The library. No churches,
society, etc. "No vegetables but potatoes and onions, no milk, no eggs,
no _nothing_."

Letter _the_ Seventh

_The_ NEW LOG-CABIN HOME _at_ INDIAN BAR

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 7, 1851.

You will perchance be surprised, dear M., to receive a letter from me
dated Indian instead of Rich Bar, but, as many of F.'s most intimate
friends reside at this settlement, he concluded to build his log cabin
here.

Solemn council was held upon the ways and means of getting "Dame
Shirley" to her new home. The general opinion was, that she had better
mount her fat mule and ride over the hill, as all agreed that it was
very doubtful whether she would be able to cross the logs and jump the
rocks which would bar her way by the water-passage. But that obstinate
little personage, who has always been haunted with a passionate desire
to do everything which people said she could _not_ do, made up her
willful mind immediately to go by the river. Behold, then, the "Dame"
on her winding way, escorted by a deputation of Indian Barians, which
had come up for that important purpose.

It is impossible, my sister, for any power of language, over which _I_
have command, to convey to you an idea of the wild grandeur and the
awful magnificence of the scenery in this vicinity. This fork of the
Feather River comes down very much as the water does at Lodore, now
gliding along with a liquid measure like a river in a dream, and anon
bursting into a thousand glittering foam-beads over the huge rocks,
which rise dark, solemn, and weird-like in its midst. The crossings are
formed of logs, often moss-grown. Only think how charmingly picturesque
to eyes wearied with the costly masonry or carpentry of the bridges at
home! At every step gold-diggers, or their operations, greet your
vision, sometimes in the form of a dam, sometimes in that of a river
turned slightly from its channel to aid the indefatigable gold-hunters
in their mining projects. Now, on the side of a hill, you will see a
long-tom, a huge machine invented to facilitate the separation of the
ore from its native element; or a man busily engaged in working a
rocker, a much smaller and simpler machine used for the same object;
or, more primitive still, some solitary prospector with a pan of dirt
in his hands, which he is carefully washing at the water's edge to see
if he can "get the color," as it is technically phrased, which means,
literally