you know our couriers over here travel with quite a cavalcade of horses, and a few pounds more would not be thought much of.  However, as it may prove interesting to yourself—­S——­ I know will read it through with pleasure and delight in it—­I dispatch it for you to do as you like with.  It will be forwarded to a young friend of mine in New York, Mr. Thorne, to whom I have written, requesting him to transmit the package to England by one of the monthly steamers.  This will save you a heavy charge for postage, which, I dare say, you would not thank me for.

You can’t conceive, my dear brother, how often I have wished you were out here with me.  Your engineering talents would have been invaluable in inventing some method of procuring the gold dust, or rather of separating it from the soil, which would have been much more effectual than the rude way in which we went to work.  At the same time, I am now thankful you are at home.  It is easy to get gold here, but it is very difficult to keep it.  In fact, after all, the affair is a hazardous lottery; and those who may succeed in getting off with their pounds of gold dust and flakes to Europe, or to the States, will be the few who will win the great prizes.

In my diary, you will find a very detailed account of our various operations and successes.  The first place we made for was on the south bank of the Americans’ River, and when the Lower or Mormon diggings, as they are called, got over-crowded, we marched off further up the river, which soon divides itself into two branches, forming the North and South Forks.  We reached the saw-mill, where the discovery was first made, and worked there some time; but finding inconveniences in the way, and hearing of another station, we started again.  This new place is called Weber’s Creek, and sometimes Rock Creek, and is a small stream running into the North Fork of the river.  We being upon the southern bank of the South Fork, and Weber’s Creek running into the North Fork at the north bank, we had to ford both branches of the stream to get to our new station, which we found very productive; the gold being more plentiful than in the lower diggings, and discovered in short veins, and in lumps amongst the rocks of the neighbouring ravines.  We should probably not have gone any further than Weber’s Creek—­I sincerely wish we had not—­but a good deal of fever and ague got about.  The sun was terribly hot in those deep valleys all day, and the nights chill and damp.  After some weeks here, then, we got restless, and set off once more, directing our course three days’ journey to the north, to a place upon the Bear River, where we were led to expect not only plenty of gold, but a better temperature and a healthier climate.  It was after we reached Bear Valley that our reverses began.  It is utterly a savage country, where a strong arm and the rifle form the only code of laws.  Up to our appearance on Bear River, we had got on with very few adventures, and considerable profit; but now came misfortunes.  I shall not trouble you with them here:  they are written at full length in the batch of MS. I send.