For the last two or three weeks before entering the valley, we had cool weather with frosty nights, being in the mountains at a high altitude, but here, although the nights are cool and very pleasant, the days are so very warm that the thermometer stands at 100° in the shade. Many whose food was largely salted provisions during the journey across the plains from Missouri to Sacramento valley, got their systems impregnated with salt and grease, and so became easy victims to the scurvey.
The miners generally appear to be in excellent spirits, and seem to enjoy life as well as the circumstances of their conditions will admit. A few of them have tents, some have brush shanties, but by far the larger portion camp in the open air, or under friendly trees, where they have a good opportunity to study astronomy after they lie down, by watching the moon and the stars. It is said by many, and it seems to be true, that for the moon to shine in a persons face while sleeping, is very injurious to the eyes. I have known some cases where persons have become almost blind, with no other good reason assigned. I believe it to be a safe plan for all persons who are accustomed to sleeping in the open air to always shade their face from the moon. From my own experience, I believe I have suffered with my eyes to a considerable degree from that cause. A person’s eyes seem to become injured to a considerable extent before they are aware that anything wrong is taking place. What power, if any, the lunar rays have upon the human eye I am unprepared to explain.
The miners principally do their own cooking, and washing, if they have any done.
Their living is most commonly fried pork and flapjacks, or flippers as they are called, and fresh beef, which I believe is as good as any beef that can be found. One pound of this beef seems to be worth as much as several pounds of the miserable poor, cordy stuff that we called beef and ate for food on the journey to California. This is as fat and juicy as could be desired.
On Thursday, October 26, 1849, we commenced mining and set our cradle on the lower point of Bidwell’s Bar, where we kept it running through the day, with the exception of a short time at noon.
As new miners we thought that the more and faster we washed the dirt, the more gold dust we should have to our credit at night, and consequently we kept the screen full all day and crowded it through as fast at it was possible. When night came we took it out of the cradle into a pan and tried to separate the black sand from the gold dust. But for us that was the most difficult operation of the whole process.
When we commenced we had nearly a pailful of the sand, and after a time we had succeeded in reducing it very materially in quantity, but could not separate the gold entirely from the sand, and consequently we were unable to ascertain the amount of gold that we had acquired for our day’s work. However, we concluded that we were not doing as well as we desired and decided to look up another claim.
Our claim was at the extreme point of the Bar and
