The holders of the winning tickets were given a trip to
the gold-fields. A considerable number of French came over in that
manner, so that life in California was then, as now, considerably
leavened by Gallicism. Their ignorance of English together with their
national clannishness caused them to stick together in communities.
They soon became known as Keskydees. Very few people knew why. It was
merely the frontiersmen's understanding of the invariable French phrase
_"Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?"_ In Great Britain, Norway, to a certain extent
in Germany, South America, and even distant Australia, the adventurous
and impecunious were pricking up their ears and laying their plans.
There were offered three distinct channels for this immigration. The
first of these was by sailing around Cape Horn. This was a slow but
fairly comfortable and reasonably safe route. It was never subject to
the extreme overcrowding of the Isthmus route, and it may be dismissed
in this paragraph. The second was by the overland route, of which there
were several trails. The third was by the Isthmus of Panama. Each of
these two is worth a chapter, and we shall take up the overland
migration first.
CHAPTER V
ACROSS THE PLAINS
The overland migration attracted the more hardy and experienced
pioneers, and also those whose assets lay in cattle and farm equipment
rather than in money.
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