At every step smaller ditches crossed the road, hiding in their sallow depths unlovely streams that crept away to a clandestine union with the great yellow torrent below, and here and there were the ruins of some cabin with the chimney alone left intact and the hearthstone open to the skies.
The settlement of Smith's Pocket owed its origin to the finding of a "pocket" on its site by a veritable Smith.

Five thousand dollars were taken out of it in one half-hour by Smith.

Three thousand dollars were expended by Smith and others in erecting a flume and in tunneling.

And then Smith's Pocket was found to be only a pocket, and subject like other pockets to depletion.

Although Smith pierced the bowels of the great red mountain, that five thousand dollars was the first and last return of his labor.