At the time of the Civil War, though this weapon was not old, yet it had attained very general use throughout the frontier.
That was before the day of modern ammunition.

The six-shooter of the placer days was of the old cap-and-ball type, heavy, long-barreled, and usually wooden-handled.

It was the general ownership of these deadly weapons which caused so much bloodshed in the camps.

The revolver in the hands of a tyro is not especially serviceable, but it attained great deadliness in the hands of an expert user.

Such a man, naturally of quick nerve reflexes, skillful and accurate in the use of the weapon through long practice, became a dangerous, and for a time an unconquerable, antagonist.
It is a curious fact that the great Montana fields were doubly discovered, in part by men coming east from California, and in part by men passing west in search of new gold-fields.