the ground in the bank close by the stream, another carries it to the cradle and empties it on the grate, a third gives a violent rocking motion to the machine, whilst a fourth dashes on water from the stream itself.

The sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the current of water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a heavy fine black sand above the first cleets. The sand and gold mixed together are then drawn off through auger holes into a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A party of four men thus employed at the lower mines averaged $100 a day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth, and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is separated in the manner before described. The gold in the lower mines is in fine, bright scales, of which I send several specimens.

As we ascended the south branch of the American fork, the country became more broken and mountainous; and at the saw-mill, twenty-five miles above the lower washings, or fifty miles from Sutter's, the hills rise to about a thousand feet above the level of the Sacramento plain. Here a species of pine occurs, which led to the discovery of the gold. Capt. Sutter, feeling the great want of lumber, contracted, in September last, with a Mr. Marshall, to build a saw-mill at that place. It was erected in the course of the past winter and spring-a dam and race constructed; but when the water was let on the wheel, the tail-race was found to be too narrow to permit the water to escape with sufficient rapidity. Mr. Marshall, to save labour, let the water directly into the race with a strong current, so as to wash it wider and deeper. He effected his purpose, and a large bed of mud and gravel was carried to the foot of the race.

One day Mr. Marshall, as he was walking down the race to this deposite of mud, observed some glittering particles at its upper edge; he gathered a few, examined them, and became satisfied of their value. He then went to the fort, told Capt. Sutter of his discovery, and they agreed to keep it secret until a certain grist-mill of Sutter's was finished. It, however, got out, and spread like magic. Remarkable success attended the labours of the first explorers, and in a few weeks hundreds of men were drawn thither.

The gold is in scales a little coarser than those of the lower mines. From the mill, Mr. Marshall guided me up the mountain, on the opposite or north bank of the south fork, where, in the bed of small streams or ravines, now dry, a great deal of coarse gold has been found. I there saw several parties at work, all of whom were doing very well; a great many specimens were shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight.

You will perceive that some of the specimens accompanying this hold mechanically pieces of quartz; that the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in the crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been carried far by water, but must have remained near where it was first deposited from the rock that once bound it. . . . On the 7th of July I left the mill, and crossed to a small stream emptying into the American fork, three or four miles below the saw-mill. I struck this stream (now known as Weber's creek) at the washings of Sunol & Co. They had about thirty Indians employed, whom they pay in merchandise. They were getting gold of a character similar to that found in the main fork.

From this point we proceeded up the stream about eight miles, where we found a great many people and Indians-some engaged in the bed of the stream, and others in the small valleys that put into it. These latter are exceedingly rich, and two ounces were considered an ordinary yield for a day's work. A small gutter, not more than a hundred yards long by four feet wide, and two or three feet deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two men,

William Daly and Perry M'Coon, had, a short time before, obtained $17,000 worth of gold. Capt. Weber informed me that he knew that these two men had employed four white men and about a hundred Indians, and that, at the end of one week's work, they paid off their party, and had left $10,000 worth of this gold. Another small ravine was shown me, from which had been taken upwards of $12,000 worth of gold. Hundreds of similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched."

Mr. Neligh, an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in the neighbourhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles, over $2,000 worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education, and worthy of every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a machine, on the American fork, just below Sutter's mill; that they worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of $50 a day.

The country on either side of Weber's creek is much broken up by hills, and is intersected in every direction by small streams or ravines, which contain more or less gold. Those that have been worked are barely scratched; and although thousands of ounces have been carried away, I do not consider that a serious impression has been made upon the whole. Every day was developing new and richer deposits; and the only impression seemed to be, that the metal would be found in such abundance as seriously to depreciate

in value.

On the 8th of July I returned to the lower mines, and on the following day to Sutter's, where, on the 10th, I was making preparations for a visit to the Feather, Yubah, and Bear rivers, when I received a letter from Commander A. R. Long, United States navy, who had just arrived at San Francisco from Mazatlan, with a crew for the sloop-of-war Warren, with orders to take that vessel to the squadron at La Paz. Capt. Long wrote to me that the Mexican Congress had adjourned without ratifying the treaty of peace; that he had letters for me from Commodore Jones, and that his orders were to sail with the Warren on or before the 20th of July. In consequence of these, I determined to return to Monterey, and accordingly arrived there on the 17th of July. Before leaving Sutter's I satisfied myself that gold existed in the bed of the Feather river, in the Yubah and Bear, and in many of the small streams that lie between the latter and the American fork; also, that it had been found in the Cosummes, to the south of the American fork. In each of these streams the gold is found in small scales, whereas in the intervening mountains it occurs in coarser lumps.

Mr. Sinclair, whose rancho is three miles above Sutter's, on the north side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north fork, not far from its junction with the main stream. He had been engaged about five weeks when I saw him, and up to that time his Indians had used simply closely woven willow baskets. His nett proceeds (which I saw) were about $16,000 worth of gold. He showed me the proceeds of his last week's work-fourteen pounds avoirdupois of clean-washed gold.

The principal store at Sutter's fort, that of Brannan & Co., had received, in payment for goods, $36,000 worth of this gold from the 1st of May to the 10th of July. Other merchants had also made extensive sales. Large quantities of goods were daily sent forward to the mines, as the Indians, heretofore so poor and degraded, have suddenly become consumers of the luxuries of life.

The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with the subject was, that upwards of four thousand men were working in the gold district, of whom more than one-half were Indians; and that from $30,000 to $50,000 worth of gold, if not more, was daily obtained. The entire gold district, with very few exceptions of grants made some years ago by the Mexican authorities, is on land belonging to the United States.

The discovery of these vast deposits of gold has entirely changed the character of Upper California. Its people, before engaged in cultivating their small patches of ground, and guarding their heads of cattle and horses, have all gone to the mines, or are on their way thither. Labourers of every trade have left their work-benches, and tradesmen their shops. Sailors desert their ships as fast as they arrive on the coast, and several vessels have gone to sea with hardly enough hands to spread a sail. Two or three are now at anchor in San Francisco, with no crew on board. Many desertions, too, have taken place from the garrisons within the influence of these mines: twenty-six soldiers have deserted from the post of Sonoma, twenty-four from that of San Francisco, and twenty-four from Monterey.

I really think some extraordinary mark of favour should be given to those soldiers who remain faithful to their flag throughout this tempting crisis. No officer can now live in California on his pay, money has so little value; the prices of necessary articles of clothing and subsistence are so exorbitant, and labour so high, that to hire a cook or servant has become an impossibility, save to those who are earning from thirty to fifty dollars a day. This state of things cannot last for ever. Yet, from the geographical position of California, and the new character it has assumed as a mining country, prices of labour will always be high, and will hold out temptations to desert. I therefore have to report, if the government wish to prevent desertions here on the part of men, and to secure zeal on the part of officers, their pay must be increased very materially.

Mr. Dye, a gentleman residing in Monterey, and worthy of every credit, has just returned from Feather river. He tells me that the company to which he belonged worked seven weeks and two days, with an average of fifty Indians (washers,) and that their gross product was two hundred and seventythree pounds of gold. His share (one-seventh,) after paying all expenses, is about thirty-seven pounds, which he brought with him and exhibited in Monterey. I see no labouring man from the mines who does not show his two, three, or four pounds of gold. A soldier of the artillery company returned here, a few days ago, from the mines, having been absent on furlough twenty days. He made, by trading and working during that time, $1500. During these twenty days he was travelling ten or eleven days, leaving but a week, in which he made a sum of money greater than he receives in pay, clothes, and rations, during a whole enlistment of five years.

Gold is also believed to exist on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada; and, when at the mines, I was informed by an intelligent Mormon that it had been found near the Great Salt Lake by some of his fraternity. Nearly all the Mormons are leaving California to go to the Salt Lake; and this they surely would not do unless they were sure of finding gold there in the same abundance as they now do on the Sacramento.

The gold "placer" near the mission of San Fernando has long been known, but has been little wrought, for want of water. This is in a spur that puts off from the Sierra Nevada, (see Fremont's map ;) the same in which the present mines occur. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that, in the intervening spaces of five hundred miles (entirely unexplored) there must be many hidden and rich deposits. The "placer" gold is now substituted as the currency of this country.

I would recommend that a mint be established at some eligible point of the bay of San Francisco; and that machinery, and all the necessary apparatus and workmen, be sent out by sea. These workmen must be bound by high wages, and even bonds, to secure their faithful services, else the whole plan may be frustrated by their going to the mines as soon as they arrive in California. Before leaving the subject of mines I will mention that, on my return from the Sacramento, I touched at New Almoder, the

quicksilver mine of Mr. Alexander Forbes, consul of her Britannic majesty at Tepic. This mine is in a spur of mountains one thousand feet above the level of the bay of San Francisco, and is distant, in a southern direction, from the Pueblo de San Jose about twelve miles. The ore (cinnabar) occurs in a large vein dipping at a strong angle to the horizon. Mexican miners are employed in working it, and driving shafts and galleries about six feet by seven, following the vein.

The fragments of rock and ore are removed on the backs of Indians, in raw-hide sacks. The ore is then hauled in an ox-wagon from the mouth of the mine down to a valley well supplied with wood and water, in which the furnaces are situated. The furnaces are of the simplest construction-exactly like a common bake-oven-in the crown of which is inserted a whaler's trying-kettle; another inverted kettle forms the lid. From a hole in the lid a small brick channel leads to an apartment, or chamber, in the bottom of which is inserted a small iron kettle. This chamber has a chimney.

In the morning of each day the kettles are filled with the mineral (broken in small pieces), mixed with lime; fire is then applied, and kept up all day. The mercury is volatilized, passes into the chamber, is condensed on the sides and bottom of the chamber, and flows into the pot prepared for it. No water is used to condense the mercury.

During a visit I made last spring, four such ovens were in operation, and yielded, in the two days I was there, six hundred and fifty-six pounds of quicksilver, worth, at Mazatlan, $1 80 per pound. Mr. Walkinshaw, the gentleman now in charge of this mine, tells me that the vein is improving, and that he can afford to keep his people employed even in these extraordinary times. This mine is very valuable of itself, and becomes the more so as mercury is extensively used in obtaining gold. It is not, at present, used in California for that purpose, but it will be at some future time. When I was at this mine last spring other parties were engaged in searching for veins, but none have been discovered that are worth following up, although the earth in that whole range of hills is highly discoloured, indicating the presence of this ore. I send several beautiful specimens, properly labelled. The amount of quicksilver in Mr. Forbes' vats on the 15th of July was about twenty-five hundred pounds.

STATE DEPARTMENT.

Extract of a letter from Thomas O. Larkin, Esq., late consul, and now navy agent of the United States, to the Secretary of State, dated at Monterey, November 16th, 1848, and received in this city on Friday evening last.

"The digging and washing for gold continues to increase on the Sacramento placer, so far as regards the number of persons engaged in the business, and the size and quantity of the metal daily obtained. I have had in my hands several pieces of gold, about twenty-three carats fine, weighing from one to two pounds. and have it from good authority that pieces have been found weighing sixteen pounds. Indeed, I have heard of one specimen that weighed twenty-five pounds. There are many at the placer, who in June last had not one hundred dollars, now in possession of from five to twenty thousand dollars, which they made by digging gold, and trading with the Indians. Several, I believe, have made more. A common calico shirt, or even a silver dollar, has been taken by an Indian for gold, without regard to size; and a half to one ounce of gold-say $8 to $16-is now considered the price of a shirt, while from three to ten ounces is the price of a blanket. One hundred dollars a day for several days, was, and is considered, a common remuneration for the labour of a gold digger, though few work over a

month at a time, as the fatigue is very great. From July to October, one-half the gold hunters have been afflicted either with the ague and fever, or the intermittent fever, and twenty days' absence from the placer during these months, is necessary to escape these diseases. There have not, however, been many fatal

cases.

The gold is now sold, from the smallest imaginary piece in size, to pieces of one pound in weight, at $16 per troy ounce, for all the purposes of commerce; but those who are under the necessity of raising coin to pay duties to the government, are obliged to accept from $10 to $11 per ounce. All the coin in California is likely to be locked up in the custom-house, as the last tariff of our congress is in force here in regard to the receipt of money.

Could you know the value of the California placer, as I know it, you would think you had been instrumental in obtaining a most splendid purchase for our country, to put no other construction on the late treaty.

The placer is known to be two or three hundred miles long; and as discoveries are constantly being made, it may prove 1,000 miles in length-in fact, it is, not counting the intermediate miles yet unexplored. From five to ten millions of gold must be our exports this and next year. How many more years this state of things will continue, I cannot say. 1 You may wonder why I continue my correspondence. I answer, from habit, and your many remarks of the interest you take in my letters."

NAVY DEPARTMENT.

Extract from letter No. 34, October 25, 1848, from Commodore Jones to the Secretary of the Navy.

"Nothing, sir, can exceed the deplorable state of things in all upper Califor nia at this time, growing out of the maddening effect of the gold mania. I am sorry to say that even in this squadron some of the officers are a little tainted, and have manifested restlessness under moderate restrictions imperiously deinanded by the exigencies of the times, as you will perceive by the enclosed paper, addressed to three of the lieutenants.

"I am, however, happy to say that I have not been disappointed in the good effects of the means employed to prevent desertion, and to maintain order in the squadron, as but one desertion has taken place since the rush of eight from this ship on the evening of the 18th instant; and that the views and opinions of the few officers who were so skeptical as to the right or efficacy of the means employed to prevent offences and to punish crime, have undergone a most favoura ble change, whereby I shall be enabled to keep on this coast until the whirlwind of anarchy and confusion confounded is superseded by the establishment of some legal government potent enough to enforce law, and to protect life and property, which at this time is in great jeopardy every where outside our bulwarks."

FLAG SHIP OHIO, BAY OF MONTEREY,
Nov. 2,
1848.

[No. 36.] SIR,-In my letter No. 24, from La Paz, I recommended the retention on this coast of all cruising ships of the Pacific squadron, and pointed out how they could be kept in repair and manned without returning round Cape Horn to the Atlantic States. When that recommendation was made, I had no conception of the state of things in Upper California. For the present, and I fear for some years to come, it will be impossible for the United States to maintain any naval or military establishment in California; as at present no hope of reward nor fear of punishment is sufficient to make binding any contract between man and man upon the soil of California.