43S RAGE FOR SPECULATION. [1841. 



waters dammed up, in order to examine their beds, and valu- 

 able deposits of gold have been found ; but similar attempts 

 have, in other cases, often proved unsuccessful. 



But even amid the golden sands of California, man cannot 

 escape from his destiny. Toil is his allotment there as 

 everywhere. Working in the placeras is no boyish pastime. 

 None but those inured from early life to the severest labor and 

 hardship can pass through the ordeal unscathed. Whether 

 moiling in the earth in the dry diggings, beneath the blistering 

 rocks, and amid the scorching sands, or standing up to the 

 knees in the ice-cold waters of the mountain torrents, with 

 the blazing orb of day pouring down hour after hoar his burn- 

 ing rays against which there is no shelter or protection, the 

 powers of endurance are taxed to the utmost. The climate 

 is not unhealthy, it is true, but the heat is oppressive, and 

 when this relaxes the system, exposure to the cold night-air 

 pretty surely brings on disease. Added to this, the miner 

 rarely enjoys any of the comforts, and is frequently deprived 

 of the necessaries of life. Still, those who find their physical 

 ^powers equal to the task, and continue their labor in spite of 

 every hardship and trial, do not go unrewarded. 



Fortune, however, smiles less kindly on those who undergo 

 the greatest fatigue, and perform the severest labor, than 

 upon those who profit by their necessities. The toil and 

 sweat of the former often go to enrich the cunning trader 

 and the shrewd speculator. The prices of food and clothing, 

 of luxuries and necessaries, of everything that can please I he 

 fancy, or gratify the appetite, are from one to ten hundred 

 per cent higher than in the Atlantic states ; and those en- 

 gaged in providing supplies for the miner are in a majority 

 of cases accumulating large fortur r :s. Yet it is to be regret- 

 ted that the rage for speculation has already extended so 

 widely in the territory, for, though of little importance at the 

 outset, it soon becomes as incapable of control as the raging 

 whirlwind, and, like that, always leaves desolation and ruin 

 in its track'. Within a twelvemonth after the first discovery 

 of gold, the credit operations of the citizens of the territory 



