s working in a shallow gully.
I saw that a "rush" was in progress, so joined in. The gully was short;
it contained but seven claims in all. As I got my pegs in at one end of
a claim, another digger was putting his in at the corresponding corner
opposite. There was nothing to do but take up the claim in partnership.

My partner was a Swede, who went under an Irish name. I hated him from
the beginning, feeling that he was a rogue. We harrowed the stuff down
to old Lochhead's race, where we hired a water right. Our wash-up for
the first week was a couple of ounces of gold. I worked in the claim
while my partner attended to the sluice-box. He became more and more
offensive. Soon a friend of his came along and offered me 15 for my
share. I accepted the offer.

It is quite certain that I was swindled, that my partner had found much
more gold than he divided with me. The lead was both narrow and
shallow, so that the claim was soon worked out. The gold found in it
sold for over 1,400. "Charlie Brown's Gully" was one of the richest of
the smaller leads that were struck.

Immediately after leaving the Lower Camp, when proceeding up-creek, if
one looked squarely to the right, a high saddle between two mountain
peaks was visible. I had several times walked over this place and been
struck by its similarity to the formation at "The Reef," which I have
already described. On the day after I sold out at "Charlie Brown's
Gully" I again visited this saddle and took a "prospect." There was a
small spring some distance down the mountainside. I bagged about fifty
pounds of wash, carried it down to the spring, and panned it out. The
result was most encouraging; I found several small nuggets of rough
gold.

Reaching the top of the saddle involved a breathless climb. There was
no water in its vicinity nearer than the little spring I have
mentioned. This was a mere trickle at the base of a big rock. However,
by "puddling" I managed to make a small dam which would at night
collect enough water to admit of a limited amount of panning or
cradling by day.

For several consecutive days I ascended the mountain. The wash, which
consisted of rough quartz pebbles mixed with earth, was about nine
inches deep; it lay on a soft slate bottom. The wind blew hard and the
wash was dry, so I lifted shovelful after shovelful of the latter as
high as I could and let it trickle slowly down. The object of this was
to winnow out as much of the sand as possible.