Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Collection: Books and Periodicals
Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)

Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard

Show the Page Image

Show the Image Page Text


More Information About this Image

Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard

Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)

Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 423

SCENERY IN THE MINES. 139
by candlelight; at the same time, gold mining in
any way was to almost every one a new occupation, and men who had passed their lives hitherto
above ground, took quite as naturally to this subterranean style of digging as to any other.
We felt no particular fancy for it, however, especially as we could not get a claim ; and having heard
favourable accounts of the diggings on Weaver Creek,
we concluded to migrate to that place. It was about
fifteen miles off ; and having hired a mule and cart
from a man in Hangtown to carry our long tom,
hoses, picks, shovels, blankets, and pot and pans, we
started early the next morning, and arrived at our
destination about noon. We passed through some
beautiful scenery on the way. The ground was not
yet parched and scorched by the summer sun, but was
still green, and on the hillsides were patches of wildflowers growing so thick that they were quite soft
and delightful to lie down upon. For some distance
we followed a winding road between smooth rounded
hills, thickly wooded with immense pines and cedars,
gradually ascending till we came upon a comparatively
level country, which had all the beauty of an English
park. The ground was quite smooth, though gently
undulating, and the rich verdure was diversified with
numbers of white, yellow, and purple flowers. The
oaks of various kinds, which were here the only tree,
were of an immense size, but not so numerous as
to confine the view; and the only underwood was
the mansanita, a very beautiful and graceful shrub,