not efficacious in doing its work from a fowling-piece, I was obliged to
throw single balls among the masses, from the carbine; by which method,
in a few hours, we had collected a respectable horse load; they were
quite fat, and resembled the tame goose with us in every particular,
except the bill being much sharper and smaller. During the wet seasons,
a great number of natural canals intersect these lovely plains, and are
filled with swans, wild ducks, snipe and curlew, besides multitudes of
quails and cranes, with now and then a large eagle to fatten on them. As
night set in, and the wolves were beginning to cry and howl melodiously
after the wounded or sleeping birds, we returned to the rancho.

Our host, the afore-mentioned Bill Anderson, was a Cockney: very
hospitable, very much given to the bottle, and withal a great talker and
liar. His history was a simple one. Leaving England as ship-boy, he
deserted and drifted about the islands of the Pacific, until at last he
found himself stranded on the shores of California. Here he shortly
became a man of importance, from having been summarily carried out of
the country, with the Graham party, who, like our Bear friends, had
rendered themselves highly obnoxious to the native population. In course
of time Bill was released, and returned; established a mill on the
plains, married a Californian wife, and then got drunk at his leisure
and pleasure. Bill received me again most civilly, as he also did a
bottle of brandy. Whether attributable to my arrival, or necessity, I
did not pause to inquire, but certain it is that a bullock was slain
immediately thereafter; and, I presume in compliment to the carcass, an
inundation of dependents of both sexes and of all hues and colors, had
dropt in to share the feast. Bill and I, with little Juaquin retired to
an inner apartment, which happened to be laid with a plank floor, and a
good fire in the place; there was a very respectable preparation for
supper, and being much too famished to mind the filth, I shut eyes,
opened mouth, and ate away voraciously. Dogs soon licked the plates
clean, in readiness for breakfast, probably; and in a couple of hours my
thirsty host, from a too frequent application of the brandy to his
parched lips, became very gloriously tipsy; and after indulging me with
a full confession of many sins, and all his grievances, moreover his
utterance becoming somewhat indistinct, I bade him adios, while about
relating w