Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/398

 388 PETER H. BURNETT. had plenty of provisions, and had suffered but little. We therefore rallied them heartily, all of which they bore with the best of humor. Our ox teams had beaten their pack animals, thus proving that the race is not always to the swift. In passing down the valley, we encamped one evening near the house of an old settler named Potter. He lived in a very primitive style. His yard, in front of his adobe building, was full of strips of fresh beef, hung upon lines to dry. He was very talkative and boastful. He had been in the mines, had employed Indians to work for him, and had grown suddenly rich ; and, as his head was naturally light, it had been easily turned. He came to our camp and talked with us until about midnight. It was here that I first heard the word "prospecting" used. At first I could not understand what Potter meant by the term, but I listened patiently to our garrulous guest, until I discovered its meaning. When gold was first discovered in Califor- nia, and any one went out searching for new placers, they would say, "He has gone to hunt for new gold diggings." But, as this fact had to be so often repeated, some practical, sensible, economical man called the whole process "pros- pecting." So perfectly evident was the utility of this new word, that it was at once universally adopted. We arrived in a few days at Captain Butter's Hock Farm, so called from a small tribe of Indians in that vi- cinity. I called on the agent, and made some inquiries as to the mines. He replied that there was no material difference between the different mining localities, so far as he knew. Those on the Yuba River he knew to be good. We forded the Feather River a few miles below Hock Farm, and then took up this stream towards the Yuba, and encamped a little before sundown near the rancho of Michael Nye. Doctor Atkinson, then practicing his pro-