe, he found that they had crossed there and later
+learned that when crossing the Missouri, that they had stopped to shear
+the sheep, and on finding that Independence was south of the direct
+line, they had made directly for St. Joe and had crossed the river
+before Jobe had arrived. On account of the misunderstanding, uncle, with
+his party, was above Council Bluff on the east side of the Missouri, and
+the Illinois party was somewhere on the west side of the river in what
+is now Kansas.
+
+I was with the party at Cainsville, when an incident happened which I
+never will forget. We were waiting for word from Jobe Spray, and uncle
+and all the party except one other man and myself had left the camp and
+gone to Cainsville. We were left to herd the cattle. While in the town,
+uncle met a man who owned a farm near the camp. They rode out as far as
+the camp together, and as uncle's horse was a little thin, having been
+ridden through from Wisconsin, and the farm was but a short distance
+away, he picketed out the horse, took off the saddle and threw it away
+far enough so that the horse could not reach it. He proceeded on foot to
+the man's farm.
+
+From where I was herding, I could see the horse and went down, thinking
+that some of the party had come back from Cainsville, and that I would
+be able to get something to eat as I was very hungry. When I got to the
+camp, I saw that it was uncle's horse, but could not see anything of
+uncle. I started back to the cattle when I discovered the saddle in the
+grass with a two-bushel sack tied to the horn of the saddle. I was
+interested to know what was in the sack, thinking it might be crackers,
+so I gave the sack a kick with the toe of my boot. There was a jingling
+sound as if there were ox shoes and nails in it. So to satisfy my
+curiosity, I untied the sack from the saddle, ran my hand into it and
+took out, to my great surprise, a handful of gold. Tying up the sack, I
+looked in all directions for uncle, but could not see him. I called out
+for him as loud as I could, three or four time, but received no answer.
+
+After waiting for quite awhile, I took the sack and hid it under some
+clothing and bedding in the bottom of one of the covered wagons. I then
+went to a high point near the cattle where I could watch both, the
+cattle and the wagon.
+
+Along in the afternoon, the folks returned from Cainsville, and my mind
+was relieved, as I knew there was no further danger of prowlers. My
+helper and myself, gathered up the stock, and when we got into camp,
+it was dark and I was hungrier than I had ever been before in my life.
+
+"Come to supper," was a welcome shout and the thought of the gold had
+vanished. While eating, I heard uncle call out to some of the men:
+
+"Did you see anything of a sack on my saddle horn?"
+
+Several of the men answered, "No," before I could get my mouth emptied
+and when my vocal canal was free from congestion, I holloed,
+
+"I saw a sack on the horn of your saddle," and he answered back,
+
+"All right Wash," and I told him to wait until I had my supper and I
+would be over and get it for him.
+
+I went to the camp fire where the men were huddled and asked uncle where
+he had been and he said that he had walked to the farm across the
+fields. I asked him how much was in the sack and replied, "Thirty-six
+thousand Dollars."
+
+I went to the wagon and got the sack. Uncle was badly scared and
+remarked that it was the most careless trick that he had ever done.
+There were some Mormons camped a short distance away and he said that if
+they had found the sack, that he would have been ruined.
+
+While waiting at Cainsville, we finally received word from Jobe Spray
+that the Illinois party had crossed the river at St. Joe and had
+proceeded on west and that he would follow them, they having crossed the
+river two weeks before he got there. He had followed day and night and
+overtaken them about half way between St. Joe and Fort Kearney, which
+would be about 150 miles from St. Joe. After receiving the letter, we
+began to make arrangements to cross the Missouri River. The steam ferry
+boat had gone up the river after furs, so we had no way to get our stock
+and wagons across.
+
+While waiting, a fur boat came down the river with three men. This boat
+was strictly a home made affair. It was built of rough sawed lumber and
+the bottom and sides were nailed onto the frame with several thicknesses
+of boards and caulked up with buffalo tallow to keep it from leaking too
+badly. We secured this boat to get us across.
+
+The process of getting that old boat across the river was a difficult
+one and as it only could take sixteen cattle at a time, many trips had
+to be made. A round trip across the river, meant much labor, and was as
+follows:
+
+After the cargo was put in the boat, it had to be hauled by ropes and
+pushed by pike poles up the river along the bank, until we were above an
+island which was in the middle of the river. Then we would cast off from
+the shore and by means of the oars, pulled for the opposite shore. The
+current, however, would take the boat in a diagonal direction so we
+would strike the lower end of the island. Then we would pull and push
+the old ark to the upper end of the island and again cast loose and
+finally reach the shore at a point much lower, being carried along with
+the current. In order to get back, we would drag the boat along the west
+shore to above the island again and cast off, reaching the lower end of
+the island. Dragging the boat along the shore to the upper end of the
+island and crossing, finally reach the east side below the camp. After
+two weeks of hard work, we managed to ferry all the stock and camp
+outfit across without serious accident.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ON THE WESTERN PLAINS--SOME OF OUR EXPERIENCES
+
+
+When we reached the other side, we were in Indian territory, or what is
+now known as Nebraska, and a short distance north from where Omaha now
+is. At this place, uncle Joshua impressed on our minds the danger of an
+attack by the Indians and told us to make plenty of bullets and have our
+guns well loaded to protect ourselves. Up to this time, I had seen only
+two Indians. One of them was a squaw named Gripteth, on this side of the
+Wabash River in Warren County, Indiana. The other one I came upon lying
+in the grass south of Cainsville, wrapped up in a red blanket. The way
+uncle talked I thought that we would have to fight our way through. The
+imagination pictured out every bunch of grass or object in the distance
+as Indians, but coming closer, we found that we were always
+unnecessarily alarmed. The scare over meeting Indians gradually wore
+off, and when we came to the Indians, or rather, when they came to us, I
+was not as afraid of them as I was of the wolves.
+
+We followed the Indian trail until we came to the Elkhorn River and
+there we crossed on a willow brush bridge. These bridges lay flat on the
+water and I did not find out how they were fastened to the banks. Before
+we reached California, we had crossed over several of them.
+
+We kept a southwest course, following the trail and reached the Platte
+River, which we followed on the north side. We had traveled about 200
+miles in Nebraska. We heard cannons firing and we knew that we were near
+Fort Kearney and that they were celebrating the Fourth of July.
+
+Uncle Joshua, on a fine bay blooded mare which he had brought from
+Wisconsin, forded the river after a life and death struggle with the
+treacherous quick sands along the banks, and managed, by wading and
+swimming the horse, to get across the river.
+
+After arriving on the opposite bank, he waved his hat in token of his
+success and started for the fort. He carried with him a seven shot Colts
+rifle and a five caliber Colts revolver. When uncle reached Fort
+Kearney, as we afterwards learned, he found that the Illinois train had
+passed through there two weeks before. Uncle took up the trail and after
+following for ten days, he overtook them on the south side of the North
+Platte, a short distance on this side of Fort Laramie near the
+Wyoming-Nebraska line, at a place called Ash Hollow. The river was
+forded and the cattle, sheep and horses were now on the right bank of
+the river.
+
+The night after uncle had left the camp, we were camped near the river
+on some ground which was level and smooth. Aunt and her two children,
+Henry and Ellen, were with her in one of the tents. During the night
+there was a heavy rain or water spout. I was lying on the ground with my
+boots and coat under my head, and I was awakened by the water which had
+partly covered my body. I heard aunt crying and calling: "Where is
+Henry? I can't find Henry."
+
+I started to go to her and got into deeper water and realized the water
+was raising very fast. I reached aunt, who was holding the little girl
+in her arms and she was hysterical about the boy. I heard a splash and
+following the direction of the sound in the darkness, I got my hand on
+his head and lifted him out of the water. I took aunt and the children
+to a covered wagon, where we stayed until morning. The water had raised
+until it was two and one-half feet deep, when it began to go down and by
+morning it was all gone. We were not able to understand where so much
+water came from so quickly or where it had gone, as the river was about
+a mile from the camp.
+
+We broke camp and trailed on westward on the north side of the river,
+and after several days, we met uncle, who was returning from overtaking
+the Illinois train. He had halted them at Ash Hollow, near Fort Laramie.
+We finally reached their camp and for the first time after about a
+thousand miles' travel, the two trains were united.
+
+It will be remembered that the junction place was to be Independence,
+Missouri, but the meeting place turned out to be in the borders of
+Wyoming. The two herds made 1500 sheep and 500 cattle and we were on the
+borders of the rough and tumble freaks of nature near the foot hills of
+the great Rockies.
+
+After we had passed Fort Kearney in the month of July, we saw great
+herds of Buffalo going north. At times as we looked across the Platte
+River, we could see countless numbers of them and the earth would be
+black with them for miles. The droves would travel in "V" shape, with
+the leaders at the point. When a drove would cross the river toward us,
+it was necessary to use the utmost care in order that our cattle would
+not stampede. We would herd our cattle up close and get out with our
+guns and by shooting and holloing, we were able to turn the buffalo in a
+direction away from our cattle.
+
+We came to high grounds, once, where there was excellent grazing and we
+stopped there for the day, to let the cattle and stock take advantage of
+the good grass. While we were eating our dinner, two Indians came riding
+up, with two of the finest spotted ponies I had ever seen. They got off
+and were holding them with a sort of a lariat, as they had no bridles,
+when Bart Robins, one of the men with us, made the Indians understand by
+signs, that he wanted to ride one of the ponies.
+
+He mounted one of them and rode away to round some of the cattle which
+were straying. When Bart first started off, they did not care, but when
+they saw him circle away from the main herd, they evidently thought that
+he was running away with it, and one of them jumped on the other pony,
+fixed an arrow to his bow and started in pursuit. By yelling as loud as
+we could, we attracted the attention of Bart and motioned for him to
+circle back to camp. By keeping a circle, he kept out of shooting
+distance of the bow, and arrived in camp safe, but somewhat frightened
+over his experience. The Indians got on their ponies and left.
+
+Two or three days after this incident, a chief and about twenty of his
+tribe, came to us and after a pow-wow, they sat down in a row and uncle
+understanding the maneuver, had as many of the men sit down facing them,
+as there were Indians. The chief lit his tomahock pipe, took a puff,
+passed it to uncle, who did the same. The order pursued, was that the
+chief would hand it to one of the Indians; the pipe would be returned to
+him, and he would hand it to uncle, who would give it to one of the men,
+who would return it to uncle, and uncle would give it back to the chief.
+The order was maintained until all the men and Indians had a puff at the
+pipe. When the program was over, the chief arose and said, "How!" and he
+and the Indians took their departure. This was the "pipe of peace" and
+meant that they would do us no harm, and we were not to harm them.
+Evidently this visit was to clear up the misunderstanding concerning the
+pony incident.
+
+A rule had been made and understood by the men that there was to be no
+quarreling or fighting in the camp. It is unfortunate in camp life,
+especially on a trail far west, to have enmity in the camp. Tom Brooks,
+who was one of the cooks, was a crabbed fellow. James Greek was an
+orphan boy, who had made his home with uncle for several years, and who
+one day killed a big buffalo.
+
+In order to preserve the meat, it was put through a process of jerking,
+which was to cut it into strips to be dried by the sun or by heating. We
+had made a scaffold by putting forked sticks in the ground and by laying
+sticks across in them, had made a platform about the fire. After the
+fire became a bed of charcoal, the meat was laid on the cross sticks to
+roast and dry.
+
+James, who was a good natured chap of eighteen years of age, and having
+killed the buffalo, helped himself to a piece of the meat. Tom Brooks
+ordered him to put the meat back, which he refused to do, Tom jumping
+onto him and beat him, until his face was black with the beating. The
+sympathy of the camp was with Jim and Tom lost the respect of the camp
+by his bullying disposition. Uncle was restrained from taking a hand in
+the matter, as he could not afford to lose any of his helpers.
+
+One day when uncle and aunt rode ahead to pick out a camping place, he
+had instructed us to drive the cattle to the left side of the trail as
+we were nearing alkali water, which was unfit for the stock to drink. He
+had given us wrong instructions, for instead of driving them away from
+the danger, we drove them to where they drank the injurious water. As a
+result, we lost, with what we had killed for beef, about 250 head of
+cattle. If the sheep drank any of the water, they were not affected.
+
+In the herd of cattle we had left, were forty or fifty milk cows, some
+of them fresh and we had plenty of milk. The boys all milked except Wm.
+Nailor, who could not, but had made arrangements with the other boys to
+take his place and he would do some of their work in exchange.
+
+One day, Nailor, who was in the rear of the train, came in late for
+dinner. It was customary for every one to have a cup of milk for dinner,
+and he held out his cup to Tom, the cook, for his milk. Tom, after the
+others had eaten, poured the milk out on the ground and said to Nailor,
+"No man who wont milk, can drink milk."
+
+Nailor replied that he had made arrangement for others to milk in his
+place and that it was none of Tom's business. Angry words followed and
+Tom took a run at Nailor, butting him in the stomach. Nailor was knocked
+down, and in falling, his head struck the wheel of a wagon, cutting a
+gash in his scalp. This ended the fight and Tom, after this, was meaner
+than ever, as he had whipped Nailor, who had some reputation as a
+fighter.
+
+It has been over sixty years since these events took place, but I
+distinctly remember another of the mean tricks of the cook. Tom had a
+way of cutting out of a side of bacon, the best part, leaving the
+balance for the family. My aunt spoke to him about it and with an oath,
+he told my aunt to attend to her own business. Such insolence was
+endured for the time being, but later Tom paid the penalty, the story of
+which will be told later.
+
+I remember at one place where we camped late at night, that when we
+awoke the next morning, we discovered two graves side by side. Near the
+graves was an endgate of a wagon on which was cut with a knife, the
+words, "Do not camp here."
+
+Evidently it was a dangerous place to camp on account of the Indians and
+the graves were mute testimony of that fact. The graves were lined with
+large rocks or bowlders, and over the top there were also rocks to
+protect the bodies from wolves. However, the wolves had dug down on one
+side deeper than the graves and dislodged some of the rocks and got the
+bodies. Some of the human bones were on the ground where the wolves left
+them after picking off the flesh.
+
+We followed the headwaters of the North Platte, which flowed to the
+east, and leaving this river, we soon arrived at the headwaters of the
+Sweet River, whose waters flow westward into the Green River and on
+through the Columbia River to the Pacific. If you will take your atlas
+and find Fort Laramie on the Platte River, and follow it until you come
+to Casper, and then skirt the Rattlesnake hills on the north, you will
+reach the Sweet Water River near what is now called Independence Rock
+and Slit Rock.
+
+The Sweet River Mountains will be on your south and the Wind Mountains
+on the north, as you cross between, through South Pass along the banks
+of the beautiful river Sweet Water. We saw the Chimney Rock which stood
+out by itself like a chimney after the house had burned. I think that it
+must be what is now called Independence Rock, which name is very
+appropriate. Also there was the Court House Rock, called that because of
+the rooms in it as if someone had cut rooms into the soft rock. There
+was the Devil's Gate, which was a massive ridge of rock, through which
+the river, some time in the dim past, had apparently drilled, and
+through the ages, disposed of the rock above, until a deep and
+straight-faced canyon greeted the "Path Finder" of other centuries.
+
+We camped here for a day and others of the camp discovered a beautiful
+pool of water jutting out from the river. The water was clear as crystal
+and we could see in the water the most beautiful fish that I had ever
+seen. They were spotted or speckled and all about the same size--about
+twenty inches long. They were the speckled trout so much prized by the
+anglers of today.
+
+We took one of uncle's wagon covers, tied a log chain to one side along
+the edge; tied a rope on the other side; got some tent poles and tied
+them to the end of the cover. We were going to seine this pool of water,
+when uncle came down to where we were and wanted to know what we were
+doing. We told him that we were going to seine the pool and catch some
+of those fine fish.
+
+He said, "You can't catch fish with a wagon cover. You will only tear my
+cover to pieces and catch no fish. I don't want my cover torn up. I will
+need it."
+
+We told him we would not hurt his wagon cover, but he forbade us using
+it. We told him that we had it fixed and we were going to make one haul
+any how, and show him we could catch fish with a wagon cover. Uncle got
+out of humor, but we did that once as we pleased. We went in with our
+seine at the upper end of the pool and dragged down to the lower end,
+where there was a nice gravel riffle, a nice place to pull out on the
+side. We boys had seined with uncle John's wagon cover in Elkrun in
+Ohio, and we understood the business. In the first haul, we had a lot of
+the finest kind of fish and uncle's wagon cover was not damaged.
+
+Uncle was so surprised to see such a lot at one drag, that he told the
+men to unyoke the oxen, and that they could dress and fry fish the rest
+of the day. We caught all the fish they all wanted and as many as they
+wanted to take along.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AMONG THE FOOT HILLS AND TROUBLESOME INDIANS
+
+
+If you will take your atlas, and look on the map of Wyoming, at the base
+of the Wind Mountains, the most rugged group of the Rockies, you will
+find South Pass, with the headwaters of the Sweetwater River, cutting a
+canyon through it. Going westward from this point and following the
+Sweetwater River, we came to the headwater, which was called Atlantic
+Springs. A few hundred yards beyond, we came to the Pacific Springs.
+This small strip of land is the water shed or dividing point between the
+two oceans. The water which bubbles up from the Atlantic Springs, races
+eastward through the rocky canyon of the Sweetwater and to the Platte
+and from the Platte to the Missouri, thence the Mississippi, uniting
+with the waters of the Ohio, Illinois, Tennesse and Cumberland, the
+Monongahela, of the Allegheny Mountains, finally reaching Gulf of Mexico
+and the Atlantic Ocean.
+
+But should you follow the course of the sparkling water that gushes from
+the Pacific Springs, you would course along the Big Sandy to the Green
+River, which cuts its way through the sand and rocks of that rough and
+tumble country of northern Utah and northwestern Colorado. Launch your
+boat on the turbulent waters and drift, if you were not capsized, in
+southern Utah, you would come to Colorado River and then soon in the
+shadows of the most wonderful canyons which scar Mother Earth, the
+Cataract, Marble and Grand Canyons, of world renown. These livid
+seething waters find rest in the bosom of the great Pacific.
+
+We trailed westward across the Pacific Springs on the Bear River which
+flowed south to Bear Lake in the northern part of Utah. We were on what
+was called Fremont and Carson route. This lead southwest to Salt Lake
+City. When north of Salt Lake City, we came to what was called the
+Truckey route. This route left Salt Lake City to our left. We were
+behind all the other trains and it had been reported that the Mormons
+had killed a whole train of men, women and children, for plunder and had
+laid it onto the Indians. Old Brigham Young had sent what he called his
+"Destroying Angels" and had murdered all of them and took all the stock
+and wagons. We decided to take the Truckey route and keep away from
+Brigham Young and his "destroying angels."
+
+Perhaps one of the most interesting things I saw while traveling through
+the Bear River country in southern Utah, was a lava bed, about fifty or
+sixty feet high and I judge about two hundred feet wide at the base. At
+the crest, the lava was bubbling out as clear as water and running down
+the side of the mound, it would cool and turn into rock, forming a rocky
+mound. I saw three such mounds of lava or rock, which had been formed
+this way. The soil in the Bear River bottom was rich, black soil, and I
+thought what a pity it was that it should be covered with these mounds
+of lava.
+
+There was a grave at the foot of this mound with a head board, on which
+we were informed that the deceased had drunk of the lava water and had
+died in a few minutes and that the water was poison.
+
+We came across what was called Soda Springs and the water was as fine as
+any I had ever drank, and it came out of the ground foaming, a veritable
+natural soda water fountain. We also saw the Steam Boat Springs, which
+gushed from a hole in the basin of rock. The water was boiling hot and
+it bubbled and sizzled like boiling water on a stove. It would boil for
+a short time and then the steam would shoot up about fifteen feet high.
+Below this spring and near the river, was a strip of rocks about twenty
+feet wide, that seemed to be in motion with heat. The water in the river
+was so hot we could not hold our hands in it for two or three rods along
+the banks.
+
+Down the river and off to one side, we came to Bear Rock. This rock was
+cut up with great crevices and if a man or beast had fallen into one of
+them, they would have disappeared from view in the bowels of the earth.
+I threw a rock into one of them and heard it rattling down into the
+depths until the sound gradually died away in what appeared to be
+bottomless. This serrated rock appeared to be about three miles across
+and it was the most dangerous place we had encountered. It had to be
+crossed as it was the path of the trail. A road had been made by wedging
+rock in the crevices and by means of picks, the way had been smoothed
+down so we were able to get across without serious accident.
+
+While near Bear River, James Bailey and John Ferril were driving a cow
+whose feet were so worn that she could not keep up with the rest of the
+drove. The boys would drive her along slowly and arrive late in the
+evening at the camp. She was a big red cow and uncle hated to lose her,
+but one evening she laid down and the boys could not whip her up and
+they had to come to camp without her. The next morning uncle sent Jim
+and I after her. As we came in sight of her, an awful sight came to our
+view. A pack of wolves were around her, snarling and gnashing on all
+sides. The cow was making a desperate struggle to keep off the ravenous
+wolves. When we saw the condition, we rode as fast as we could and the
+wolves took to the tall grass. We found the hind quarter of the cow
+bleeding and in some places the flesh was stripped off to the bone.
+There was nothing to do but to put her out of her misery, which I did
+with a shot from my gun.
+
+Jim held my horse and I went near enough to the grass to shoot at them
+as they ventured out of the grass. I could not tell whether I killed
+any of them or not as they would leap back in the grass. I had in mind
+to go nearer to the grass to see the result of my shots, when Jim called
+to me and said, "Wash, come quick. Get on your horse, the grass is alive
+with them."
+
+When I got on my horse, I could see on both sides of the trail the grass
+all in motion with the cat like movements of the wolves. We could not
+see them, but the waving grass showed that it was full of them. We put
+spurs to our horses and when we got to a safe distance, we stopped and
+looked back. The wolves had come out of the grass and were pilled upon
+the cow, resembling a small hay stack.
+
+One day soon after this, when we had made a noon stop, an Indian chief,
+who could talk our language, told us that his men, while hunting, had
+found a white man who was nearly starved to death, and that he had
+carried him to his lodge. Uncle and some more of the men went with him
+to see if he was strong enough to be taken along. They found him too
+weak to be moved. After a council between uncle and the chief, it was
+decided to leave him there and the chief promised to look after him and
+when he was strong enough, that he would put him on a pony and send him
+to Salt Lake City. I believe the man was left in good hands and that the
+chief was a man of his word.
+
+We were now coming to the desert country of Nevada and our cattle had
+been without water for a day, when we came to what is known as Poison
+Water. To get across this little stream, we put the cattle in bunches of
+twelve and whipped them across, not letting them stop to drink. We got
+all of our stock across without being poisoned. After we got across, on
+the side of the hill, we saw the awful effects of the poison water, as
+there were hundreds of dead cattle and rods at a time, we could step on
+dead cattle without stepping on the ground.
+
+After we got back on the Freemont and Carson route and were making for
+the headwaters of the Humbolt River, we found some fair grass land for
+the stock. We followed the Humbolt River for many miles until we came to
+the Humbolt Sink. At first it was as smooth as a rock for some distance,
+but later we dropped off into sand and it was the worst travelling I
+ever saw. The sand was so light and fine, that one foot would go down
+until I would set the other foot on top of the sand and pull that foot
+out, before I could step one foot ahead of the other. It was about the
+same sort of motion and as slow as treading water. We were three days
+and nights crossing that desert.
+
+After getting across this desert stretch, we came to the banks of the
+Carson River, which we were to follow for many miles to the borders of
+California. When we reached Carson River, we came to a trader's pound,
+constructed of wagon tires and log chains. It was about the size of an
+ordinary city lot. There were tires lengthwise and crosswise, hind wheel
+tires, front wheel tires and log chains, bound together in all kinds of
+shapes. There were tons of steel in that fence. We came across another
+pound on the Carson River, near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, built of
+logs. The logs were 100 feet or over in length and had notches cut in
+them. These logs were placed in two rows and were crossed by small logs
+resting in the notches. It was built high enough so that stock could not
+jump over.
+
+One night when we were afraid the Indians would come in on us, a double
+guard was put on duty. Four men stood guard in the fore part of the
+night and four in the after part. The eight men to do duty were all the
+men in my mess. Uncle said that the bacon was getting low and that he
+wanted some one of our mess, to get up early and help kill a beef. I
+told him to have some of the men in the other mess to help, as we would
+be on guard duty all night. Uncle said, "All right."
+
+The men of my mess had killed all the beeves and mutton up to that time.
+We did not care, nor did we think much about it, as one of our men was
+a butcher. The next morning uncle called for some one to get up and help
+him kill a beef. He called the second and third time, and no one got up
+and he said, "If no one will get up and help, you will do without meat."
+
+Two of the men in my mess said, "If the other fellows will not help, we
+will."
+
+I did not help as I was willing to do without meat rather than help
+after being on guard about all night. When I got up, I went over to the
+other camp to see what was the matter and why they would not help to
+kill the beef. They had all gone to look after the stock except John and
+Tom Brooks. Tom, the cook, did not have to help with the other work. I
+asked, "John, why did not you fellows get up this morning and help
+uncle?"
+
+He looked at me, wrinkled up his face, swore and said as hateful as he
+could, "You will be a good deal prettier than you are, before I will
+help kill a beef."
+
+"Johnny," I replied, "If you don't propose to do your part, you might
+get a dose you would not like so well."
+
+I thought I would go back to my camp and say nothing more about it. I
+started off and had gone about a rod, when John said, "Now you go off to
+your own camp, or I will put Tom at you."
+
+I turned around and looked at him and remarked, "You low lived
+insignificant scoundrel, you will put Tom at me?"
+
+"Yes, and if you don't go to your own home, I will get at you," Tom cut
+in.
+
+"You big necked, nigerfied, curly-headed villian, you will get at me?" I
+replied.
+
+At that he came running toward me and as he came near, he ducked his
+head to butt me in the stomach. When I saw that, I ran backwards a
+little to kill the shock and I reached down and caught him in the cheek,
+gave him a jerk, and he fell on his back. He fell near the hind wheel of
+a wagon. He pulled himself up by holding to the wheel and I got him by
+the throat and pushed him back between the wheel and the bed, and beat
+his face and head like he did poor Jim Greek and gave him some for
+Nailor and some for abusing aunt, and some for jumping on to me. When I
+got through, he had a plenty and the great fighter was badly whipped and
+he had not given me a scratch.
+
+This was the first fight I had ever had and I found out afterwards that
+he had told the boys, that if any of his mess helped kill the beef, they
+would have had him to whip first. Aunt saw the commotion and called for
+me to come to their camp fire and get my breakfast. She said, "I am
+going to give you the best breakfast you ever had on the plains, for
+whipping that low lived, good for nothing, Tom Brooks."
+
+I ate breakfast with aunt--was the best meal on the plains and the only
+time I had eaten with her. Tom Brooks behaved after that.
+
+One morning we missed a cow out of the herd. Several of us went to find
+her. We hunted for quite a while and finally all came back to camp with
+the exception of my brother, Crawford Bailey and Wint Crumley. There was
+a willow thicket along the river and they got out of sight of us. They
+had found the trail of the cow and followed it. The camp had moved on
+down the trail while George Bailey had taken his gun and went on foot to
+kill an antelope. While hunting on the side of the trail, he was
+surprised to see Crawford and Wint running their horses around a bend in
+the river. He made for the trail just in time to catch one of the horses
+by the tail and by that means, kept up with the fleeing men. The Indians
+who were after them, tried to cut them off, but when they came in sight
+of the camp, they gave up the chase and disappeared. The two boys had
+followed the track of the cow into a willow thicket and they came across
+the Indians with a cow's hide stretched across poles, scrapping it ready
+for tanning. The Indians saw them and gave chase, but the fleetness of
+the horses and George's lucky hold on the tail of the horse, saved
+their scalps.
+
+A few nights after this incident, we had to drive late to get to where
+there was a good place to camp. It was dusk when we camped. We had to
+turn off to the right of the main trail and the river bent off to the
+north and I think it was a quarter of a mile from the main trail to
+where we camped. We had built our fires and were just ready to commence
+getting supper, when we heard the Indians begin holloing, "Show shony,
+show shony, humbugen, humbugen oss cawaw cawaw, cawowaw cawowaw cawowaw
+cawaw cawaw."
+
+The first time they holloed this, uncle Joshua Bailey said, "There! We
+are going to be attacked. That is the war whoop. Put out the fires and
+corral the wagons."
+
+The wagons were placed in a circle, running the tongues under each other
+so we could get inside and protect ourselves from their arrows as much
+as possible. When we got that done, which was in short order, he said,
+"All hands load your guns and your revolvers and have your knives
+ready."
+
+We had been so long on the road that everybody had become careless. Some
+of the guns had not been used for a long time and were rusty and others
+had no bullets. Some had to prepare their guns, while others tried to
+run bullets. We had what we called ladles to melt lead in. They were
+made of wooden pieces split out of oak or some other kind of hard
+timber, four square, with one end hewed round for the handle, the other
+end, that is, the square end, had a hole cut down in with the corner of
+the ax. We would put lead in this ladle and put coals of fire in on the
+lead and blow the coals with our breath, and which would not make much
+light.
+
+Joel Bailey, my cousin, had run off from home when a small boy, got on a
+steam boat at Ripley, Ohio, worked his passage as dish washer, and had
+gone to Wisconsin, where my three uncles were. While there, Joel got
+acquainted with the Indians and their ways more than I did, but I had
+got pretty well acquainted by this time myself.
+
+Aunt Susan Bailey was crying and talking to uncle and saying, "O,
+Bailey, why did you bring us all out here to be killed by the Indians."
+
+"We had treaties and I did not think they would bother us," replied
+uncle.
+
+Bellry Bailey, their eldest daughter, was of age, and Rachel Ann, the
+next daughter, was nearly of age, together with Aunt Susan and the rest
+of the little boys and girls of the camp were crying, and there in the
+utter darkness, it was hard to tell who were or were not crying.
+
+Joel Bailey, I knew, was a coward when he was sober, but when under the
+influence of liquor, he was not afraid of anything. All at once he
+holloed out, "If any other man will go with me, we will go out and see
+what those fellows want."
+
+I thought he was doing it for bluff, so I said, "I'll go with you."
+
+"Well, go and equip yourself," answered Joel.
+
+I replied, "What kind of equipment do you want me to have, a double
+barreled rifle, shotgun and a Colts revolver and a bowie-knife?"
+
+We had some of the guns in order, having been used for hunting purposes
+and Joel and I knew it, but someone handed me a Colts revolver, for they
+knew I had only a single barreled pistol; another a combination gun,
+which had a rifle barrel and shot gun barrel on the same stock. Joel was
+equipped by the time I was. The Indians commenced holloing again, up the
+river behind us, where we had come just before camping. They would come
+down closer and then stop and hollo the same words. I will never forget
+them while I live.
+
+We started out and the men began to beg us not to go, for they thought
+we would be killed. I informed them that I had promised to go and that
+I was going to go if Joel did not back out. The Indians by this time had
+located our camp and were holloing again. Uncle Joshua came outside the
+wagons, got one foot on the hub of the hind wheel, held to the bow of
+the wagon cover, and plead for us to come back and all fight and die
+together. Joel turned and told him with an oath, that if he didn't hush,
+he would shoot him, so uncle said no more. It was an awful dark night
+and one could not tell one another at all, only by bulk and that not
+more than a few feet from each other. We walked straight as we could
+toward the sound of the Indians' voices. We got out of the sound of the
+crying and lamenting at the camp and Joel said, "Wash, I want to tell
+you something. I have been drinking wine and my head is not exactly
+level and I will have to depend on you to do the guessing for me."
+
+Later we heard voices and Joel whispered, "There are the chiefs giving
+the command and if we can get them, we can save the train, that is if we
+can get them before you hear the screech raise in the camp. But if you
+hear the screech raise in the camp before we get the chiefs, we will
+have to give leg bail for security, for we are all the ones that will
+get out alive."
+
+"Where did you get your wine," I asked.
+
+"In that wagon I am driving," said Joel. "Uncle Josh has a keg of wine
+in that wagon and if we can get those chiefs, you shall have wine to
+drink as long as that keg lasts."
+
+I did not know there had been a bit of liquor of any kind in the train
+for over two thousand miles and I was puzzled to know what to do with a
+man under the influence of wine, whether to go back to camp or go on and
+try to take the chiefs. But I concluded to go ahead and try it, for Joel
+had said that the Indians would do nothing without their chiefs first
+giving the command.
+
+The chiefs kept going on west and north, circling around our camp. Every
+time they would hollo, giving commands to their tribe, we would have to
+change our course and go more to our right in order to follow their
+voices, for that was all we had to go by, for a man could not see six
+feet to tell where they were. The chiefs got straight west of us down
+the river below our camp. I think fully a mile from our camp, and we
+could hear over a mile on a still night.
+
+The chiefs stopped and remained in one place and holloed the same "Show
+shoney humbugen oss humbugen oss cawaw cawaw cawowaw cawowaw cawaw
+cawaw." I could tell by the sound of their voices, after I got pretty
+close to them, that they laid down every time they holloed. Joel had
+told me that when close enough and thought I could guess the distance,
+we must count our steps and walk right straight to the sound of their
+voices. When we had stepped to where I thought they were, for me to stop
+and he would hollo as loud as he could, "howdy doo."
+
+"They can't keep their mouth shut and they will say 'howdy doo' too,
+then you show one of them how you do and I will show the other one how I
+do. Take him or die. Kill him if you have to take him dead, and I will
+take the other one or I'll die."
+
+We stationed ourselves to where their voices sounded close to us, and
+when they holloed again, I whispered to Joel, "About fifty steps, Joel,
+for your life."
+
+I don't believe I missed it two feet. Joel's head was level enough to
+count his steps right, for we both stopped at once. As we went along,
+Joel bore over toward me. I was taller than he. I kept holding him over
+to the left, for I thought he was trying to go too far to the right for
+the sound of their voices. When we got to where they were laying in the
+grass, they were several feet apart. We were between them.
+
+"How do you do?" holloed Joel.
+
+"Howdy doo," said the Indian at my right.
+
+Joel jumped across in front of me, right onto the Indian, and said with
+a big word, "I'll show you how I do."
+
+As Joel passed in front of me, I looked quickly over to my left, for the
+voice I had been listening to. It sounded more to the left, when I saw
+something in the dark. I thought it might be the other Indian's head. I
+jumped toward it. When I lit, I could see the object more plainly and I
+made the second jump as far as I could and grabbed with my left hand. My
+fingers struck his head under the plat of his hair. He pulled and
+twisted, thrust his feet forward and threw his weight on my arm, but I
+jammed him up by the hair and told him if he made a move to hurt me, I
+would cut his heart out.
+
+"O, Wash!" called Joel, "Have you got your'n?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "I've got him by the hair of his head, with my left
+hand behind his back, and my bowie-knife drawn on him, and if he makes a
+move to hurt me, I'll cut his heart out. Have you got yours?"
+
+"I've got him in the same fix," was the reply.
+
+As we talked, we were pushing toward each other, until I could see Joel
+and his Indian. I told Joel not to get too close, so that if they go to
+do anything, we wouldn't hurt each other.
+
+When we neared the camp, uncle Joshua holloed, "Boys, have you got 'em?"
+
+"Yes, we've got 'em," said Joel.
+
+Uncle evidently did not hear and he yelled, "O, Wash, have you got 'em?"
+
+"Yes," I holloed as loud as I could, "I've got one by the hair of his
+head and I'll cut his heart out if he makes a bad move. Joel's got his
+in the same fix."
+
+"Hold on to them boys," uncle said, "Hold on to them. We will start up
+the fires so you can see where to come," and the fires lit up mighty
+quick.
+
+I shoved up on my Indian's hair and made him tramp up. When we got to
+where Aunt Susan Bailey, Bellry and Rachel could see us with the
+Indians, they commenced to jump up and down and clap their hands,
+exclaiming, "O, Goody, goody," the tears running down their faces. The
+little boys and girls all joined in.
+
+When the camp got more settled, the other men started out to look after
+the stock and we had uncle with his seven shot Colt rifle watching the
+Indians. Joel and I untied the Indians' belts and took their tomahocks,
+knives, bows and arrows from them. Each had a fox skin full of arrows.
+We were going to hide them, when all at once the Indian I had taken in,
+commenced holloing, "Show shoney humbugen--"
+
+But that was as far as he got, when we holloed to uncle, "Knock him
+down, knock him down, don't let him hollo."
+
+We dropped the belts and Indian weapons and ran back with our fists
+shut, ready to strike as soon as we could get to him. Uncle had his fist
+dawn to strike, but grabbed his Colts rifle which was leaning against a
+wagon, and drew his gun on them both and said, "Drop to the ground or
+I'll blow both your brains out."
+
+They dropped flat on their faces.
+
+"Now," said uncle, "If you fellows move or say a word until tomorrow
+morning at sun up, I'll blow your brains out."
+
+They lay there all night and did not move until after sun up the next
+morning.
+
+The men gathered up the stock and saw to them as well as they could and
+then came in and got their suppers. It was getting late by this time.
+Uncle sat in his place and watched the Indians all night. All the men
+guarded the stock and the camp except Joel and I. The men told us that
+we were excused from further duty and that Joel and I might go to bed
+and sleep. We were the only men in the train that slept any that night.
+I don't believe the women slept much either.
+
+The next morning we held a council concerning these chiefs. Uncle had
+more experience with Indians than the rest of us.
+
+"If we kill them," said uncle, "The whole tribe might come on us, and if
+we took them along, the other Indians would see us and they might come
+onto us and overpower us. The best thing we can do, is to give them
+their breakfast and treat them well and let them go, and maybe they'll
+not bother us any more."
+
+This we did. That morning we got a late start. The sun was way up and it
+must have been about nine o'clock before we drove out.
+
+While we were eating our dinner the following day, some Indians came to
+us--one was a chief of another tribe. He was an educated chief and could
+talk our language. We had just gotten out of the tribe's territory where
+we had the time the night before. He told my uncle and my brother,
+Crawford, that those chiefs, whom Joel and I had taken, were bad men,
+and if we had brought them with us, they would have fixed them for us
+and that those bad chiefs had no more idea of our men going out and
+jumping onto them, than nothing in the world, and that that was all that
+saved us. He also stated that the bad Indians did not care how many of
+their men they lost, just so they accomplished the killing of the white
+people and got their stock.
+
+Joel kept his word in reference to the wine. He drove the ox team and
+wagon in which was the wine, also the bedding for uncle's family. He
+would claim he was sleepy, get the girls to drive for him, get the
+drinking cup, fill it two-thirds full when their backs were turned, and
+then come running and holloing for me to hold up, for he wanted a drink,
+as I had a keg of water in the hind end of my wagon. He would never
+spill a bit of it. I would drink part of it and Joel never let the rest
+go to waste. Joel was the prettiest runner I ever saw. He could run so
+level, that his head looked like it was sailing through the air. I
+never saw him outrun, and I had seen him run with some who were counted
+fast. He brought me wine several times. I asked him one day, how much
+wine there was in that keg.
+
+"O! There's right smart of it," he replied.
+
+I told him not to bring me any more, and that was the last he brought
+me, but I heard it was dry before we got through.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+OVER THE MOUNTAINS INTO CALIFORNIA
+
+
+While we were going down the Humbolt River, several days before we got
+to the sink or desert, six of our men got tired going so slow, and went
+on and left us. Uncle tried to get them to stay with us, but when they
+would go, he offered them provisions to take along. Four of them were so
+gritty that they would not take any. Two of them did. These four thought
+they would come to what were called "trading posts," but they had all
+gone back to California, as we afterwards found. The men had nearly
+starved to death. They had to shoot birds and they used everything they
+could find for food.
+
+These "trading posts" were kept by men who had brought on pack mules,
+provisions from California, to sell to emigrants and bought up weak
+stock and herded them on the grass until they got strong enough to drive
+across the Sierra Nevada Mountains into California.
+
+Uncle thought we would soon come to one of these trading posts, where we
+could get flour, but the traders had all gone back and ceased to trade.
+We ran out of flour and sea biscuits when we crossed the desert into
+Carson Valley. We had to live on beef and mutton for five or six hundred
+miles. The first flour and bread we got to eat, was after we crossed the
+summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
+
+I thought I had seen mountains before, but these beat them all. When we
+got to the headwaters of the Carson River, for it was up in the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains, we went over what was called the Johnson Cut Off. When
+we got to the foot of the mountain, I looked up its side and told Uncle
+Joshua that we could never get up this mountain in this world, for it
+looked as straight up as a wall could possibly be.
+
+"O, yes, we can," he said. "We will get on the trail and go first one
+way and then another, until we get up."
+
+We were six days getting everything to the top of that mountain, and
+when we got up, we rested one night. The first horse uncle lost was
+getting up this mountain. He was a little weak, stumbled and fell off
+the trail and that was the last we ever saw of him.
+
+The next morning we yoked up the oxen and all got ready to start. Uncle
+instructed me to lead out. Right on top of the mountain, it was pretty
+level for some distance. I drove on ahead of the rest. I came to where I
+saw I had to go down again. I stopped, locked both hind wheels of my
+wagon, rough locked them by wrapping a chain twice around the felloe and
+tire, so the tire would ride on the chain and make it drag hard on the
+ground. I started down. I had not gone far until I found I was going
+down the same kind of a mountain we had been six days coming up. A
+little further down, the trail got very narrow. I was on the left side
+of the oxen, for that was the side upon which we had always taken when
+driving. That put me on the lower side, so that if I had been knocked
+off, that would have been the last of me. I stopped and let the wagon
+pass me, so that I could get on the upper side to drive. When I crossed
+behind the wagon, the dust blew up in my face so thick that I could not
+see my wagon, and that was the last I saw of those oxen until nearly sun
+down.
+
+I went down the mountain as fast as I could. I had no idea I would ever
+see those oxen again, but when I got down on level ground at the foot of
+the mountain, where I could see, off about one hundred yards, there
+stood my oxen and wagon, right side up. There were three yoke of them,
+six head of cattle, but my near ox, next to the wheel, died that night.
+
+The first ones to come down following me, were uncle and aunt. They were
+in a light one-seated top buggy, the one they had used all the way
+across the plains. Uncle had his feet under the buggy, holding down the
+hind axle tree, while aunt had the lines, driving. They drove a brown
+mare, which I had taken from Indiana and a black horse they had fetched
+from Wisconsin.
+
+Aunt was saying, "O, Bailey, I will be killed, I will be killed."
+
+"Hold on Susan, hold on, Susan," answered uncle.
+
+The team was nearly setting down on their hind parts and just sliding.
+They could not move their feet to step for rods at a time.
+
+"How did you ever get down that mountain," uncle asked when he saw me.
+
+"I will never tell, uncle," I said.
+
+Nor did I tell, for I could not tell myself how those oxen got down that
+mountain.
+
+When we got started again on the trail, we met a man going across the
+mountains, over the same route, with a pack train. He was packing
+provisions across to the miners in Carson Valley. Uncle coaxed him out
+of two fifty pound sacks of flour at thirty dollars a sack. This made
+our first bread since crossing the desert.
+
+Somebody stole the black horse which uncle and aunt drove down the
+mountain, while we were camped there that night. This was the second
+horse uncle lost on the trip, and the last one since starting from the
+states.
+
+We drove down the west slope toward the gold mine. The second night
+after we left the summit, it commenced to snow on us, but not very fast.
+Every day after that, it was snowing or raining until we came to the
+gold mines. Some mornings the snow would be two or three inches deep,
+but by night we would get to where it was raining.
+
+One night we camped in what was called Pleasant Valley, near a stream
+called Boland's Run. A man by the name of Thomas Boland, kept a trading
+post here, with a stock of groceries, clothing, boots and shoes, and a
+saloon in connection. A little further down, we helped uncle across the
+McCosma River, to a place called Fair Play, where uncle said that he and
+his family could get down to their future home alone. We then bade
+farewell to uncle and family, and started on a prospecting tour.
+
+This was now the last of November.
+
+After we got to California, we found out that those bad Indians on the
+Humbolt River, had taken two or three messes or camps, that year, and
+one man escaped from one of the camps and two out of another, the rest
+of the men, women and children being killed. These men, who got away
+from among the Indians in some way or other, got to other camps. The
+trains that were taken, were camped no great distance apart; far enough
+so as to herd their stock and keep them separate. They said the Indians
+holloed on one side and while the campers were looking in the direction
+of the holloing, the first thing they knew, other Indians came right in
+on them behind their backs.
+
+These three remaining men said that the next morning they gathered the
+white men from the camps up and down the river, and followed on the
+trail of the marauders. The Indians had cut open sacks of flour and
+scattered it along their trail. They had also cut open feather beds and
+the feathers were blown over the prairie. When the white men came in
+sight, the Indians broke and ran in every direction, and when they got
+up to the captured oxen and wagons, which the Indians had taken from the
+campers, it was found that the Indians had cooked and were eating an
+unyoked ox, with the other ox still yoked with the dead one. They did
+not know how to get the yoke off. The men took what oxen and stock they
+could find, along with them, but had no time to stay to hunt for them.
+This is the story of the men who escaped, and were then living in
+California.
+
+These campers must have driven until after dark, for it seemed they did
+not have their oxen unyoked, for we always unyoked our oxen as soon as
+we stopped.
+
+I shall now try to give you a description of the country through which
+we traveled. Starting in Nebraska, there was what I considered pretty
+good land for two or three hundred miles, though I did not see very much
+of the country outside the Platte River bottom. After we came to the
+Rocky Mountains, I never saw very much of what I called good land laying
+in one body. Sometimes we would come to some pretty fair rolling land,
+but it was what I called poor and rough. At times we got so high up, we
+were above timber line, but we always had grass where there was soil. We
+passed through sage brush and sand, and all of that kind of country
+looked desolate to me, but once in awhile, we would come to prairie
+land. We found some pretty good, rich strips of land away out on the
+other side of the Rocky Mountains. A good long ways out, we came to such
+a strip of land, which was called Fur Grove, covered with what we called
+balsam fir. I do not know in what state it is now, for the whole country
+from the Missouri River to California was then known as Indian
+Territory.
+
+Sometimes we would be on the mountain tops, where we could look down and
+see below where we saw a fog, or at least thought so, but the men said
+it was raining down in the valley, but clear where we were.
+
+We passed near Red Mountains and there were black mountains not very far
+apart and which could be seen from one point of view. We crossed some
+small rivers. I remember one in particular we had to cross on one of
+those willow brush bridges. There had been so much travel on this
+bridge, that a great hole was worn in it, but uncle said we did not have
+time to stop to mend it, and we would have to risk it. We got the
+horses, sheep, oxen and wagons across on the bridge, but the cattle we
+had to swim the river. I don't believe I ever heard what the name of
+that river was, if I did, I have forgotten it.
+
+I did not see much of Iowa on this trip. Of all the country I saw from
+Indiana, through, or after I got through, there was none suited me like
+Central Illinois, and I have not changed my mind. There was government
+land in Illinois to enter at that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PROSPECTING FOR GOLD--SOME HARD EXPERIENCES
+
+
+After we left uncle in the mining district called Fair Play, we crossed
+back over the McCosma River to Boland's Run and went over to Four Spring
+Valley and prospected for some time before we struck any gold that paid.
+We finally struck a claim that paid six dollars a day to the hand, clear
+of water. We had to buy water from a dike that was dug around on the
+side of the mountain and which cost us four dollars a day. We worked on
+this claim about three weeks, when the dike broke between where we were
+at work and the head of the dike where the dam was made across the
+McCosma River to turn the water out into the dike. We could not work any
+more until the dike was mended.
+
+My brother, Crawford Bailey and Wint Crumly went out prospecting. They
+went back across the McCosma River into Fair Play district, where we had
+parted with Uncle Joshua, a distance of fourteen miles. They struck a
+surface digging, and they wrote me and I went to them. We had to buy
+water at the same price, one dollar an inch, or four dollars a day. This
+claim was richer of gold. We made nine dollars a day to the hand, clear
+of water.
+
+We finally heard that the dike was mended over at Four Springs Valley
+and I went over and sold our provisions and collected sixty dollars we
+had loaned to a miner by the name of Thomas Brison. We did not go back
+to Four Springs Valley to work any more, but remained on the claim at
+Fair Play, until in June, when the water gave out and we could not get
+water to wash any longer. We then concluded to go north on to the
+American, Uby and Feather rivers and prospect and see if we could strike
+claims where we could get water to wash with.
+
+The American River was the next river after leaving the McCosma. When we
+came to the American River, up in the gold region, where we were
+crossing, the mountains were very steep and looked like they were
+straight up. We had to travel six miles to get from the bottom of the
+mountain to its top. But when we got to the American River district,
+every place we went, we found it claimed up and plenty of miners at work
+to do all the work there was to do. We could neither find claims to work
+for ourselves, nor could we hire out to work for any one else.
+
+We left the American River and went over the mountains to the Uby River.
+When we got on top of the mountains and started down toward Uby River,
+we had a hard time finding the path. There was so much gravel and rock
+and so little soil or dirt, it was almost impossible to see where
+footmen had made the path. Far toward the west end of the mountain, pack
+animals could get on top and then travel east ward from where we were
+crossing, but nothing except footmen and Indians could cross on the
+trail we were using.
+
+Woodmen had packed their wagons and tools up this mountain somewhere to
+the westward, to the point where we were crossing, and had cut sawlogs
+and hauled or rolled them nearby. Then by rolling the logs three or four
+rods on sloping ground, they would fall straight down to the river
+bottom, a distance that took us fellows a half day to go up.
+
+I was hunting for the trail which led down the mountain, when I came to
+the sloping ground where the woodmen had rolled these logs off. I walked
+carefully down this place, and when I looked down, I saw a yellow streak
+straight below me. It looked like I could step across it, but I knew it
+was a river. It made me dizzy to look over the precipice and I stepped
+backward a few paces and then turned to walk to the top of the mountain
+again. If I had slipped there, that would have been the last of me.
+
+After hunting a good while, we found the trail and went down the
+mountain. The path was just wide enough for one to walk on. If a person
+had stepped off with one foot, the rest of his life's story would have
+certainly been very brief. When we got down to the river, that little
+yellow streak which I thought I could step across when looking down the
+mountain, we had to cross in a ferry boat, the Uby River being a quarter
+of a mile wide.
+
+We went north and northeast until we reached Morisson's Diggings. The
+snow at this place was over thirty feet deep in the winter. They had to
+lay in provisions in the fall to last them all winter and until the snow
+melted off, and the mountain dried so the ground on the side of the
+mountains got solid enough so that the trail would not slip off from
+under the feet of the pack mules.
+
+They built their houses out of round pine or fur logs, a foot and a half
+in diameter, and porches built by letting one log at the eaves of the
+house run out and logs a foot through, for posts set up under the ends
+of these logs. These porches were used to put wood under for winter use.
+When the snow commenced falling, they would beat it back with their
+shovels and keep it beaten back until they could form an arch overhead,
+making a tunnel from one house to another, so they could visit each
+other during the winter.
+
+It was the twentieth day of July when we got there and they were just
+getting started to wash gold. The gold was mixed with dirt and quartz
+rock. These rocks were round and smooth and about the size of a man's
+fist. When they were washed in the sluice boxes and thrown in piles,
+they looked as white as snow. I have often thought what a beautiful walk
+or drive they would make if we had them in Illinois.
+
+We stopped at Morisson's Diggings two or three days. We found Uncle
+Isaac and his son, Jesse, at this place. We left there and went across
+another mountain to a place called Poker Flat, which was fourteen miles
+over the mountain. We heard there, that across on the other side of
+another mountain, on a stream called Nelson Creek, were new diggings.
+Uncle Isaac and his son made us promise, that if we heard of new
+diggings being struck, to give them word. I went back the next day and
+told them and they returned with me over to Poker Flat, where brother
+Crawford and the four others were waiting for us.
+
+We went over the mountain to Nelson Creek. An old Scotchman by the name
+of Wright, had struck a rich claim on the side of the creek on a little
+bottom. The gold here was coarser than it was in the southern diggings.
+The gold that Mr. Wright was getting, looked like small potatoes. Some
+were a little less and some a little over one ounce in weight. We
+prospected all around there, but could not strike any pay dirt. We
+concluded that if there was gold on this bottom, there must be gold in
+the creek. We put six men to dig a ditch to turn the creek out of the
+channel and then dam the creek and turn the water out, so we could get
+to the bottom of the creek.
+
+Old Mr. Wright had packed a whip saw over to make lumber for sluice
+boxes. Uncle Isaac and I borrowed the saw and went to work and whipsawed
+lumber for sluice boxes. We cut down two trees, up as high as we could
+reach, then cut small trees for skids, laid one end of the skid on the
+side of the mountain and the other end of the skids on the stumps of the
+trees we cut off, then rolled the log up on these skids. Then with pick
+and shovel, a level place was dug underneath, the length of the sawlog,
+barked and lined it on two sides, then sawed to the lines. One stood on
+top of the log, the other under it, or in the pit, as it was called. The
+whipsaw is shaped like one of the common key saws, wide at one end and
+narrow at the other, only the whipsaw had handles on both ends. It took
+nice work to whipsaw lumber and keep it true to the line.
+
+We got our lumber sawed, our sluice boxes made, our ditch dug, our creek
+damed and the creek turned out of the channel, prepared to work in the
+bed of the creek.
+
+Late one evening, we just had time to roll over a large bolder and get a
+pan of sand and gravel, and pan it out. We dried the gold and weighed it
+and there was seventy-five dollars worth of gold in that one pan. We
+worked out this claim, but it proved to be a slate rock bed and was
+smooth and sleek, and the water washed all the gold away, only where a
+huge bolder was imbeded in the slate bed and the gold settled around the
+bolders. We did not get any more gold out of the rest of that claim,
+than I got in that one pan.
+
+We left Uncle Isaac at this claim and followed down Nelson Creek. Our
+party was composed of Crawford Bailey, Winston Crumly, Jack Alberts,
+Guss Parberry, Bird Farris and myself. There was a nice path beat down
+on the side of the creek, but the mountains on both sides stood almost
+straight up. We went down the creek, fifteen or twenty miles, when we
+suddenly came to a waterfall where the water dropped straight down about
+forty or fifty rods. There was no way for us to get down. We then
+thought the people who made the path, had to climb the mountains. We
+looked up on our right hand and could see the dirt crumbling out from
+between the rocks. It was straight up. We saw there was no show to go up
+on that side. We looked up on our left and could not see any dirt or
+rock crumbling off this mountain.
+
+We concluded that they must have climbed up over this mountain to get
+out. We started up. We could hardly keep from falling backwards. We held
+to little vines or little fine brush which grew out from between the
+layers of rock. Finally, after we had gone up a distance of perhaps a
+couple of miles, we could see above us a shelf of rock extending out
+over our heads. It then dawned upon us that the path we had followed
+down the creek, had been made by people who had come that far and were
+compelled to go back and that no one had ever gone up this mountain.
+
+We looked as far as we could see each way, but that shelf of rock stood
+out over our heads from three to six or eight feet. We were sure that
+when we got up to that shelf, we could not get over it, neither could we
+go back down again; for one can go up when one can see where to stick
+their toes, but cannot see to go down without falling. We began to think
+we were where we could not get away alive. We looked off to our left and
+saw one place in this shelf that was narrower than the rest, and we
+concluded to make for that place with the possibility that we might be
+able to break off some of the rock and get above. It was still a good
+ways up from where we were. We made for the narrow shelf, but when we
+got there, the rock was so hard that we could not pierce it with our
+picks, but the mountain was not quite so steep under this piece of
+shelf. My brother said to me:
+
+"If you will pick in the side of the mountain and stick your toes in so
+you will have a good foothold, and hold against my back with my shovel,
+and two of the other men, one on each side of me, fix their feet so they
+can lift me on their picks while I hold to the shelf, I will try and see
+how it looks above."
+
+Two of our strongest men lifted him on their picks while I held against
+his back with the shovel until he was high enough to look above the
+shelf.
+
+"The mountain," he said, "is not steep above here, and it is not far to
+the top, if we could only get over this shelf. Let me put one foot on
+one pick and the other foot on the other pick and you fellows lift me up
+as high as you can. Wash, you hold against my back and if I can get a
+little farther up, I can catch some brush and pull myself up over the
+shelf." They lifted and I held him to the shelf, while he climbed up
+over it. We reached him a shovel and a pick. He dug a good place in
+which to set his feet, and then reached the shovel over the bench, for
+one of the boys to catch hold. We lifted one of the boys, while Crawford
+pulled him up. We kept this process up until all were up but one. We
+left the lightest one to the last. He was down where he couldn't see any
+of us and he got scared and trembled and claimed that he did not believe
+he could hold to the shovel for us to draw him up. We dug holes to set
+our heels in and then held others by the feet so they could look down
+over the shelf and see and talk to him. He was pale and greatly
+frightened. I got some of the men to hold me by the feet while I
+encouraged him. I told him to take a good hold of the shovel and as soon
+as he came to where I was and got him by the arm, he could count himself
+safe. I don't believe that there ever was a white man or an Indian, who
+ever went up that mountain before, nor since the last man we got up.
+
+About two miles from where we got on the top of the mountain, we came to
+a mining town, called Poor Man's Diggings. We could not get work there.
+We prospected for a few days, but could find no gold, although there
+were a good many good, paying claims belonging to other men. We left
+there and went to what was called American Valley, where a man struck a
+rich claim. This was called a rich claim, because it would pay one
+hundred dollars or over to the hand a day. We tried to hire out and work
+by the day, but they had all the hands they could work. Everywhere up
+north, they paid a man at least five dollars a day.
+
+We left the American Valley country, which was on the headwaters of the
+Feather River, and struck for the Sacramento River Valley. We thought we
+might find work on a ranch.
+
+We went down to Marysville. The Uba River enters the Sacramento below
+Marysville and the Feather River above. Farming was all done when we got
+down there, so we could not find work. We then struck for Sacramento
+City. As a fellow would say, we were getting "about strapped," that is,
+running short of money. We walked from Marysville to the American River
+bridge one night, about fifty miles. We ate breakfast there, walked
+twenty miles up the American River and about three o'clock that day,
+hired to work for the next morning at two dollars and seventy-five cents
+per day, and board ourselves. I worked for a man by the name of Stewart.
+I was to work two weeks, but I worked ten days.
+
+We went from here back to Fair Play, from where we had started. We
+stayed there until November. The weather kept dry--had no rain, so Uncle
+Joshua came to us and wanted us to work for him on a ranch in the
+Sacramento Valley, above the city of Sacramento something like three
+hundred miles, between the towns of Tehama and Red Bluffs. We worked for
+him ten months at fifty dollars a month.
+
+My brother got sick and went to the mountains and I worked one month for
+a man by the name of David Jorden and his partner, Joseph Moran, in a
+brick yard, for fifty dollars. When uncle paid us, and I received my pay
+for working at the brick yard, I went to my brother, sixty miles
+southeast of Sacramento, to a mining town called Volcano.
+
+We remained in Volcano for about two weeks. We then went to Sacramento.
+From there we took a steamboat to San Francisco, where we stayed for two
+weeks. We then got on a steamship and sailed for Panama. We landed once
+at a town in Mexico, called Acapuco, to take on beef cattle. We were
+four day on the way from San Francisco to Panama. We remained in Panama
+one night, and then took a train and crossed the isthmus by railroad,
+which was the first railroad train I ever saw.
+
+The next day we arrived at Aspinwall, now called Colon, where we stayed
+until the next day, when we boarded a ship bound for New York. We were
+nine days on the way from Aspinwall, or Colon, to New York City. We then
+took a steamboat and went up the Hudson River to Albany, where we took
+a train to Buffalo; from there to Cleveland, Ohio; to Indianapolis, and
+then to LaFayette, Ind. I then went to my home in Fountain County, and
+later came to Cheney's Grove, Illinois, on horse back. I landed at
+Cheney's Grove on New Year's Day, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+ERRATA
+
+
+--Page 5, 2nd paragraph, "Peter House" should read, "Peter Hughs." In
+next line, "John Feril" should read "John Teril." Likewise same name in
+1st line, 2nd paragraph, page 19.
+
+--Page 18, 1st paragraph, should read, "We trailed westward across the
+Pacific Springs toward the Bear River." Also 3rd sentence, "When
+northeast of Salt Lake City" etc.
+
+--Page 28, last paragraph, should read, "'Hold on to them, boys," uncle
+said, "Hold on to them." I holloed back, "Start up the fires so we can
+see where to come," and the fires lit up mighty quick.'
+
+--Page 45, 3rd paragraph, 6th sentence, should read "We were 'fourteen'
+days on the way from San Francisco to Panama."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The foregoing chapters conclude the excellent narrative concerning the
+remarkable trip of Mr. Bailey to California from 1853 to 1856. Mr.
+Bailey also kindly consented to give for publication in the LeRoy
+Journal, a description of the gold regions and the crude methods of
+mining practiced in that early day, which is placed in this volume as a
+brief appendix. His comments were as follows:
+
+I will now give you a description of the gold region where gold was
+found, where I traveled and where I mined.
+
+The McCosma River headed up toward the summit of the Sierra Nevada
+Mountains toward the northeast and runs a little southwest until it
+empties into the Sacramento River. Gold was found in what were called
+bars, that is, where rock, gravel and sand had lodged on either side, or
+across the river. Some of these bars would be very rich in gold.
+
+There were, also, what were called gulches, running out from the river
+on either side. They often headed the valleys. These gulches ran out
+between mountains and when they headed pretty well up toward the top of
+a large mountain, that divided the rivers, into what were called
+ravines. All of these ravines would have gold in them. The bed rock
+would raise up on both sides and the lowest place in this bed rock, was
+called the lead. Some would be richer in gold than others, taking the
+name of rich lead or poor lead. Often there were places up on the sides
+of the mountains where the bed rock was almost bare, and in these places
+were cracks or seams down in the bed rock, where the gold would be found
+mixed with sand and dirt.
+
+When the first miners came, they did not know how to save the gold and
+they had no tools to work with. They used their jackknives to dig the
+gold out of these crevises and carried it in their pans to where there
+was water and washed out the dirt and sand. When the miners had picks
+and shovels, they made rockers. They were made just like the rocking
+beds of the old fashioned kind to rock babies in, only one end was out,
+except about two inches at the bottom, for what they called a riffle, to
+lodge the gold against. They put another of these riffles up higher in
+the rocker for the same purpose. They made a box four square that set on
+top of this rocker with a sheet iron bottom with round holes punched in
+it to let the gold and sand through. They would then fill this box with
+pay dirt, dip water from the creek or river, and pour it in on the pay
+dirt with one hand and rock with the other. They would then gather up
+the gold and what little sand remained from behind the riffles, place it
+in their pans and wash it out, leaving nothing but the gold and some
+black sand.
+
+Another plan used and a better and faster method, was to use what they
+called the long tom. This was made of plank on the sides about six feet
+long and three feet wide. The planks were cut curved on the lower end,
+so that the sheet iron with the holes in it, would turn upward. The
+upper end of the tom, was made of planks sawed sloping and drawn in
+until it was wide enough to lay their water hose in, which furnished the
+water for washing.
+
+When they washed the gold with pans, they would throw all the top dirt
+away until they got down deep enough to find it sufficiently rich to
+pay, then they would pan out the rest of the dirt to the bed rock.
+
+When we mined in California, we washed with sluice boxes, whenever we
+could get plenty of water. Sluice boxes were made by sawing the bottom
+board two inches narrower at one end than at the other so we could place
+the end of every box in the upper end of the next box. We had slats
+nailed across the top of the boxes to keep them from spreading. There
+were slats for riffles, two and a half or three inches wide, fitted down
+tight on the bottom, for the gold to lodge against. The gold, with the
+sand and dirt would then be removed and panned out as in the other
+methods mentioned above.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+List of transcriber's corrections
+
+    - so be [we] would strike the lower end of the island.
+    - This was the "pipe of of [pipe of] peace"
+    - huddled and and asked [and asked] uncle
+    - and then skirt the [Rattlesnake] Rattlsnake
+    - Grand Canyons, of world renoun [renown]
+    - and he would do some of thier [their] work in exchange.
+    - a nice place to pull out on the side. [period added]
+    - River, cutting a canyon through it. [period added]
+    - in the same fix." [replaced period with comma] was the reply.
+    - fill it two-thirds ful [full] when their backs were turned
+    - where the dam was made across the McComa [McCosma] River
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA IN 1853***
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