Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/313

Rh work at a sawmill at Astoria, where they were later joined by P. C. D. K. determined to try his luck at the gold fields in the valley of the Rogue River, Southern Oregon. At the Umpqua, having covered about 200 miles of his journey, he found employment in ferrying across the North Fork at Winchester. In December he continued his journey, arriving finally at Jump-off- Joe. The hardships of the journey and the intensely cold weather of that season, which was one of the most severe ever experienced, proved too much for the strength of the lad. He was taken with lung fever, being predisposed to this disorder from a previous attack the year before in Illinois. He lay sick in the camp of three brothers of the name of Raymond, who procured for him a physician of the old school, whose main prescription was to forbid him drinking water. In his raging fever and delirium this was a torture that still remains in memory, and if he had not eluded his nurse one night, and gone to the spring at the door, under a bank of snow, and drunk his fill, though so weak as to be unable to get back, and being found in the snow, he thinks the fever would have terminated fatally. At any rate with the draught of water the fever subsided, and health slowly returned.

He found work in the mines until spring opened, but seeing little hope of financial success concluded to go to Astoria, where work at better wages could be had in the sawmill. He had but $10 with which to make the journey, and that at a time when the roughest fare cost a dollar a meal. He worked his way, however, reaching Astoria in June. It was probably fortunate that he left the Rogue River as he did, since in the fall of '53 there was the memorable Indian outbreak, and the miners that escaped with life only were to be congratulated. The