execution
and, leaving our boat at Sonoma, we travelled on toward the American
fork. From there the range of Californian mountains was crossed from
west to east. After one and a half days hunting our poor horse was
loaded down with game. We now found ourselves on the banks of the
Sacramento. After ascending the river for two or three hours a boat of
salmon fishermen came up and, for the sum of four piastres, agreed to
ferry us and our game over to the opposite bank. Although the river at
this point must have been nearly a quarter of a mile broad, yet our
horse was able to swim across.
From
the fishermen information was secured as to conditions at the mines.
While they could not give us much definite news, nevertheless they had
heard rumors to the effect that the Americans were ruining everything
by their banditry. This did not in the last astonish Tillier and me,
having already had a sample of their conduct along the San Joaquin
River. Aluna for his part merely shrugged his shoulders and screwed up
his lips, as much as to say, "Ah, my word, I have certainly seen enough
of them!" Aluna cordially disliked all Americans, whom he believed
capable of any kind of crime. He invariably had a fund of stories to
relate about them where such acts as being stabbed by a knife, or shot
with a pistol, were not penalized by juries who were both stupid and
indiscreet.
We
pushed on to Sacramento City and even as far as Sutter's Fort to
ascertain for ourselves how far we might rely on these rumors. What the
salmon-fishers had said was confirmed; the mines were in the throes of
a revolution. Fearing to lose what little wealth we had so laboriously
collected, we now retraced our steps, descending the Sacramento on a
boat that we rented for forty piastres. ,At Sacramento City, our game
sold for eighty dollars; near the American fork, the dollar passes for
legal tender, whereas on the Sacramento all transactions are computed
in piastres. The rented boat belonged to die salmon-fishers, who had
guaranteed to land us where we chose provided, however, that not more
than four days were required to go down from Sacramento City to
Benicia, below Suisun Bay Aluna followed along the left bank with the
horse.
So
magnificent is the Sacramento Valley that it defies description,
bounded as it is on the east by the Sierra Nevada, on the west by the
Californian mounains, and on the north by Mt. Shasta. From north to
south it measures approximately 200 miles.
When the snows melt and the Sacramento overflows the level rises
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