Mining is, of course, the chief business of all that region, from the Missouri to the Mountains, and the habits and customs of the miner prevail everywhere. He digs and tunnels pretty much as he wills--under roads, beneath houses, below towns--and all things, more or less, are made subservient to his will. His free-and-easy ways mark social and political life, and his slang--half Mexican, half miner--is everywhere the language of the masses. A "square" meal is his usual phrase for a full or first-rate one. A "shebang" means any structure, from a hotel to a shanty. An "outfit" is a very general term, meaning anything you may happen to have, from a stamp-mill complete to a tooth-pick--a suit of clothes or a revolver--a twelve-ox team or a velocipede. A "divide" means a ridge or water-shed between two valleys or depressions. A "cañon" is Mexican or Spanish for a deep defile or gorge in the mountains. A "ranch," ditto, means a farm, or a sort of half-tavern and half-farm, as the country needs there. To "vamose the ranch" means to clear out, to depart, to cut stick, to absquatulate. A "corral," ditto, means an enclosed horse or cattle-yard. To "corral" a man or stock, therefore, means to corner him or it. To go down to "bed-rock," means the very bottom of things. "Panned-out" means exhausted, used-up, bankrupt. "Pay-streak" means a vein of gold or silver quartz, that it will _pay_ to work. When it ceases to pay, it is said to "peter out." Said a miner one day at dinner, at a hotel in Central City, to a traveller from the east, "I say, stranger," pointing to a piece of meat by his side, "is there a _pay-streak_ in that beef thar?" He wanted to know if there was a piece of it worth eating or not. The short phrase "You bet!" is pure Californice, and has followed our miners thence eastward across the continent. We struck it first on the Missouri, and thence found it used everywhere and among all classes, to express by different intonations a great variety of meanings. For example, meeting a man you remark: "It is a fine day, my friend!" He answers promptly and decidedly, "You _bet!_" You continue, "It is a great country you have out here!" He responds, "You BET _ye!_" sharp and quick. "A good many mills standing idle, though!" "Wa'll, yes, too many of them! You bet!" with a knowing shake of the head. "Miners making much now-a-days?" "Oh, yes! Some of us, a heap! _You_ bet!" rather timid. "Going back to the states one of these days?" "When I make my pile! _You_ BET!" firm and decided. "Get married then, I suppose?" "Won't I? Just that! _You_ BET _ye_!" with his hat up, his eyes wide open, and his face all aglow with honest pride and warm memory of "The girl I left behind me!"