The hills have been cut and scalped, and every gorge and gulch and valley torn to pieces and disemboweled, expressing a fierce and desperate energy hard to understand.
The Chinaman seemed to think we were lost, and chattered in pidgin English concerning the abundance of " litty stick" (chaparral), while the Indian silently scanned the billowy ridges and gulches for openings.
But most of the pioneer miners are sleeping now, their wild day done, while the few survivors linger languidly in the washed-out gulches or sleepy village like harried bees around the ruins of their hive.