for a time, returned to their places. They did this several times before she discovered the state of affairs in her religious colony. Then she began digging with a stick in the earthern floor of the sweat-house, to make it so deep below the surface that the children, not able to get out, would necessarily remain at their post while she slept on hers.

As she did this the ground became moist, then wet with water oozing out of it, and the children were compelled to rise. Very soon a bubbling spring made its appearance in their midst. The water jet became stronger and stronger, until the whole sweat-house was full. But it did not stop there: the spring became a river, the river a lake, the lake a sea, and everything perished therein but the little children and the woman. The little innocents became birds, and she burns up somewhere else.

Many and various are their speculations as to the probable fate of our planet; but they all come under three distinct heads.

The Con-cows are not quite positive as to which way the world will come to an end; if the rain is constant and heavy, they think that the flood is coming back, but as long as Un-koi-to's rainbow arches the heavens they have no fear. If the wind comes in a tornado, strewing the giant pines like broken reeds in its path, Hikatwach-to, the wizard of the north, has broken his bounds upon the Yu-dic-na Yum-tsa and is about to turn it upside down. If the summer heats are fiercer than usual and fall day after day with added strength upon the parched earth, the story of Pe-uch-ano passes from mouth to mouth, each more excited than the other for the great "Sahm" is coming once more, and Un-koi-to, the Savior, is coming with it.

Among the E-da-mas unusual heat is the precursor of the great fire brought about though the wiles of Cun-mauk-wissle."

If in the winter months the rain comes down in never ceasing torrents with a thick veil of nimbus from zenith to horizon, en

veloping nature for awhile in almost inpenetrable gloom, the great cold that surrounded Poke-e-wip when his father Eas left him alone upon the mountain top before the sun was made, is coming once more and for the last time, the limbs in the trees overhead, covered with pendant icicles dissolving in the rain and then freezing again, are already becoming brittle and crackling in the deathdealing cold, and the trembling, shivering Yuka prepares to meet his fast-approaching fate.

If an earthquake wave undulates under the valley crust, and the huts and shanties on the reservation move to and fro for an instant in a slight oscillatory motion, the gigantic mole imprisoned in the entrails of the earth is moving again and the living Pomos are about to be entombed with the dead before being gathered together at the feet of Mi-ke-lah for the eternal bliss comes only through life-destroying suffering.

But the expiring throes of nature in deadly anguish, these final convulsions of whatsoever kind in which the earth will dissolve forever, never come alone, for with them is the mystic being coming from the east who is to redeem mankind, and out of the perishable bodies gather the immortal. spirits to carry them to a greater, omnipotent Being who lives in the He-pe-ning-ko, the blue land of the stars.

I came, sometime since, upon the following description of this hedonic heaven from the pen of a distinguished authority on the Northern California Indians:

They hold that in some far, sunny island of the Pacific, an island of fadeless verdure, of cool and shining trees, looped with tropic vines, of bubbling fountains, of flowery and fragrant savannas, rimmed with lilac shadows, where the purple and wine-stained waves shiver in a spume of gold across the reefs, shot through and through by the level sunbeams of the morning - they will dwell forever in an atmosphere like that around the Castle of Indolence; for the deer and

VOL. X.-32.

Not having any particular objective point so long as we got into the mines, we concluded to go up on the Cosumnes and see Major McKinstry, who was known personally to my friends George B. and Edward Hyatt of New York, sons of Captain Hyatt of Hudson (who ran a North River steamer for years in early days). The Major had a ranch on the Cosumnes; and when we arrived, as was the custom in those days everybody was heartily welcome. He advised that we remain at his place and prospect on the river anywhere. "There is gold everywhere," he said. True, no one had ever tried the bar in front of his place, but he knew gold was everywhere.

So the next morning bright and early four of us took down our tools and a rocker, and went to work briskly digging and throwing aside the cobbles. After washing ten pans of dirt we had to examine our rocker and see what luck. It looked very small to us who expected to see something more than very fine scales of gold. As it was low down on the river, we could not not expect else; but at the time we were ignorant of that fact: We worked everything from the top sand down, and at the expiration of the day found that we had only about twenty dollars worth of dust in all for the four of us; and considering that that would not pay we concluded to bundle up the next morning and hunt some better place.

So we left the genial Major and proceeded farther up the river, perhaps ten miles or so, where we found about three hundred men encamped all around the hills, and all seemed busy, so we pitched our tent and staked our horses for the night; and the next morning went down to the bar and marked off our four claims of fifteen feet square

each. That was all the ground each man was allowed at that time, by common consent of the miners all through the country. Having everything in readiness, after breakfast we took down our tools, and buckets to pack the dirt in to the rocker, and set to work with a will. The result of our day's toil was satisfactory, although I do not now recollect the amount realized. We worked from day to day, and had a general purse, as all partners did in those days. The gold was put into a buckskin pouch after weighing every evening.

After we had worked about a week, one morning before we went down to the bar, which was behind the hill where we were encamped, the companion that I took in San Francisco, who had enjoyed all privileges in common with all of us from our first adventures at Sutterville on, complained of being ill and did not eat any breakfast. This we thought was from over-exertion, and we told him to stay in camp to look after things, and get our dinner ready by the time we came up. But after we got to work everything seemed to go wrong - the rocker would not work right, our prospects did not look as well, and finally one of the boys said, "I guess I'll go up to the camp, and you come up whenever you are ready." In about fifteen minutes down he came again post haste saying, "Ed S― has gone and I can't find any track of him. Our best horse is gone too, and the purse [which we left under our pillow with over one thousand dollars in it] and several other things."

We went for camp with a bound, and found to our dismay that everything pointed to a premeditated robbery. So one of the boys saddled up a horse and put out on the hill, up over the road and down toward Sac

ramento, supposing he would head that way; but getting there he found no traces, and returned that night. The next morning it was noised all over camp, and the indignation of all the miners was aroused. Many put out in different directions to find the escaped thief and ingrate, while my friend set out again on a fresh horse, this time towards Coloma on the American River, which was then the prominent mining camp of the country.

About five miles from Placerville he saw on the road, coming towards him on our horse, the fugitive. He took him in charge easily, as he was of a determined character, and Ed S-- knew it. The first thing he did was to take away his prisoner's pistol; then getting the help of some parties on the road, he had him tied in his saddle; and leading along the horse by tying the riata to the pommel of his own saddle, rode back toward camp with the prisoner at the same time telling every man he met to mark him, so they would know him if he ever got into their vicinity. Farther on, others from the camp fell in with them, and about sundown the party arrived. Immediately everyone knew of it, and it was understood that next morning he must be tried. That night we put him in the blankets between us, and while one kept watch we slept, changing watch every two hours till morning.

When he was questioned as to what he had done with the money, - for we found he had only a little gold dust about him, he said he had been to Hangtown (now called Placerville) and had gambled it all off. A watch that had been missing we found under his pillow running. He denied that he had had it; but as a watch does not run forty-eight hours or more without winding the evidence was against him.

That day was a general holiday all through and around the camp for three or four miles; for the miners had been informed of the trial and they all came, expecting before night to see a man hanged — that was the

penalty all through the mines in those days for stealing; and that is why every one was so careless with his gold, no one thinking of putting it in any other place than in his blankets or under his pillow, and going to work with perfect safety leaving it there. By nine o'clock there were probably seven or eight hundred miners on the ground.

They chose the oldest man then in the mines for a judge. I remember his looks well; he was eighty years of age, hale, robust, and said he had never been really sick a day in his life, had never taken any medicine, but if he felt not altogether right in his stomach would take about a half teaspoonful of very fine gravel on the same principle that a chicken does, I suppose; at all events, he said it was his only medicine. This old gentleman was selected to act as judge, as every one wanted to see fair play, and they thought cool judgment would be better exercised by an old man than by a young one. So under the wide spreading branches of an old oak the tribunal was held, and the decision was to be accepted by all present as final and without demurring.

All being ready the prisoner was brought up and questioned as to whether he stole the money, horse, and other things, or not. He admitted his guilt in every particular. His reasons were then asked: had he been in any way treated by any of us otherwise than as an equal in all things? He acknowledged that he had enjoyed all the privileges and shared equally in all benefits accrued since he had been with us, although we had contributed all the original funds to start with. He could give no reason whatever for his conduct. It was deemed unnecessary to question us as to anything, since he himself had admitted all. So the old gentleman, with his long white locks flowing in the breeze, addressed him about to this effect :

"Young man, you know the penalty for stealing in this country, and should we let