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Show 18 PERSONAL ADVENTURES and gold, and prevent their escaping when the receptacle is full. This instrument is used in the same manner as an augur. The third machine, the pan, is also of late introduction, but has been found rather too deep for the purpose for which it is intended. Notwithstanding the success which seemed to attend the labours of the Sonoreans, I subsequently discovered that the entire of the gold thus painfully obtained disappeared at the galnbling- stalls. They were generally clad most wretchedly, many of then1 'vearing nothing more than a dirty shirt, a pair of light pantaloons, and the wide so1nbrre1~o pecu· liar to the inhabitants of this country and Mexico. Some few sported a serapa, but they were men of superior native rank, of which this garment is a distinctive characteristic. Continuing my route up the ravine, I met a man named Corrigan, galloping along with two fine horses, one of which he was leading. He stopped as soon as he recognised 1ne, and we 'vere soon engaged in a very interesting IN CALIFORNIA. 19 conversation respecting the doings at -the ''diggins." The substance of his information 'vas, that he had made a great deal of money at the tnines by digging, but infinitely more by speculation. lie thought of buying a ranclte, marrying, and settling down. He 'vas then going to seek for pasture for his horses; and, bidding n1e a hasty good by, galloped off, and soon disappeared. As I advanced, t~e ground became drier and tnore sandy, rock and slate of various kinds abounding; some quite soft and friable, yielding readily to the pickaxe or the crowbar; and, in other places, so hard as to resist the utmost strength of the miners. Several of the diggers were perseveringly exploring the localities where the rotten sorts of slate were found in the largest quantities, and I sa'v them pick out a good deal of gold with their jack-knives. Their principal aim was to discover what they termed "a pocket," 'vhich is nothing more than a crevice bet,veen the blocks of slate, into which a deposit of gold has been washed by the heavy rains from |