. Mountains and molehills; or, Recollections of a burnt journal. nfidence. Sacramento is terribly dusty; the great traffic toand from the mines grinds three or four inches of thetop soil into a red powder, that distributes itselfeverywhere; it is the dirtiest dust I ever saw, and isnever visited by a shower until the rainy season setsin, and suddenly converts it into a thick mud. I was introduced to a club of Sacramento gentlemen,who had formed themselves into what they called aliterary society. In their rooms was to be foundwhat in those days was scarce, a tolerable collection ofbooks and the
. Mountains and molehills; or, Recollections of a burnt journal. nfidence. Sacramento is terribly dusty; the great traffic toand from the mines grinds three or four inches of thetop soil into a red powder, that distributes itselfeverywhere; it is the dirtiest dust I ever saw, and isnever visited by a shower until the rainy season setsin, and suddenly converts it into a thick mud. I was introduced to a club of Sacramento gentlemen,who had formed themselves into what they called aliterary society. In their rooms was to be foundwhat in those days was scarce, a tolerable collection ofbooks and the periodicals of the day. They werevery jovial fellows, well-informed, not so literary as Iexpected, and certainly quite free from pedantry. Themost important ceremony at their meetings consistedin the members standing in a circle, upon which aChinese hat of teetotum shape was spun in thecentre, and the literary savant, who was indicatedby a black mark on the hat when it ceased to spin,stood drinks for the crowd. The weather was oppressively warm, and tlie iced. LEVEE-HULKS—RATS. 225 drinks * * were necessary even to a literary society;—so mucli so, that the hat was kept continuallyspinning by public acclamation. There was no lackof sensible and entertaining conversation, and theevenings passed with these gentlemen were- to mythinking none the less pleasant, although perhapsless literary, for the twirling of the Chinese hat. A levee, or sea-wall, has been built in front of thecity, to protect it from the river when it rises with thehigh spring tides ; but the river generally underminesthese works, and flows over the surrounding plain asit has been wont to do for ages past. A large number of old dismantled hulks, nowconverted into floating houses, are moored along thefront of the levee, and it is from these probablythe rats first landed that are now so distinguished atSacramento for their size and audacity. These animalscome out after dark in strong gangs, as if the townbelon
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