Frenchman's shrug

OMOO

"At first he [Rartoo] demurred; and shrugging his shoulders like a Frenchman, declared it could not be brought about--was a dangerous matter to attempt, and might bring all concerned into trouble" -- Omoo by Herman Melville

SCENES BEYOND THE WESTERN BORDER 

Robidoux undertakes to give me the boundaries of the buffalo grass, which extends to the Missouri river, and within eighty miles of the State boundary; he says, "that throughout New Mexico, where the buffalo do not keep it down, it grows a foot high; bis cattle and sheep live on it exclusively, and keep fat in winter; and improve in size on the original breed; the mutton is superior in flavor to ours."

This man prays for the annexation of New Mexico, as necessary to develope its mineral riches: he asserts, "that he knows districts where, for twenty miles, it is impossible to find a handful of dirt without gold."

"Why in the world have you not made your fortune collecting it?"

"I sunk," he replied with a true Frenchman's shrug, "eight thousand dollar."

--Scenes Beyond the Western Border - September 1851; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army