accomplished by panning out a
few basinfuls of the soil. If it pays, they claim the spot and build
their shanties. The news spreads that wonderful diggings have been
discovered at such a place. The monte-dealers--those worse than
fiends--rush, vulture-like, upon the scene and erect a round tent,
where, in gambling, drinking, swearing, and fighting, the _many_
reproduce pandemonium in more than its original horror, while a _few_
honestly and industriously commence digging for gold, and lo! as if a
fairy's wand had been waved above the bar, a full-grown mining town
hath sprung into existence.

But, first, let me explain to you the claiming system. As there are no
state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make
its own. Here they have decided that no man may claim an area of more
than forty feet square. This he stakes off, and puts a notice upon it,
to the effect that he holds it for mining purposes. If he does not
choose to work it immediately, he is obliged to renew the notice every
ten days, for, without this precaution, any other person has a right to
"jump" it, that is, to take it from him. There are many ways of evading
the above law. For instance, an individual can hold as many claims as
he pleases if he keeps a man at work in each, for this workman
represents the original owner. I am told, however, that the laborer
himself can jump the claim of the very man who employs him, if he
pleases so to do. This is seldom, if ever, done. The person who is
willing to be hired generally prefers to receive the six dollars per
diem, of which he is _sure_ in any case, to running the risk of a claim
not proving valuable. After all, the holding of claims by proxy is
considered rather as a carrying out of the spirit of the law than as an
evasion of it. But there are many ways of _really_ outwitting this
rule, though I cannot stop now to relate them, which give rise to
innumerable arbitrations, and nearly every Sunday there is a miners'
meeting connected with this subject.

Having got our gold-mines discovered and claimed, I will try to give
you a faint idea of how they work them. Here, in the mountains, the
labor of excavation is extremely difficult, on account of the immense
rocks which form a large portion of the soil. Of course no man can work
out a claim alone. For that reason, and also for the same that makes
partnerships desirable, they congregate in companies of four or six,
generally designating the