, the smallest particle of gold.

As we approached Indian Bar the path led several times fearfully near
deep holes, from which the laborers were gathering their yellow
harvest, and Dame Shirley's small head swam dizzily as she crept
shudderingly by.

The first thing which attracted my attention as my new home came in
view, was the blended blue, red, and white of the American banner
undulating like a many-colored snake amid the lofty verdure of the
cedars which garland the brown brow of the hill behind our cabin. This
flag was suspended on the Fourth of July last by a patriotic sailor,
who climbed to the top of the tree to which he attached it, cutting
away the branches as he descended, until it stood among its stately
brethren a beautiful moss-wreathed liberty-pole, flinging to the face
of heaven the glad colors of the Free.

When I attempt, dear M., to describe one of these spots to you, I
regret more than ever the ill health of my childhood, which prevented
my attaining any degree of excellence in sketching from nature. Had it
not been for that interruption to my artistic education, I might, with
a few touches of the pencil or the brush, give you the place and its
surroundings. But, alas! my feeble pen will convey to you a very faint
idea of its savage beauty.

This Bar is so small that it seems impossible that the tents and cabins
scattered over it can amount to a dozen. There are, however, twenty in
all, including those formed of calico shirts and pine boughs. With the
exception of the paths leading to the different tenements, the entire
level is covered with mining-holes, on the edges of which lie the
immense piles of dirt and stones which have been removed from the
excavations. There is a deep pit in front of our cabin, and another at
the side of it, though they are not worked, as, when "prospected," they
did not "yield the color."

Not a spot of verdure is to be seen on this place, but the glorious
hills rising on every side, vested in foliage of living green, make
ample amends for the sterility of the tiny level upon which we camp.
The surrounding scenery is infinitely more charming than that of Rich
Bar. The river, in hue of a vivid emerald, as if it reflected the hue
of the fir-trees above, bordered with a band of dark red, caused by the
streams flowing into it from the different sluices, ditches, long-toms,
etc., which meander from the hill just back of the Bar, wanders
musically along. Across the river