Here we found two men at work with a "long tom"-- a Mr.Fernay and a Mr.Bloat.They had brought the water of a small spring to their claim and were making five or six dollars per day.

We now prospected around the edge of this flat, and getting pretty fair prospects concluded we would locate here if we could get water.
We then began our search for water and found a spring about three quarters of a mile away, to which we laid claim, and with a triangle level began to survey out a route for our ditch.

The survey was satisfactory, and we found we could bring the water out high on the flat, so we set to work digging at it, and turned the water in.

The ground was so very dry that all the water soaked up within two hundred yards of the spring.
By this time we were out of grub, and some one must go for a new supply, and as we knew the trail to Downieville was terribly rough, I was chosen as the one to try to find Nevada City, which we thought would be nearer and more easily reached.

So I started south with the donkeys, up the mountain toward the ridge which lies between the middle and south Yuba Rivers, and when I got well on the ridge I found a trail used some by wagons, which I followed till I came to a place where the ridge was only wide enough for a wagon, and at the west end a faint trail turned off south into the rolling hills.