"I believe," Abe said, "that we have hit upon the richest spot in Californy. Ef it's like this on the surface, what is it going to be like when we get down to the bed rock?"
The next morning two diggers arrived on the scene; they saw at once by the methodical manner in which the place was being worked that the party must have found gold in paying quantities.
"Is it rich, mates?" they asked eagerly.
"Ay," Abe replied, "rich enough for anything. There are the boundaries of our claims, lads, and ye are welcome to set to work below them."
The miners threw off their coats, and at once set to work, and a shout of exultation greeted the result of the first bucket of stuff they washed out.
"Another week," Abe said, "and every foot of ground in the gulch from here down to the Yuba will be taken up. The news will spread like wildfire."
His anticipations were justified, and no one who came along a fortnight later would have recognised, in the scene of life and activity, the quiet wooded valley which Abe and his party had entered. The trees on the lower slopes were all felled; huts and tents stood along on the slopes from the head to the mouth of the valley, and several hundred men were hard at work.
For once every man was satisfied, and it was agreed that it was the richest place which had been discovered in California. But though all were doing well, their finds did not approach those of the party at the head of the valley. The spot on which these were at work was indeed a natural trap for gold. At the lower end of the claim the bed rock was found at the depth of three feet only; but it sloped rapidly down to the foot of the fall, and here an iron rod had been driven down and showed it to be forty feet below the surface.
The bed rock had indeed, in the course of ages, been pounded away by the fall of water, and by the boulders and rocks brought down in time of flood, and in the deep hole the gold had lodged, a comparatively small proportion being carried away over the lower lip of the basin. When the bed rock was found at the lower end of the claim, they set to work to clear away and wash the whole surface to that depth, as far as the foot of the rocks on either side of the little amphitheatre.
Frank and two of the men went down to Sacramento with horses to bring up pumps, for below the level of the lip of the hole it was, of course, full of water. The stream was carried in a shoot beyond this point, and when the pumps arrived they were soon set to work.