Yankee who had the materials for a store, and whose name was Hiram
Ensloe. He had several pairs to sell, but none to lend. I asked his
prices, and now had, for the first time, a real example of the effects
of plenty of gold and scarcity of goods. For a small pair of ordinary
brass scales, with a set of troy weights, I paid, on behalf of the
party, fifteen dollars, the seller consoling me by the information that
in his opinion, if the gold-hunters continued to pour in for a
fortnight longer, I would not have got the article for three times the
amount.

Furnished with my purchase, I returned to the tent, and the stock of
gold dust realised by each man was weighed, and computed at the current
rate in which the mercantile transactions of this little colony are
reckoned--namely, fourteen dollars each ounce of gold dust. We found
that McPhail and Malcolm had been, upon the whole, the most successful,
each having obtained nearly two ounces of pure gold dust, valued at
twenty-eight dollars. I myself had about twenty-three dollars' worth,
and Bradley had twenty-five dollars' worth. An amount which,
considerable though it was, we hope greatly to increase as soon as we
get our cradle into operation.

During the day, there were numerous arrivals from Sutter's Fort; and in
my opinion, these diggings will soon be overcrowded. Two of the
new-comers were known to Bradley--one, a Mr. Biggs, a shipping agent
from San Francisco; the other, Mr. Lacosse, a French Canadian, who has
recently settled in California. They accepted our offer for them to
join our party. If this influx of people continues, I think the Yankee
with the store will do better than any one; and keeping a shanty will
be a far more profitable speculation than handling a shovel or working
a cradle. What surprises me is, that in this remote spot, so distant