ice soon became valuable. Somebody told the governor what
kind of a man he had appointed Port Warden, and the governor wrote him a
letter requesting him to resign, stating to him what representations had
been made to him about his character, which, if he had known, he would
not have appointed him. He wrote back to the governor refusing to
resign, saying to him, he had better read the papers and look after his
own character. The governor was up for re-election and the opposition
papers were pitching into him.

THE GRIZZLY BEARS.

One warm afternoon my friend Me and myself thought we would take a walk
over to Pesedeo; that was about three miles to the Pacific ocean. The
seal rocks is where the sea lions or seals can always be seen. It was
the entrance to the Golden Gates, where the roar of the Pacific ocean is
twice that of the Atlantic, it being six thousand miles broad, twice
that of the Atlantic. On our way we stopped into a tent to get a drink
of water. We found it occupied by three miners, one of whom was quite
lame. I inquired of him what was the matter. He said his hip had been
dislocated by the grizzlies. I asked him how it happened. He said they
went up to the Trinity river to dig for gold. I knew that was the most
remote gold river. He said they were lucky and found rich diggings, but
after awhile their provisions gave out and they could not procure any
unless they returned to the settlements. On their way, returning on
horseback, they came to three grizzly bears grazing in a field. It was
very dangerous to attack them, but they were very hungry. They thought
if they could kill one of them it would supply them with meat, so they
finally decided they would take their chances and fire on them, which
they did, and wounded one. The other two took after the man whose hip
was dislocated. He fled and came to a buckeye tree, the body of which
slants, and he got up in it, the bears came on under it. After awhile
they found they could not reach him. It being a low tree one of them
commenced climbing it after him. He thought his last hour had come; all
the events of his life seemed to rush on his mind, and a picture of the
old-fashioned spelling book, where the man plays dead on the bear, came
before him, which I distinctly recollected. He thought his only chance
was to drop from the tree and hold his breath, and play dead on the
bear, which he did, and fell on his face. One bear grabbed him by the
shoulders and the oth