By the age of 90, when he wrote this memoir, Charles Peters had lived an extraordinary life. Born in the Azores, an immigrant to America at 10, he caught the Gold Fever in 1849 and headed to California. He spent the rest of his long life there, prospecting for gold and ranching. As you'll see in his book, he became something of an encyclopedia on California mining. He packed this book full of wonderful tales as well as a great many fun facts about gold, mining, and the luck of the Chinese. If it hadn't been for an accidental drowning at 96, he may well have made it to a much greater age. He had the genes for it.