four men, who took it to San Francisco
and the Eastern states, and exhibited it for money. They guarded the
precious thing day and night, but at last quarrelled so that it had to
be broken up and divided between them.

The first piece Marshall found was said to be worth about fifty cents,
and the second over five dollars. Almost all, though, that was found
was like beans or small seeds or in fine dust. No one tried to weigh
or measure such gold more correctly than to call a pinch between the
finger and thumb a dollar's worth, while a teaspoonful was an ounce,
or sixteen dollars' worth. A wineglassful meant a hundred dollars,
and a tumblerful a thousand. Miners carried their "dust" in a buckskin
bag, and this was put on the counter, and the storekeeper took out
what he thought enough to pay for the things the miner bought. A large
thumb to take a large pinch of the gold-dust meant a good many extra
dollars to the storekeeper in '48 and '49. Yet nearly every one was
honest, and gold might be left in an open tent untouched, for there
was plenty more to be had for the picking up. Those who would rather
steal than work were driven out of camp.

Some of the "sand bars," or banks of gravel and earth, washed down by
the Yuba River were so rich that the men could pick out a tin cupful
of gold day after day for weeks. One place was called Tin-cup Bar for
this reason. Spanish Bar, on the American River, yielded a million
dollars' worth of dust, and at Ford's Bar, a miner, named Ford, took
out seven hundred dollars a day for three weeks. At Rich Bar, on the
Feather River, a panful of earth gave fifteen hundred dollars.

Yet the miners were seldom satisfied, but were always prospecting for
richer claims. A man would shoulder his roll of blankets, his pick and
shovel, with a few cooking things, and start off hoping to find some
rich nugget, leaving a fairly good claim untouched.

The most extravagant prices were charged the miner for everything he
had to buy. Ten dollars apiece for pick and shovel, fifty more for a
pair of long boots, with bacon and potatoes at a dollar and a half a
pound, soon took all his gold-dust to pay for. A dozen fresh eggs cost
ten dollars, and a box of sardines half an ounce of gold-dust, which
was eight dollars. There was no butter to buy, for any milk was
quickly sold at a dollar a pint. The hotels charged three dollars a
meal, or a dollar for a dish of pork and beans, and a dollar for two
potatoes.