floundered about for a few minutes, and then crawled out and lay down
exhausted on the ground.

The atmosphere continues exceedingly sultry, and the miners who work by
the river, out of the shade, have in several instances sunk exhausted
under the toil. Dysentery, produced probably by unwholesome food, has
also begun to show itself, and altogether the aspect of things is
anything but cheerful.

_July 15th, Saturday_.--We have engaged a large party of Indians to
work for us in the ravines. They belong to the Snake tribe, and appear
to be a poor set of half-starved wretches. We pay them in provisions,
and occasionally drams of pisco--a spirit made from Californian grapes.

On visiting the encampment of our Indians, last night after work was
over, I found about a dozen of them eagerly engaged gambling away--the
stake, in some instances, being the supper which had just been served
out to them--with an ardour equal to that of the most civilized
gamesters. So far as I could make out, the game had some analogy to our
"thimble-rigging;" but appeared to be fairly played. A small ball was
passed by three of the Indians from hand to hand, with such rapid
dexterity, that no eye could keep pace with their movements; three
others watched it with peculiar eagerness. Every now and then the
latter made a correct guess, and one was scored in their favour--if
wrong, a mark was scored against them. The Indians are in general
strongly addicted to games of chance, and they sometimes gamble away
all the clothing on their backs. I heard of an instance which occurred
near the saw-mills, of an Indian who, after having lost every article
of clothing he had, one after the other, to his more fortunate
antagonist, staked his labour for a week against the cotton shirt which