I marked the spot and carried away my specimen.

Up and down the rugged mountain side I searched, with always increasing interest and always augmenting gratitude that I had come to Humboldt and come in time.

Of all the experiences of my life, this secret search among the hidden treasures of silver-land was the nearest to unmarred ecstasy.

It was a delirious revel.
By and by, in the bed of a shallow rivulet, I found a deposit of shining yellow scales, and my breath almost forsook me! A gold mine, and in my simplicity I had been content with vulgar silver! I was so excited that I half believed my overwrought imagination was deceiving me.

Then a fear came upon me that people might be observing me and would guess my secret.
Moved by this thought, I made a circuit of the place, and ascended a knoll to reconnoiter.