knives, ob-
tained together gold to the value of ten dollars. The Saturday following, Bigler descended the river half a mile, when, seeing on the other side some rocks left bare by a land-slide, he stripped and crossed. There, in the seams of the rocks, were particles of the pre- cious stuff exposed to view, of w^iich the next day he gathered half an ounce, and the Sunday following an ounce. Snow^ preventing work at the mill, on Tues- day, the 22d, he set out for the same place, and ob- tained an ounce and a half. Up to this time he had kept the matter to himself, carrying with him a gun on pretext of shooting ducks, in order to divert suspi- cion. Questioned closely on this occasion, he told his comrades what he had been doing, and the following Sunday five of them accompanied him to the same spot, and spent the day hunting in the sand. All were well rewarded. In the opposite direction suc- cess proved no less satisfactory. Accompanied by James Gregson, Marshall ascended the river three miles; and at a place which he named Live Oak Bar, if we may believe Gregson, they picked up with their fingers without digging a pint of gold, in pieces up to the size of a bean.^ Thus was gradually enlarged the area of the gold-field
About the 21st of February, Bigler wrote to certain of his comrades of the Mormon battalion — Jesse Mar- tin, Israel Evans, and Ephraim Green, who were at work on Sutter's flour-mill — informing them of the discovery of gold, and charging them to keep it secret, or to tell it to those only who could be trusted. The result was the arrival, on the evening of the 27th, of three men, Sidney Willis, Fiefield, and Wilford Hud-
^ StaUmeni of James Oregson, MS., passim. The author was an English- man, who came to California in 1845 and engaged with Satter as a whip- sawyer. Lumber then cost $30 a thousand at Sutter's Fort. He ser\'ed in the war, and after the discovery of gohl went to Ck)loma, accompanied by his wife. Throwing up his engagement with Marshall, he secured that year $3,000 in gold-dust. Sutter appears to have, in February, alreadv set some Indians to pick gpld round the mill. Uis claim to this ground was long
