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Contents:

Preface. Chapter I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII. Appendix.

Some typographical errors have been corrected;a list follows the text. (etext transcriber's note)

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty-one, by
Leonard Woods,
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Southern
District of New York.

PREFACE.

It is almost inconceivable what an excitement was produced upon nationsand individuals by the discovery, less than four years since, of goldamong the mountains of Upper California. Tides of human life soon set intoward this one point; currents here met, whirling and contending withincreasing force; and, where all was silent and calm before, was heardthe roar, and seen the violence and agitation of the maelstrom.

The writer was for sixteen months employed in the gold mines, chieflyupon the American and Tuolumne Rivers and their tributaries. His reasonsfor compiling his notes and presenting them to the public may be brieflystated. It was the request of several friends that he would keep ajournal of his mining life, exhibiting its lights and shades, itsfortunes and misfortunes. This he did, jotting down from day to day theincidents as they occurred. Many mining companions, aware of this fact,requested him to prepare his journal for the press, that their friendsmight thus have a view of their circumstances and employments.

Having so long been a miner, and acquainted with all his privations andsufferings; having experienced{vi} his elation at success and hisdepression at failure; having passed through the trying season ofacclimation, and lain once beneath a lone oak, expecting, as he lookedup to the stars shining clear above him, there to end his days; havingrocked the gold-digger’s cradle, wielded his pick and spade, messed andslept with miners, he is prepared to present a correct view of hissubject for those who have friends at the mines.

He considers that it will be proper to present incidents of travel onhis journey to California, in connection with the more important object,both to afford a view of the dangers and difficulties of the earlieremigrants to this country, and also to maintain the unity of his plan.

He hopes to make this little volume useful to those who are, or whoexp

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