Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/88

 r the  men

and six  for  me.'  The  piece  of  gold  I  must  describe. Its value  is  between four and  live  dollars. It looks  like  a  piece  of  spruce  gum  just  out  of  tLe mouth of  a  school-girl,  except  the  color. It is  rather  Hat,  full  of  indenta- tions, just as  the  teeth  make  in  a  piece  of  nice  gum. There are  one  or  two rough points  on  the  edge,  which,  Wjth  a  little  stretch  of  the  imagination, gives tlie  appearance  of  a  man's  head  with  a  helmet  on;  then,  turn  it  an- other way, and,  as  Mrs  Wiemer  said,  'it  looks  like  some  kind  of  varmint or other.'  It  can  easily  be  identified  by  any  one  who  has  ever  seen  it  before. Other accounts  of  secondary  importance  are  given  by  Barstow,  Sherman, Mason, Bidwell,  the  AnwU  of  San  Francisco,  the  Brpresentative  Men  of  the Pacific, Tuthill,  Hittell,  Dunbar,  Woods,  and  a  multitude  of  newspaper writers.

Going back  to  Bigler's  diary  I  find  it  of  interest  to follow  him  for  a  few  days  after  the  discovery.

The men  hastened  the  work  at  the  mill,  so  as  to keep  by  their  promise  with  Sutter,  and  be  sooner  able to dig  for  gold ;  and  though  some  spoke  of  throwing up their  employment,  yet  the  fear  that  the  mines were not  rich  deterred  them. On Sundays,  however, they went  into  the  tail-race,  and  scratching  about with their  butcher  knives  frequently  obtained  from three to  eight  dollars. The first  gold  discovery  be- yond the limits  of  the  Coloma  saw-mill  was  on  Sun- day, the 6th  of  February. Early that  morning  Bigler said he  would  cross  the  stream  and  try  the  bare  rocks facing the  saw-mill;  Barger  said  he  would  go  with him, and  the  two  started,  taking  only  their  knives. Up to  this  time  none  of  the  mill  hands  knew  the simple process  of  washing,  nor  had  they  ever  seen rockers ; the  way  they  gathered  the  gold  was  to  pick it up  grain  by  grain  as  it  lay  on  the  rocks,  or  with their knives  dig  it  out  from  the  crevices  and  holes. On this  Sunday  Bigler  secured  ten  dollars. For de- termining the value  of  gold-dust,  he  made  a  light  pair of wooden  scales ;  and  by  balancing  twelve  and  a  half cents in  silver  with  gold-dust,  he  formed  a  ratio  of  one bit to  two  dollars,  twenty-five  cents  to  four  dollars, and so  on. Bigler seems  to  have  been  the  only  one who was  seriously  affected  by  the  news  of  the  gold discovery. Not content  to  wait  till  the  next  Sunday, he on  Saturday  afternoon  threw  down  his  pick,  for  he with  Brown  and  others  were  digging  at  the race,  and