"It is built entirely of wood, and contains two very spacious principal rooms; the one a dining-room, the other set apart for billiards. Besides these, there are three saloons of lesser dimensions, especially devoted to gambling, and two well supplied bars--one below, to the right of the entry, the other in the billiard-room. The portion of the hotel that is not set apart for the usual offices and conveniences is divided off into innumerable chambers, which are occupied by the superior classes of emigrants--lawyers, doctors, money-brokers, _cum multis aliis_. "The saloon contains two very handsome billiard-tables, which are constantly occupied by players, chiefly Americans, some of them of first-rate excellence. The charge was a dollar per game of a hundred, and they were no sooner vacated by one party than another came in. "The establishment contained nine gambling-tables, which were crowded day and night, by the citizens and the miners; many of the latter staking very large sums upon the turn of a card. The stakes, however, varied from twenty-five cents to five thousand dollars; and the excitement of some of the losers was frequently fearful to contemplate. Some who gained largely prudently withdrew; and I was informed that, a few days previously to my arrival, a new-comer from the States, who was bound for the mines, having come into the saloon, and tried his fortune at the _monte_ tables, luckily made twenty thousand dollars, with which he returned home, by the steamer, two days afterwards. "The 'Golden Eagle,' (_l'Aguila d'Oro_) is another gambling establishment, situated in one of the streets leading into the Plaza. It is a canvas house, about fifty feet square, fitted up with the requisites for play, and let out by the proprietor at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a month. Every available spot around the tables was crowded to inconvenience by persons who were engaged deeply in the game, the majority standing up and watching the chances with countenances betokening the greatest excitement. "I now proceeded to the City Hotel, a large but somewhat antiquated building, constructed of _adobé_, after the Spanish fashion, but hybridized by American improvements. The interior was even more insufferable than the El Dorado, in respect of the boisterousness of its frequenters. In the first room that I entered were five gambling-tables, doing a 'smashing business'--a term employed, somewhat in contradiction to its import, to denote prosperity. The majority of the players were Americans and other foreigners, intermixed with a goodly number of Spaniards of the lowest order. There was the same excitement, the same recklessness, and the same trickery here, as at the other gambling saloons, only infinitely more noise and smoke, and swearing and inebriety.