on a deer, a squirrel, or the white of an Indian's eye, with equal coolness and certainty of killing.

Though large-framed men, they were not remarkable for physical strength, nor were they robust in constitution; in fact, they were the most sickly set of men in the mines, fever and ague and diarrhoea being their favorite complaints.

We had many pleasant neighbors, and among them were some very amusing characters. One man, who went by the name of the "Philosopher," might possibly have earned a better right to the name, if he had had the resolution to abstain from whisky. He had been, I believe, a farmer in Kentucky, and was one of a class not uncommon in America, who, without much education, but with great ability and immense command of language, together with a very superficial knowledge of some science, hold forth on it most fluently, using such long words, and putting them so well together, that, were it not for the crooked ideas they enunciated, one might almost suppose they knew what they were talking about. Phrenology was this man's hobby, and he had all the phrenological phraseology at his finger-ends. His great delight was to paw a man's head and to tell him his character. One Sunday morning he came into our cabin as he was going down to the store for provisions, and after a few minutes' conversation, of course he introduced phrenology; and as I knew should not get rid of him till I did so, I gave him my permission to feel my head. He fingered it all over, and gave me a very elaborate synopsis of my character, explaining most minutely the consequences of the combination of the different bumps, and telling me how I would act in a variety of supposed contingencies. Having satisfied himself as to my character, he went off, and I was in hopes I was done with him, but an hour or so after dark, he came rolling into the cabin just as I was going to turn in. He was as drunk as he well could be; his nose was swelled and bloody, his eyes were both well blackened, and altogether he was very unlike a learned professor of phrenology. He begged to be allowed to stay all night; and as he would most likely have broken his neck over the rocks if he had tried to reach his own home that night, I made him welcome, thinking that he would immediately fall asleep without troubling me further. But I was very much mistaken; he had

no sooner laid down, than he began to harangue me as if I were a public meeting or a debating society, addressing me as gentlemen," and expatiating on a variety of topics, but chiefly on phrenology, the Democratic ticket, and the great mass of the people. He had a bottle of brandy with him, which I made him finish in hopes it might have the effect of silencing him; but there was unfortunately not enough of it for that-it only made him worse, for he left the debating society and got into a bar-room, where, when I went to sleep, he was playing "poker" with some imaginary individual whom he called Jim.

In the morning he made ample apologies, and was very earnest in expressing his gratitude for my hospitality. I took the liberty of asking him what bumps he called those in the neighborhood of his me a plain question, I'll give you a plain eyes. "Well, sir," he said, "you ask the store last night, and was whipped; I got into a 'muss' down at and I deserved it too." penitent, I did not press him for further particulars; but I heard from another man the same day, that when at the store he had taken the opportunity of an audi

answer.

As he was so

ence to lecture them on his favorite sub

ject, and illustrated his theory by feeling several heads, and giving very full descriptions of the characters of the individuals. At last he got hold of a man who must have had something peculiar in the formation of his cranium, for he gave him a most dreadful character, calling him a liar, a cheat, and a thief, and winding up by saying that he was a man who would murder his father for five dollars.

The natural consequence was, that the owner of this enviable character jumped up and pitched into the phrenologist, giving him the whipping which he had so candidly acknowledged, and would probably have murdered him without the consideration of the five dollars, if the bystanders had not interfered.

Very near where we were at work, a party of half a dozen men held a claim in the bed of the creek, and had as usual dug a race through which to turn the water, and so leave exposed the part they intended to work. This they were now anxious to do, as the creek had fallen sufficiently low to admit of it; but they were opposed by a number of miners, whose claims lay so near the race that

they would have been swamped had the water been turned into it.

They could not come to any settlement of the question among themselves; so, as was usual in such cases, they concluded to leave it to a jury of miners; and notice was accordingly sent to all the miners within two or three miles up and down the creek, requesting them to assemble on the claim in question the next afternoon. Although a miner calculates an hour lost as so much money out of his pocket, yet all were interested in supporting the laws of the diggings; and about a hundred men presented themselves at the appointed time. The two opposing parties then, having tossed up for the first pick, chose six jurymen each from the assembled crowd.

When the jury had squatted themselves all together in an exalted position on a heap of stones and dirt, one of the plaintiffs, as spokesman for his party, made a very pithy speech, calling several witnesses to prove his statements, and citing many of the laws of the diggings in support of his claims. The defendants folfowed in the same manner, making the most of their case; while the general public, sitting in groups on the different heaps of stones piled up between the holes with which the ground was honeycombed, smoked their pipes, and watched the proceedings.

After the plaintiff and defendant had said all they had to say about it, the jury examined the state of the ground in dispute; they then called some more wit nesses to give further information, and having laid their shaggy heads together for a few minutes, they pronounced their decision; which was, that the men working on the race should be allowed six days to work out their claims before the water should be turned in upon them.

Neither party were particularly well pleased with the verdict-a pretty good sign that it was an impartial one; but they had to abide by it, for had there been any resistance on either side, the rest of the miners would have enforced the decision of this august tribunal. From it there was no appeal; a jury of miners was the highest court known, and I must say I never saw a court of justice with so little humbug about it.

The laws of the creek, as was the case in all the various diggings in the mines, were made at meetings of miners held for the purpose. They were generally very few and simple. They defined how

many feet of ground one man was entitled to hold in a ravine-how much in the bank, and in the bed of the creek; how many such claims he could hold at a time; and how long he could absent himself from his claim without forfeiting it. They declared what was necessary to be done in taking up and securing a claim, which, for want of water, or from any other cause, could not be worked at the time; and they also provided for various contingencies incidental to the peculiar nature of the diggings.

Of course, like other laws, they required constant revision and amendment, to suit the progress of the times; and a few weeks after this trial, a meeting was held one Sunday afternoon for legislative purposes. The miners met in front of the store, to the number of about two hundred; a very respectable-looking old chap [being the "offender" here alluded to, it is but just, perhaps, that we challenge Mr. B. to pistols and coffee for at least a dozen, for using the term "old" to us at thirty; but we forgive him, as almost all miners, from their dress and employment, look prematurely old at any age-aye, and grow so, too.-ED.] was called to the chair; but for want of that article of furniture, he mounted an empty pork-barrel, which gave him a commanding position; another man was appointed secretary, who placed his writing materials on some empty boxes piled up alongside of the chair. The chairman then, addressing the crowd, told them the object for which the meeting had been called, and said he would be happy to hear any gentleman who had any remarks to offer; whereupon some one proposed an amendment of the law relating to a certain description of claim, arguing the point in a very neat speech. He was duly seconded, and there was some slight opposition and discussion; but when the chairman declared it carried by the ayes, no one called for a division; so the secretary wrote it all down, and it became law.

Two or three other acts were passed, and when the business was concluded, a vote of thanks to the chairman was passed for his able conduct on the top of the pork-barrel. The meeting was then declared to be dissolved, and accordingly dribbled into the store, where the legis lators, in small detachments, pledged each other in cocktails as fast as the store-keeper could mix them. While the legislature was in session, however, everything was conducted with the utmost

formality; for Americans of all classes are particularly au fait at the ordinary routine of public meetings.

After working our claim for a few weeks, my partner left me to go to another part of the mines, and I joined two others in buying a claim five or six miles up the creek. It was supposed to be very rich, and we had to pay a long price for it accordingly; although the men who had taken it up, and from whom we bought it, had not yet even prospected the ground. But the adjoining claims were being worked, and yielding largely, and from the position of ours, it was looked on as an equally good one.

There was a great deal to be done, before it could be worked, in the way of removing rocks and turning the water; and as three of us were not sufficient to work the place properly, we hired four men to assist us, at the usual wages of five dollars a day. It took about a fortnight to get the claim into order before we could begin washing, but we then found that our labor had not been expended in vain, for it paid uncommonly well.

When I bought this claim, I had to give up my cabin, as the distance was so great, and I now camped with my partners close to our claim, where we had erected a brush-house. This is a very comfortable kind of abode in summer, and does not cost an hour's labor to erect. Four uprights are stuck in the ground, and connected with cross-pieces, on which are laid heaps of leafy brushwood, making a roof completely impervious to the rays of the sun. Sometimes three sides are filled in with a basket-work of brush, which gives the edifice a more compact and comfortable appearance. Very frequently a brush-shed of this sort was erected over a tent, for the thin material of which tents were usually made offered but

poor shelter from the burning sun. When I left my cabin, I handed it over to a young man who had arrived very lately in the country, and had just come up to the mines. On meeting him a few days afterwards, and asking him how he liked his new abode, he told me that the first night of his occupation he had not slept a wink, and had kept candles burning till daylight, being afraid to go to sleep on account of the rats.

Rats, indeed! poor fellows! I should think there were a few rats, but the cabin was not worse in that respect than any other in the mines. The rats were most

active colonisers. Hardly was a cabin built in the most out-of-the-way part of the mountains, before a large family of rats made themselves at home in it, imparting a humanised and inhabited air to the place. They are not supposed to be indigenous to the country. [We think differently. In 1850, in company with several others, we were first in entering a cañon between two large streams, many miles from any trading-post whatever, and before our packs were scarcely off the mules we saw a rat make his exit from a hole but a few feet from the water, and deliberately go down to drink.-ED.] They are a large black species, which I believe those who are learned in rats call the Hamburg breed. Occasionally a pure white one is seen, but more frequently in the cities than in the mines; they are probably the hoary old patriarchs, and not a distinct species.

They are very destructive, and are such notorious thieves, carrying off letters, newspapers, handkerchiefs, and things of that sort, with which to make their nests, that I soon acquired a habit, which is common enough in the mines, of always ramming my stockings tightly into the toes of my boots, putting my neckerchief into my pocket, and otherwise securing all such matters before turning in at night. One took these precautions just as naturally, and as much as a matter of course, as when at sea one fixes things in such a manner that they shall not fetch way with the motion of the ship. As in civilized life a man winds up his watch and puts it under his pillow before going to bed; so in the mines, when turning in, one just as instinctively sets to work to circumvent the rats in the manner described, and, taking off his revolver, lays it under his pillow, or at least under the coat or boots, or whatever he rests his head on.

I believe there are individuals who faint or go into hysterics if a cat happens to be in the same room with them. Any one having a like antipathy to rats had better keep as far away from California as possible, especially from the mines. The inhabitants generally, however, have no such prejudices; it is a free countryas free to rats as to Chinamen; they increase and multiply and settle on the land very much as they please, eating up your flour, and running over you when you are asleep, without ceremony.

No one thinks it worth while to kill individual rats—the abstract fact of their

boy had the countenance of Cain. I hated him after I grew larger. I always thought I would flog him if I grew to be a man; were I to meet him now, I should be almost tempted to do it!

I remember when I was some ten years old, as a boy was frightening a wee bit of a girl by opening his mouth and threatening to bite her head off, how my heart burned with indignation till I gave him what he deserved, a good "licking." That was the only fight I was ever engaged in during my school days, and it was in a just cause. The great lubber never terrified the girl again. The "school-ma'am" was a small, palelooking lady. I only remember that when a boy did wrong, she stuck him up on a high seat, and then all the scholars stood up, and pointed their fore-fingers at him, and hissed, and cried "Eh! for shame!" I never was "set up"; it would have broken my heart. I was sent out of the room once for some little thoughtless act, and how mortified I was as I slunk down the aisle! I took an instinctive aversion to that teacher, afterwards.

The incident may seem trifling, but it was a great event in my life. I was at church one Sunday noon, sitting quietly in my grandfather's old-fashioned square pew, and the "school-ma'am" and another lady stood at the stove near by. Suddenly she turned round, and pointing her finger at me, said"There is the little boy that told me a lie." The circumstances were these: One day I went up and asked "leave to be dismissed." She told me if I would promise to come to school next day, I might go. Of course I promised. Next day my mother kept me at home for some good reason. This was why the "school-ma'am" pointed her finger at me, and said, "There is the little boy that told a lie!" How those words burned into my heart! Up to that time, to the best of my recollection, I never had dreamed of ever telling anything but the truth to my parents and teachers, and to be called a liar, and in church, too! I felt it was wrong, and I hated the very sight of her always after.

This little circumstance has always made me very careful of ever accusing children of telling untruths, unless the proof is positive. In looking back upon my school

days, I do not remember of ever telling my teachers or parents a deliberate falsehood.

My father died when I was ten years old. The day before his death, he remarked to an attendant that "he had never known me to tell a lie." I felt proud of the praise-yet I think he suspected me once. I remember I was in the old garden, trying to knock some cherries from a tree, by throwing stones at them. Close by the cherry tree stood an apple tree, whose fruit my father had forbidden me to touch. He called me up to the gate, and asked me if I was stoning the apples? I told him I was trying to get some cherries; he said nothing, and walked away. But I thought he doubted my word. I went down into a corner of the garden, behind the currant bushes, and cried bitterly. Then came the thought of the "school-ma'am" who had pointed her finger at me, and called me a liar. I only wonder I did not become a liar.

This "school-ma'am"-I call no names, and this will never meet her eye-is now married to a boy, who, in school, sat in the same desk with me. At the time of their marriage he was twenty years old-she must have been thirty-five. Wonder if she didn't" tell a lie" to that playmate of mine -foolish young fellow.

WILL SOME GEOLOGIST OR ANTIQUARIAN EXPLAIN IT ?—On the nineteenth day of November last, (1857,) while some men were drifting in the "Keystone" tunnel, at Smith's Flat, Sierra county, they found a human collar-bone, perfectly sound, with the exception of a small portion at either end, which was somewhat decayed. This bone was in the gravel of an old river's bed under the mountain, known as "the great blue lead;" similar to others, and which constitute nearly the whole of what are known as "hill diggings" in every part of the mining districts. It was not less than a thousand feet beneath the forest-covered surface of the mountain, and as many feet more above Cañon and Oregon creeks.

Now the question naturally arises, at what era of the world's changes could this bone, and that particular kind of gravel formation have been deposited there? And to what class of the human family does that collarbone belong? Will some one learned in such matters please inform us?

B.