A straggling row of log cabins or huts of motley construction; a few stores so-called, sometimes of logs, or, if a saw-mill was at hand, of rude sawn boards; a number of saloons, each of which customarily also supported a dance-hall; a series of cabins or huts where dwelt individual men, each doing his own cooking and washing; and outside these huts the uptorn earth--such were the camps which dotted the trails of the stampedes across inhospitable deserts and mountain ranges.

Church and school were unknown.

Law there was none, for of organized society there was none.

The women who lived there were unworthy of the name of woman.

The men strode about in the loose dress of the camp, sometimes without waistcoat, sometimes coatless, shod with heavy boots, always armed.
If we look for causes contributory to the history of the mining-camp, we shall find one which ordinarily is overlooked--the invention of Colt's revolving pistol.