_June 6th._--All up at 5 o'clock, and off soon after 6 A.M. The first stage, eleven miles, we did in two hours and ten minutes--a very pretty road; the second stage, eight miles, in forty-four minutes. The ravages made by fires are most deplorable. We had passed through this great forest track in the dark, but now seen in the morning light, the trunks of magnificent trees rotting on the ground, or standing upright with lifeless arms, consumed at the base, were visible everywhere. It is difficult to find out the exact truth about the cause of these fires. Some few people said "it was the Indians," but the weight of testimony attributes them to the shepherds, who for the most trifling purposes kindle a great fire. In some of the large trees they have hollowed out regular chambers, and of course the tree dies. Such waste of timber! For mile after mile we passed scenes of desolation which ere long those who allowed them will have cause to regret. From time to time we encountered on the road trains of waggons drawn by teams of handsome mules with bells, and had occasion to admire the economy of labour exhibited in the management, by which the driver is enabled to work a powerful break with one hand whilst he drives with the other. The next stage, of fourteen miles, was over an exceedingly bad road; but the horses were good, and we rattled along at a capital speed down towards the plain. Once the quick-eyed driver, pulling up suddenly, said, "See that rattle?" leaped down and made towards the bush; and as we followed him, sure enough we heard distinctly the noise of the snake, which he had intercepted on its way to a rabbit hole. It took refuge in a clump of bushes with gnarled roots, and coiled itself round one of the branches; but by a course of judicious and rather nervous poking it was driven from its vantage ground, and trying to escape was killed by the driver with a blow of his whip, followed by a good many unnecessary strokes from the rest of the party. It was over three feet long, and had just been making an evening meal upon a rabbit, which it had left where we had startled it; and it was evident from its swollen appearance that it had been for some time engaged in the warren close at hand. At 10.20 we reached Fresno, which is what the Americans call "quite a place," containing not only an hotel, a restaurant, and a store, but a shop where photographs were exhibited. The _chef-d'oeuvre_, a portrait of a Spanish lady 140 years of age, living at Los Angeles, did not, however, commend itself to our taste. We halted at Coarse Gold at 11.40, and left at 12.35. Mr. Jerry Loghlan--who excused himself for not working on the ground that "there was no use in it, as there was nothing to be had," the mines being worked "out"--whose acquaintance we had made on the way up, a huge, broad-shouldered _vaurien_, was still hanging about with his specimens of quartz, gold, and rattlesnakes' tails, and a black eye recently acquired in battle.