76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



of the world will flock to California to avoid the extreme cold of North- 

 ern winters, the sultry heat of Southern summers, and to breate the 

 health-giving breezes of our mountains and valleys. 



The great continental railway will soon bring us crowds of such vis- 

 itors, who will pause amidst the sublime scen'ery of the Sierras to drink 

 in renewed health by the shores of Donner Lake, or to fish for trout in 

 the pellucid waters of Lake Taboe ; after which they will find their way 

 to the world-renowned Yosemite, to the celebrated Geysers, to Calistoga, 

 and other fashionable watering places. They will see our magnificent 

 bay and our great commercial emporium. They will ramble through our 

 beautiful valleys, and partake of our delicious fruits. The}- will pluck 

 oranges and lemons, fresh from the trees, at Los Angeles; delicious peaches 

 from the orchards of Yuba and El Dorado ; luscious figs from the gardens 

 of Sacramento; monster strawberries from the vines of Santa Clara; 

 splendid grapes from the vineyards of Sonoma and Contra Costa; and 

 magnificent plums and pears from any place at which the}- happen to be. 

 They will driuk pure soda water as it bubbles up from its native fountain 

 at Napa, or at the Saratoga of the Pacific. They will feast on raisins 

 made from California grapes, and grow merry upon wines from California 

 vineyards. They will sleep under the finest blankets in the world, made 

 from California wool, at California factories. The}' will replenish their 

 wardrobes with splendid woollen cloths of California make ; and, if need 

 be, the ladies of the party can, ere long, purchase fine dresses, woven in 

 California looms, from California silk. In travelling, the} 7 will be con- 

 veyed in fine coaches of California make, in magnificent steamers con- 

 structed in California, or over good railroads built at the rate of three 

 miles per day. 



Is this a rnei^e fancy sketch ? or is it not, on the contrary, the soberest 

 of realities? We all know that there is not the least exaggeration in 

 the picture; and another year will witness just such crowds of visitors 

 as I have predicted' — not only from the Atlantic States, but from Europe 

 — who will come as invalids in pursuit of health, but will remain from 

 choice when they shall have realized the true condition of affairs. 



But our climate is not all that we have to be thankful for. On the 

 contrary, we have a soil of such unexampled fertility, and capable of 

 producing such a variety of useful crops, as to open up avenues of untold 

 wealth in the future. Long after our mines shall have been exhausted, 

 when quartz mills and crushers, "longtoms" and rockers, flumes and 

 sluices, amalgamating pans and roasting furnaces, shall, with us, be re- 

 membered only as things of the misty past, and cherished like some 

 golden dream of childhood, our waving fields of grain, our vine-clad 

 bills, our countless herds dotting the mountains and vallevs, our 

 groves of mulberry feeding many millions of the silkworm, our teem- 

 ing orchards and blooming gardens, will present a scene of rural 

 beauty and of agricultural wealth which no other country can rival.- 

 Only think of what we have already accomplished and arc now doing in 

 that respect. In eighteen hundred and fifty-three, flour at San Francisco 

 was worth forty dollars per barrel, and we paid in one year six or eight 

 millions of dollars for breadstuff's imported into this State. This was 

 but fifteen years ago. In this year of grace, eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-eight, it is computed that our crop of wheat alone will amount to 

 about twenty millions of bushels, more than one-half of which will be 

 sent abroad at remunerative prices. Last year we shipped large quanti- 

 ties of flour to New York, and sold it at a profit, after paying three dol- 

 lars per barrel for freight. Very large shipments of grain were also 



