The
cradle, a device used for washing gravel, is a tray made of wood or tin
measuring twelve or sixteen inches in diameter. This is conical in
shape but fairly shallow, and entirely smooth inside. These trays,
based on their size, hold from eight to twelve litres and are filled
two-thirds full of soil which is beaten and thoroughly washed by
holding the tray under water, thus separating the gold from the sand
and gravel. To bring extra water and to keep the cradle constantly
rocking so that it will separate and turn up every little particle of
gold, is the task of the miner who must frequently remain in water up
to his waist. The other miner makes the hole and removes the gravel
from this excavation.
Having
left San Francisco, we finally reached Stockton. On our journey we
ascended Suisun Bay, passing on our left five or six islands which had
not as yet been named, but which some day will have gardens like those
on the islands of Asnieres and Neuilly. Arriving at the point where the
Sacramento and the San Joaquin fork, we left the Sacramento, which
bends from there toward the north, and followed the San Joaquin which,
swerving abruptly, winds toward the south. The first affluent of the
San Joaquin is formed by the junction of three rivers; the Cosumnes,
the Mokelumne and a third, or central river, which has not as yet been
named.* These streams water plains of extraordinary fertility, which
were overgrown with weeds, especially mustard, whose flowers of a
brilliant yellow had dropped off and lay, glistening like the gold for
which we were searching, on the dark and fallen leaves of the oaks.
Here and there were seen hills covered with splendid oats of such
height that a man on horseback was almost entirely concealed by them.
Twenty miles below the Calaveras empties in turn into the San Joaquin
River. The latter moves through splendid prairies of grass yellowed by
the sun; its entire course is lined by oaks and by an exquisite shrub
with a mass of blue flowers whose fragrance drifted over to us.
At
Stockton, a newly created city, as its name indicates, and one which
had sprung up within the last two years, we purchased two mules and the
necessary provisions. These mules cost 120 piastres each. Our
provisions included fifty pounds of flour which, being damaged, was
quite cheap, and which, thanks to this damage, could be purchased at
the rate of fifty pounds for seven piastres. For twenty-two piastres
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