Meanwhile Captain Bunting had proceeded a considerable way on his
solitary hunting expedition into the mountains, bent upon replenishing
the larder with fresh provisions. He was armed with his favourite
blunderbuss, a pocket-compass, and a couple of ship-biscuits. As he
advanced towards the head of the valley, the scenery became more and
more gloomy and rugged, but the captain liked this. Having spent the
greater part of his life at sea, he experienced new and delightful
sensations in viewing the mountain-peaks and ravines, by which he was
now surrounded; and, although of a sociable turn of mind, he had no
objection for once to be left to ramble alone, and give full vent to the
feelings of romance and enthusiastic admiration, with which his nautical
bosom had been filled since landing in California.

Towards noon, the captain reached the entrance to a ravine, or gorge,
which opened upon the larger valley, into which it discharged a little
stream from its dark bosom. There was an air of deep solitude and
rugged majesty about this ravine that induced the wanderer to pause
before entering it. Just then, certain sensations reminded him of the
two biscuits in his pocket, so he sat down on a rock and prepared to
dine. We say prepared to dine, advisedly, for Captain Bunting had a
pretty correct notion of what comfort meant, and how it was to be
attained. He had come out for the day to enjoy himself and although his
meal was frugal, he did not, on that account, eat it in an off-hand easy
way, while sauntering along, as many would have done. By no means. He
brushed the surface of the rock on which he sat quite clean, and, laying
the two biscuits on it, looked first at one and then at the other
complacently, while he slowly, and with great care, cut his tobacco into
delicate shreds, and filled his pipe. Then he rose, and taking the tin
prospecting-pan from his belt, went and filled it at the clear rivulet
which murmured at his feet, and placed it beside the biscuits on the
rock. This done, he completed the filling of his pipe, and cast a look
of benignity at the sun, which at that moment happened in his course to
pass an opening between two lofty peaks, which permitted him to throw a
cloth of gold over the captain's table.

Captain Bunting's mind now became imbued with those aspirations after
knowledge, which would have induced him, had he been at sea, to inquire,
"How's her head?" so he pulled out his pocket-compa