animal so jaded with travel as to be in
all probability only saved from death by starvation and fatigue, by
being put to death to save over-wearied men from famine, and this cooked
at a fire of _bois de vache_, with only the shelter of an overhanging
rock--to the fat venison and savoury wildfowl of the woods and lakes,
broiled on the glowing hardwood embers under the comfortable roof of
sheltering bark, or the leafy shade of the monarch of the forest; while
the cheerful whinny of their well-fed beasts would have given joyful
token that nature in her bounty had been forgetful of nothing which her
dependent children could desire.

"While such and so great is the power of circumstances to vary the
impressions made upon the senses, some hesitation must be used in their
reception until fully confirmed, or they must be limited by other
accounts, as unbiassed judgment may direct, especially as the
temperament of individuals may serve to heighten the colouring, whether
sombre or sunny, in which circumstances may have depicted the landscape.
It is not every traveller who can, with Mackenzie, expatiate on the
beauty of scenery while in fear of treachery from fickle and bloody
savages; or like Fremont, though dripping from the recent flood, and
uncertain of the means of existence even for the day, his arms, clothes,
provisions, instruments, deep in the whirlpools of the foaming Platte,
stop to gaze with admiration on the `fantastic ruins' Nature has `piled'
among her mountain fastnesses, while from his bare and bleeding feet he
draws the sharp spines of the hostile cacti. Truth from travellers is
consequently for the most part relative. Abstractedly, with reference
to any country, it must be derived from the combined accounts and
different phases of truth afforded by many."

CHAPTER ONE.

RICHNESS AND EXTENT OF THE GOLD FIELDS.

"Destiny, which has lately riveted our attention on the burning plains
of the extreme East," says the _Times_ of 9th July, "now claims our
solicitude for the auriferous mountains and rushing rivers of the Far
West and the shores of the remote Pacific. What most of us know of
these ultra-occidental regions may be summed up in a very few words. We
have most of us read Washington Irving's charming narrative of
`Astoria,' sympathised with the untimely fate of Captain Thorn and his
crew, and read with breathless interest the wanderings of the pilgrims
to the head waters of the Columbia. After thir