Testing Mark's faith in his own knowledge.

Early environmental damage to the rivers by plantation owners and an interesting bit of river piloting by a sleep walker.

The riverboats often had a small population of unemployed pilots, there for the free ride and to stay informed of the river's condition. In this chapter they get to witness an impressive bit of piloting by Mark's pilot, Mr. Bixby.

Mark doubts his ability to learn everything necessary to become a pilot but Mr. Bixby insists he will either learn him or kill him.

This chapter contains an eloquent passage on the attendant lose of beauty resultant from a gain in knowledge.

As a cure for his developing airs, Mr Bixby gives Mark advanced lessons in navigating the river.

Early commerce on the Mississippi River and a chapter originally written for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a profile on the raftsmen. This chapter also contains an interesting bit of dialog regarding geophagy.

The listener may discern why Mark Twain may have had to depart the San Francisco area when he did, given his expressed attitude towards the police.

This chapter contains the famous story of the old ram.

Hints at the claustrophobia of being in such mines at such depths, particulalry the section on visiting the collapsed sections of the mine.

The literary journal arrives in Virginia with bad writing and even worse postry.

I did this story on a whim and to counter-balance The Man the Corrupted Hadleyburg. It is rather corny but fun and I suspect it is a bit of day dreaming on the part of Mark who was rather in the financial doldrums at the time of writing this.

Some newspaper reports on carnage and general mayhem in and about Virginia City.

Here's a link to a page regarding Captain Ned Wakeman. http://twainproject.blogspot.com/2009/09/making-connections-captain-ned…

This chapter provides us with a good example of the use of slang in regional dialects. My attempt at a dialogue between Scotty Briggs and the minister misses in a few spots but I think I've followed the conversation fairly closely.

Mr. Goodman and a journeyman printer arrive in Virginia City. They revive the moribund Territorial Enterprise and the flush times of the Nevada Territory shift into high gear, as exemplified by the sale(s) of the Sanitary Fund Flour Sack.

A review of how money was actually made in the Nevada silver mines.

Twain provides a nice description of the boom times in Virginia City, the days of the Comstock Lode. He is now a reporter on the staff of the Enterprise and enjoys a friendly rivalry with Boggs of the Union.

Some anecdotes about the creation of the Nevada Nabobs, suddenly rich folk, and their adventures.

The young Mark Twain finally convinces a pilot, Mr Bixby, to take him on as a cub and learn him the river. He soon finds out that there is much more to the job than he's ever imagined, including working the night shift. However, the romance is returned full force when he finds himself on a full size New Orleans riverboat.