Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-08-26

and his contemporaries of gin and opium.
After this the ill-starred and ungainlv
craft floated in its crippled and lop-sided
fashion in little blight of the river. Its
passage over the Stanislaus at the lowest
stage OF water was accomplished with a
vast amount of loud outcries and cabling
on the part of Wang Chu and his crew.
who mingled their frantic padding when
in the heaviest current mid-stream with an
incessant voclteration of contradictory
orders to each other. The result was gen.
orally a Judgment of the Ark quarter
of mile below its starting point ON the
opposite side, and suspension of all
Wang Chu's other business until it was
tOwed by hand against the current back
again.
All the white men on the river were
agreed on one point: that the Ark" would
drown somebody ere its mission was end
ed. On this being told Wang Chu, as an
additional precaution he painted another
eye in the stern, sacrificed a pig to some
Monaghan marine deity, burnt more
joss-sticks, and terminated the ceremo-
MES with another olApouring of gin and
opium.
In the summertime California mount
ain river is an attenuated, feeble stream
that one may ford at every few hundred
yards; an alienation of rivulets, motion
less pools, bowlder-covered islands and
great granite powders rearing themselves
high out of the waters. But when swollen
by the long-continued rains of winter
or the melting SHOWS of the Sierras in the
spring, its quiet, peaceful character van
ishes; it becomes turbulent, roaring,
treacherous monster; it sets death-traps in
every direction Here whirling eddy,
smooth enough on its surface and seem
ingly harmless, yet possessed of invisible
arms more powerful than those of the
devil-fish, to suck and carry men down in
to its lowest depths; there maelstrom,
raging and roaring over the rocks hidden
beneath. During the freshet the banks
culver and trembe as the immense power
whirls and foams past, and your voice is
caught from your lips and hXled into in
distinctness. From forty nine" upward
every one of these mountain gold bearing
streams has claimed long list of victims,
and many brave fellow has been caught
in their deadly embrace, never to be seen
afterward
The Stanislaus was booming one
spring afternoon at its highest water-mark
when five Cinnamon, encountered with
their blankets, bundles, rockers, jacks,
pans and shovels, came stringing down
the Park Hill trail. They stopped and
refreshed themselves for time at the
China store, and then, accompanied by
Wang Chu, placed themselves and bag
gage in his boat to be ferred over.
A quarter of mile below their starting
place was the Black Rock, gigantic
bowlder, which for centuries had pitted it.
self against the stream. 1t was not more
than $50 yards from the shore, and the
Stanislaus at this point was not more than
double that distance in width. Here the
waters, suddenly narrowed to this COM
pass betwiXt rocky walls, rushed rather in
succession of great waves or bursts than
a regular current This, in fact, was the
upper entrance of the Big Canon, two
miles in length, and by reason Of the
rocky walls and raging current no min
ing could ever be successfully accom-
plished here at the most favorable season.
Directly opposite the Black Rock, on a
little knoll, was the cabin of Timid Sims.
He, in company with chance partner,
was working on the bank near by.
SIMS was always picking up the waits,
stragglers and castaways who were drift
ing about the country. His house and
scanty larder were ever open to them. He
took them as partners, and trusted them as
freely as though they had come burdened
with trunks full of Endorsements and tcsti
monials Of good character Sometimes
they robbed him; sometimes they got
drunk and made his house pandemo-
mum; sometimes they etiectedshe same
result without the aio of whisky, by grad
ually developing sour, surly, terocious dis
positions. The best of the lot carried the
gross result in gold dust of a week s wash
ing to Columbia for the purpose of turn
ing it into com, and after many days
waiting therefor Sims received a letter
from the delinquent, stating that he was
overwhelmed with shame and remOrse,
but he had given way to his besetting sin
for gambling and the dust had all gone
into the NAV Of the tiger" He had not
proved an able workman. either. His
hands seemed never before tohave grasped
pick aid shovel; and after mornings
gasplng labor Sims would often insist that
he should remain at home during the
afternoon and make himself comfortable,
for it was sore distress to see a man
painting and struggling with work to which
il was very clear he was unaccustomed.
You'll get your throat cut one of these
nights by some of these chaps you're al
ways picking up" was the rough and con
descending advice Of Jim Freemantle to
Sims. Sims looked as if the idea was en-
tirely new to him, but the next straggler
coming along was as readily taken in.
1t was about eleven O'Clock. Sims and
his cooperative straggler had put through
their last run Of twenty-five buckets, and
We're washing down" to see how it had
yielded The sieve and apron of the rock
er were taken off There was great deal
of sand in the bottom of the apparatus
This Sims was running off by means of
successive streams of water, poured from
his long-handled dipper, aided by pc