There must have been as much as twelve hundred pounds of provisions laying on the ground when they got through, and I saw the contents of two other wagons share the same fate that same day.  How long that stuff lay there I do not know.  We left there the next morning, and I noticed that it had not been touched.

I never saw so many discouraged-looking people at one time as I saw in those wagons that were camped around Clear creek.  I visited a number of camps where six or eight men would be sitting around a little fire talking about their disappointment in not finding gold to take home to their families, and some of them were crying like children as they said the expense of fitting out their teams and themselves had ruined them financially.

This spot on Clear creek seemed to be the turntable for the gold-seekers.  They either went up the mountain to the mines or became discouraged and turned around and went home, and I do not believe that one out of ten ever left the creek to go up the mountain.

The way from Clear creek to the mines at Russel’s gulch was through the mountains, with nothing but a trail to travel on and the roughest country to try to take wagons over I ever saw.

I do not know how many miles it was, but I do remember that we had a hard day’s ride from Clear creek to Russel’s gulch, and we did not ride a half a mile without seeing more or less wagons that had been left beside the trail, and in many of the broken wagons the outfit that the owner had started with was in the wagon.

[Illustration:  I bent over him and spoke to him, but he did not answer.]

CHAPTER XII.

The night we struck the mines, we camped near the head of Russel’s gulch.  The next morning, after we had eaten our breakfast, we started out to take a look around, and Bridger said, “Where in the name of common sense do these people come from?” For look in any direction we would, there was a bunch of men with pick and shovel slung over their backs, and every little while we came on a bunch of men digging a hold in the ground.

Later in the forenoon we went to Green Russel’s cabin, he being the man who had discovered the gold in that country.  He had never met Uncle Kit before but had heard a great deal about him.  When Carson told him his name, he invited us into his cabin.  After we had talked with him awhile, he said, “I suppose you all think that I am to blame for all of this excitement, but if you think so, you are mistaken, so I will clear your mind and vindicate myself.  A year ago last spring my brother, myself, and five other men came out here to prospect for gold.  After we had prospected all over the country, we discovered this gulch, and we struck good pay dirt in the first hole we sank.  We fixed up a couple of rockers and went to work, and the first week we took out a hundred dollars to a rocker.  I told the boys that this was good enough for me, so each one of us