When we reached San Francisco we found that preparations were going on, on all sides, for erecting brick and stone buildings in lieu of combustible shanties.
The style of architecture in vogue was less remarkable for cunning design than for its sturdy fireproof qualities; and although the square houses, with their thick walls and double doors, and shutters of strong iron, and bomb-proof cellars underground, added little towards the embellishment of the city, it was no time to think of elegant façades or imposing friezes when the first object was the security of life and property. Each building, then, was intended to assume the character of a fortress to resist the common enemy of the place; and from that day to this, this end has been fortunately carried out, and the heart of the city is impervious to fire.
CHAPTER XIV.
JOE BELLOW—STOCKTON—A BEAR TRAPPER—BEAR AND BULL FIGHTS—AN UNEASY BEAR—CALIFORNIAN INNS—NATURAL ROADS—GOOD DRIVING—I KILL A FLEA—SONORA—THE EVENING COMMENCES—FRENCH EMIGRANTS—A DRINKING BAR—NUMBER EIGHTY—A CORRAL AND A MORAL.
September, 1851.
So many reports had reached San Francisco at this time of the discovery, in various parts of the mining regions, of auriferous veins of quartz of immense wealth, that all that portion of the population who were in waiting for something to turn up had already departed for the mountains in search of gold rock.
Although not exactly belonging to this class, it was my destiny to hear from one Joe Bellow an account of a certain mineral district, a portion of which, it appeared, had been showered by Fortune into his lap. His description was resistless. His natural volubility, trained as it had been by his professional duties as an auctioneer, overcame all obstacles that I could raise, and I succumbed to his earnest entreaty that I would visit the mine in question and feast my eyes, as he had feasted his, on the glittering wealth which nature had here exposed to view, and of which he extracted a specimen from his pocket of the most satisfactory description.
The mine was situated in the vicinity of Sonora, the chief town of the southern mines; and as, independently of my curiosity to inspect it, I wished to visit that section of the country, we started at four o’clock one evening in a small river boat called the “Jenny Lind,� bound to Stockton, a town situated on the San Joaquin River.
On starting from San Francisco for the mines, it was but natural to bid adieu to cleanliness and comfort for the time being, and, having so fortified myself, I was better able to withstand the intolerable filth of the “Jenny Lind.� She has since “blown up,� which is about the only thing that could have purified her.
At daylight we arrived at Stockton, which I shall allude to more fully by and by, and at once landed and secured our places in the stage then about to start for the town of Sonora.