434 PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE MINES. [1841 



to that obtained in the southern states, and nearly as good as 

 the best gold procured in Africa. 



In regard to the productiveness of the gold placcras of 

 California, it is difficult to make any estimates, or form any 

 conjectures. In a Memorial of the citizens of San Francisco, 

 dated in September, 1848, praying Congress to establish 

 a branch mint in the territory, it was estimated that the sum 

 of five and a half millions of dollars would be removed from 

 the mines during the year ending on the 1st of July, 1849. 

 But this calculation was evidently predicated on the number 

 of persons then engaged at the washings. Since that time, 

 there has been a vast influx of gold-hunters from Oregon, 

 Mexico, South America, and the Sandwich Islands. Large 

 numbers of citizens of the United States have also set out for 

 California, by way of Cape Horn, the Panama route, or over- 

 land from Independence. It is, therefore, not improbable, that 

 before the close of the year, the population may be trebled, 01 

 even quadrupled. 



It has been predicted by some, that the washings in Cali 

 fornia would soon be exhausted, as were those of Brazil, from 

 which ten millions sterling were once annually sent to Eu- 

 rope. The volcanic character of the country, and its geologi- 

 cal peculiarities hardly confirm this opinion, although it is by 

 no means improbable. Gold has been found, or there are in- 

 dications of its existence, at different points along the western 

 base of the Sierra Nevada, for nearly seven hundred miles, 

 and it has been discovered east of the mountains, on the Great 

 Salt Lake, and at various other places in the great interior 

 basin of California. If we may place any reliance upon the 

 inferences fairly deducible from these facts, it may be saftdy 

 presumed, that the rugged buttresses of the Sierra Nevada 

 contain a vaster deposit of mineral wealth than has yet been 

 (bund in any other locality in the known world — in extent 



id productiveness far excelling the Andes of Peru, the 

 Carpathian range of Hungary, or the Ural mountains of 

 Russia.* 



* Tim peaks of the S16rra Nevada are from ten to fifteen thousand feet above 



