Returning down the mountains I found opportunity to contrast the two classes common to all gold regions. The new-comers going into the mines were sanguine and cheery, climbing with elastic step, and beguiling the way with song and laughter. But the stampeders turning homeward, convinced that gold digging was hard and unrenumerative, left their packs and shovels behind, and trudged mechanically with downcast woe-begone faces.

[Bliss and the American Publishing Company re-used this second illustration in Roughing It, to portray the effects of riding the Mexican plug.]