Men’s minds were full of strange positive knowledge, not only as to the extent of the goldmines, but also as to theory and practice of the actual mining.  Contemporary writers tell us of the hundreds and hundreds of different strange machines invented for washing out the gold and actually carried around the Horn or over the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco.  They were of all types, from little pocket-sized affairs up to huge arrangements with windmill arms and wings.  Their destination was inevitably the beach below the San Francisco settlement, where, half buried in the sand, torn by the trade winds, and looted for whatever of value might inhere in the metal parts, they rusted and disintegrated, a pathetic and grisly reminder of the futile greed of men.

Nor was this excitement confined to the eastern United States.  In France itself lotteries were held, called, I believe, the Lotteries of the Golden Ingot.  The holders of the winning tickets were given a trip to the gold-fields.  A considerable number of French came over in that manner, so that life in California was then, as now, considerably leavened by Gallicism.  Their ignorance of English together with their national clannishness caused them to stick together in communities.  They soon became known as Keskydees.  Very few people knew why.  It was merely the frontiersmen’s understanding of the invariable French phrase "Qu’est-ce qu’il dit?" In Great Britain, Norway, to a certain extent in Germany, South America, and even distant Australia, the adventurous and impecunious were pricking up their ears and laying their plans.

There were offered three distinct channels for this immigration.  The first of these was by sailing around Cape Horn.  This was a slow but fairly comfortable and reasonably safe route.  It was never subject to the extreme overcrowding of the Isthmus route, and it may be dismissed in this paragraph.  The second was by the overland route, of which there were several trails.  The third was by the Isthmus of Panama.  Each of these two is worth a chapter, and we shall take up the overland migration first.

CHAPTER V

ACROSS THE PLAINS

The overland migration attracted the more hardy and experienced pioneers, and also those whose assets lay in cattle and farm equipment rather than in money.  The majority came from the more western parts of the then United States, and therefore comprised men who had already some experience in pioneering.  As far as the Mississippi or even Kansas these parties generally traveled separately or in small groups from a single locality.  Before starting over the great plains, however, it became necessary to combine into larger bands for mutual aid and protection.  Such recognized meeting-points were therefore generally in a state of congestion.  Thousands of people with their equipment and animals were crowded together in some river-bottom awaiting the propitious moment for setting forth.