day I took the little steamer "Lawrence," for Vernon, which was so
heavily laden as to be only eighteen inches out of water; and the
passengers, who amounted to a large number, were requested not to move
about the deck, but to keep as quiet as possible. In three or four
hours after leaving Sacramento, the Captain suddenly cried out with
great energy, "Stop her! stop her!"; and with some difficulty the boat
escaped running into what seemed to be a solitary house standing in
a vast lake of water. I asked what place that was, and was answered,
"Vernon,"--the town where I had been advised to settle as affording a
good opening for a young lawyer. I turned to the Captain and said, I
believed I would not put out my shingle at Vernon just yet, but would
go further on. The next place we stopped at was Nicolaus, and the
following day we arrived at a place called Nye's Ranch, near the
junction of Feather and Yuba Rivers.

No sooner had the vessel struck the landing at Nye's Ranch than all
the passengers, some forty or fifty in number, as if moved by a common
impulse, started for an old adobe building, which stood upon the
bank of the river, and near which were numerous tents. Judging by
the number of the tents, there must have been from five hundred to
a thousand people there. When we reached the adobe and entered the
principal room, we saw a map spread out upon the counter, containing
the plan of a town, which was called "Yubaville," and a man standing
behind it, crying out, "Gentlemen, put your names down; put your names
down, all you that want lots." He seemed to address himself to me,
and I asked the price of the lots. He answered, "Two hundred and fifty
dollars each for lots 80 by 160 feet." I replied, "But, suppose a man
puts his name down and afterwards don't want the lots?" He rejoined,
"Oh, you need not take them if you don't want them: put your names
down, gentlemen, you that want lots." I took him at his word and wrote