he Sonora, and spending years of life in the wildest
recesses of the Rocky Mountains. Associating together generally from
circumstances purely accidental, they form little communities, subject
to distinct laws; and however turbulent and rebellious under ordinary
control, beneath the sway of the self-chosen leaders they are reputed to
be submissive and obedient.

Their skill is, as may be judged, rude as their habits, they rarely
carry their researches to any depth beneath the surface; some general
rules are all their guidance, and these are easily acquired. They are
all familiar with the fact that the streams which descend from the
Rocky Mountains, either towards the Atlantic or Pacific, carry in their
autumnal floods vast masses of earth, which form deposits in the plains;
that these deposits are often charged with precious ores, and sometimes
contain great pieces of pure gold. They know, besides, that the quartz
rock is the usual bed where the precious metals are found, and that
these rocks form spurs from the large mountains, easily known, because
they are never clothed by vegetation, and called in their phraseology
"Crestones."

A sharp short stroke of the "barreta," the iron-shod staff of the
Gambusino, soon shivers the rock where treasure is suspected; and, the
fragments being submitted to the action of a strong fire, the existence
of gold is at once tested. Often the mere stroke of the barreta will
display the shining lustre of the metal without more to do. Such is, for
the most part, the extent of their skill.

There are, of course, gradations even here; and some will distinguish
themselves above their fellows in the detection of profitable sources
and rich "crestones," while others rarely rise above the rank of mere
"washers,"--men employed to sift the sands and deposits of the rivers in
which the chief product is gold-dust.

Such, then, is the life of a "Gambusino." In this pursuit he traverses
the vast continent of South America from east to west, crossing
torrents, scaling cliffs, descending precipices, braving hunger, thirst,
heat, and snow, encountering hostile Indians and the not less terrible
bands of rival adventurers, contesting for existence with the wild
animals of the desert, and generally at last paying with his life the
price of his daring intrepidity. Few, indeed, are ever seen as old
men among their native villages; nearly all have found their last rest
beneath the scorching sand of the prai