The weekly ledger., 1857-06-27
TRACKS OF A TRAVELLER.
FORT JOHN

FORT JOHN
is rather rough country with an occasional
spot of good farming land, some of which has
been settled upon. From the fact of its har-
boring Gimlet" had formed a rather un-
favorable opinion Of Fort j John that my trials
in getting down the hill to the camp did not
improve. But, seeing man at the first cabin
spread on the ground, reading, and in the
second q woman and children and at the
third one number of empty bottles, Gall of
which are evidences of refinement and civili-
zation, took courage and walked brayely
into the heart Of the town.
Hello! may be bored into knot, my
screw twisted off, my handle split, and the
temper taken out Of me if here isn't the
Trav. How are you old fellow"
Who could have said that, but Gimlet?"
There he was before me, large as life. Ac-
cepting his chaperonage, Twas soon made
familiar with all the salient points of the
Fort.
This section was prospected as early as 80
but it is believed that all the first miners
were killed by the Indians At all events
when in thefall of 80, eight prospecters came
in here, they found the remains of three
white men, two of whom appeared to have
been killed where they lay while the third
ran into the bushes but to die. This party
of eight threw them up log fort and called
it Fort John from the fact that seven of their
number were christened with that cognomen
None Of this party were killed by the In
dians, although the savages nightly lurked
around them as they could see by the tracks.
Probably the constant guard that the party
kept saved them. Deputy sheriff Welbourn
of Sacramento was one of the eight and
from him obtained the information.
The old cry of no water" prevails here
and has driven off many of the miners this
summer. A party of five has just started
for Oregon
Seeing the following notice in cabin, "Per-
sons remaining here till meal time may expect
to have their feelings hurt" and this one
posted iu the store, persons playing for
drinks must settle at the end Of each game"
and knowing there was no public house in the
place reminded me of leaving for some other
camp; but gents Curtis and Vance came to
+ha racoua ond .andarad r,a tho boen;toIit;ae
Of their cabin; which is built in the side of
the hill, and as learned on retiring for the
night, is the regular thoroughfare Of all snakes
going down to water Killing rattlesnake
in the house is no uncommon occurrence, and
large striped "sarpinD had been seen on
my bed during the day In my dreams that
night suffered all the horrors Of delerinm
tremens. Snakes all around me, ''Tired
Natures sweet restorer, balmy Sleep" was
anything but trne to me. l awoke just as |
was being choaked by an anaconda with his
horrid Kissing in my ear; and found Gimlet's
arm across my neck and he snoring on the
highest key in the scale.
There are twelve graves in the yard here,
the tenants of which all met violent death !
As far as | could learn, no white man has
died here from disease.
The water here is so good that persons
once getting taste of it seldom are conten-
ted elsewhere, and SO in the fall it is ex-
pected that the camp will be again full, as
there are plenty of good diggings yet; all
that's wanted is enough of water for wash
ing.
The hills bordering Dry Creek at this place
are high and very abrupt and | dreaded
climbing towards Volcano, but it must be
did, and | did it.