side, one end of their pole upon the bottom of the
river, and the other placed against their shoulder,
smoking with perspiration, their deep chests sending
forth volumes of vapor into the vapory air, their
swollen sinews strained to their utmost tension, and
keeping time to a sort of grunting song, they step
steadily along from stem to stern, thus sending the
boat rapidly over the water, except where the cur-
rent is strong. The middle of the channel, where
the water is deep and the current rapid, is avoided as
much as possible; yet with every precaution the
men frequently miss their purchase and the boat falls
back in a few minutes as great a distance as it can re-
cover in an hour. Evsry now and then, ceasing their
work, the swarthy boatmen disrobe with the most im-
perturbable sang froid, and wholly insensible to the
presence of horror-stricken females, and with perspira-
tion streaming down their naked sinewy limbs, cry
" bano 1" and running the bow of the boat into the
bank, they fasten it there with the poles and plunge into
the stream. Or if overtaken by rain, which here falls
with scarcely the slightest warning, they strip them-
selves to the last rag of whatever they happen to
have on, and rolling up their clothes put them in a
dry place until the rain is over. In places poles and
paddles are wholly ineffectual, and the boatmen are
obliged to take to the bank, and tow the boat after
them with a rope, or, wading in the water, bear it by
main force up the rapids.
One boat after another is pushed along amid sage re- marks, coarse jests and yells, and the firing of pistols. There is a humorous side to every scene; and this was the side usually uppermost in early Californian times, however trying the ordeal, or incongruous the' grouping, or dismal the moral shades. To these ad- venturers so lately liberated from the nauseating con- finement of a rolling overcrowded steamer, — not- withstanding the heat and moisture which hung in the air, and folded them about like a wet blanket —
