The Indians remained and encamped outside our fort; last night and this morning the greater part took their departure.  The guard last night had orders to keep a sharp look-out, as we thought that our friends, even though they had no hostile intentions towards us, might still take a strong liking to some of our horses; but nothing of a suspicious character occurred.  Five young men of the tribe also have stopt behind, who wish to continue with us and work for us, but the low state of our commissarial renders it desirable not to accept their offer, unless our hunters return to-day with a good stock of provisions.

August 13th.  Our hunters have been very successful these last few days.  We have a large stock of elk meat, which we intend drying after the Indian fashion.  On Friday, while Don Luis and the trapper were out together, they were surprised by the sight of a huge bear right before them, slowly walking up towards them.  As soon as he arrived within about a hundred paces he squatted down upon his haunches for a few moments; but, as they got nearer to him, and just as they were preparing to give him a greeting in the shape of a couple of balls through his head, he rose up and scampered off.  They fired, but without success, and the brute plunged into a dense thicket; after which they saw nothing more of him.

Our Indians, after stopping with us a couple of days, during which period we compelled them to encamp at night-time outside the fort, took their departure early on Friday morning, or else during the night of Thursday, unperceived by our sentinels.  They, however, took nothing with them belonging to our party, except a couple of blankets we had lent to the two principal men.

CHAPTER XVII.

  A rich mine of gold discovered
  A guard both night and day
  A good morning’s work
  An Indian scout
  How he served Dowling, and how Dowling served him
  A look-out
  Indians seen advancing
  A moment of fear
  A yell
  Arrows and rifles
  A wounded chief carried off
  The field of battle
  The return to the camp
  Horses driven off by Indians
  Where Jose was found
  The wounded attended to
  An after-dinner discussion
  How the watch went to sleep, and how they were woke up
  McPhail missing
  Wolves, deer, and a puma
  A party set out in search of McPhail.

August 20th, Sunday.—­The past week has been in many respects an eventful one.  On Friday, while several of us were rambling about the neighbourhood of the camp, exploring the numerous mountain canones which lie between us and the Sierra Nevada, we found, among the loose particles of rock which had crumbled away from the sides of the ravine and fallen to the bottom, several lumps of gold of a much larger size than any we had before met with.  This induced us to examine the upper part of the ravine,