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Show 398 APPENDIX. " Near the Mission of San Antonio, situated among the coast mountains, sixty miles south of this, a wash in()' of considerable richness has been discovered. b At the last accounts, a number of people were work-in()' them with fair success, and traders are beginning to bsend their teams in that direction. Gold is said to exist in small quantities near the Mission of Carmel, only four miles from this town; and, in fact, there is every geological indication of it. That San Francisco itself is built on a placer, I a1n well satisfied. To my certain knowledge, boys have picked up $4 and $5 in a few hours, from clay dug thirty feet below the surface, in sinking a welL The story of Mr. Harrison, the collector, having found gold in the adobes of the Custom-House, is something more than a joke. But by far the most magnificent discovery is that recently made upon the ranclle of Colonel Fremont, on the l\1ariposas River. It is nothing less than a vein of gold in the solid rock-a bona fide mine-the first which has been found in California. Whether it was first detected by a party of Sonom~ns, or by the company which Colonel Fremont organized last spring, and which has been working in the same locality, is a disputed point; though, I believe, the credit is due to the latter. At any rate, the gold is there, and in extraordinary abundance. I saw s?me specimens which were in Colonel Fremont "s possessiOn. The stone is a reddish quartz, filled with rich veins of gold, and far surpassing the specimens brought _from North Carolina and Georo·ia. Some stones piCked /"') . up on the top of the quartz strata, without parti-cular selection, yielded 2 oz. of o·old to every 2510. Colonel Fremont" informed me, that the vein had been traced for more than a mile. The thickness on the surface is 2 feet, rrradually widenino· as it descends, and s~owing larger 0 particles of gold~ The dip. downward IS only about 20 de<Yrees so that the mine can /:::' ' b_e worked with little expense. These are the par-tiCulars first given me when the discovery was first APPENDIX. 399 announced. Still more astonishing facts have just come to light. A geologist sent out to examine the place arrived here last night. He reports having traced the vein a distance of two leagues, with an avera< Ye breadth of 150 feet. At one extremity of the mfne he found large quantities of native silver, which he calculates will fully pay the expense of setting up machinery and working it. The ranche upon which it is situated was purchased by Colonel Fremont, in 1~46, frorn Alvarado, former governor of the territory. It was then considered nearly worthless ; and Colonel Fremont only took it at the moment of leaving the country, because disappointed in obtaining another property. This discovery has m~de. a great sensation throu()'hout the country, yet It 1s but the first of n1any sn:-~h. The Sierra N.evada i~ pierc.ed in every part with these priceless ve1ns, wlnch will produce O'old for centuries after every spot of earth, from base to summit, shall have been turned over and washed out. " So much for the gold. In o~.he~ respects, the country is tolerably quiet; speculatiOn In lot~, though Still o·oin 0' on ha vin ()' assumed a more cautwus cha-racteor . I""S' an ' Francbi sco, Stocton, sa cramento ci' t~ ' and San Jose, still maintain their value. Bene~Ia lots are rather dull, and have slightly f~llen ;. wh~le Colonel Stevens"s New York of the Pacific, with Its awkward and absurd title, does not seem to be thought of. A town named Vernon, at the mouth of ~eath~r River is rising rapidly to notice, and another Is said to be ' sprin()'in<Y up on T n·n 1· ty R1' ver. :NI any persons have made large fortunes by buying up .lots at lucky tinles and sellino· them still more luckily. A case was t~IJ tne of a young man who, last fal~, borrowed mone to pay his passage from the San~wiCh Islands to Sa~ Francisco, and who is now on h,Is way hom~ with $80 000 made in this manner. 'I hree or four gentleme~, who came up in the Pa~ama, have ~h·eady made $20,000 by ~Similar operatwus. A frwnd of / ·' |