The company immediately dispatched two of its men with mules to Sacramento to procure provisions and other necessary articles, in readiness for the rainy season which was expected within a month.
I was the owner of one mule which I forwarded to Sacramento by those men for sale for whatever price it might sell for. I received in return $62.
On Sunday, October 21, S. W. Gage and Austin W. Pinney concluded they would leave the new company, and they with myself traveled up the river 8 miles to Bidwell’s Bar, another mining camp, where we agreed to commence work the next morning on a dam for a company at $6 per day each, board included.
On Monday morning we shouldered our blankets and walked to Bidwell’s in season to perform three-fourths of a day’s work. We also labored Tuesday and Wednesday.
As this was the first real manual labor performed by us for many months, and the weather being excessively warm and the work we were required to perform very laborious, it was not an easy matter for us to put in the time. We were just in from the mountains where the atmosphere was cool and bracing, and the locality here was on the river, surrounded by high hills and mountains, where the sun’s rays fell unobstructed by any friendly shade trees. The labor was of the hardest kind. We were building a dam across Feather River for the purpose of turning the stream from its natural channel for a short distance, so the bed of the stream could be worked and the gravel washed to obtain whatever gold it might contain. At that time it was supposed to be large quantities.
The company for which we were at work consisted of about twenty members, who were at work with us. They were in haste to complete the dam before the rainy season should set in; consequently they worked more hours in a day than they otherwise would have done.
We were obliged to carry large rocks and loads of gravel, cobble stones, etc., from the shore to the dam on hand barrows, which was called by us “soul carting.” After we had worked two and three-fourths days, Mr. Gage thought he could not endure it any longer, so we concluded to quit and commence mining on our own account and be independent.
Consequently we bought an old “cradle” for $50, two tin pans for $8, a pick and shovel, and commenced operations. Our cooking apparatus consisted of one tin kettle for which we paid $4, a fry pan, a few knives and forks, three or four tin plates, some tin cups and a coffee pot, which we inherited from the old company.
For a shelter we had the broad canopy of heaven; and for a bed dry sand.
To us the mines presented a novel and interesting appearance. There were at this time no less than seventy-five to one hundred mining cradles on Bidwell’s Bar, with two or three men at work at each cradle.