A Dangerous Journey, California 1849

IN THE SUMMER OF 1849 there was in California one J. Ross Browne representing the United States Postal Service. In the course of his official duties he made a trip by “mulepower and footpower” from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. The tale of this trip is authentic, unusual Californiana: the narrative combines the outlandish happenings of the journey—including a brush with outlaws, and a death battle between a bull and a huge bear—with a reporter’s penetrative observation on the rugged life in