SALE OF MINERAL LANDS. 443 



through the mines, will be astonished to see that the much- 

 abused Chinese are the only class who are always industrious. 

 The miner will often do nothing for weeks and months, run- 

 ning up long bills for " boarding," while he waits for rain, or 

 the completion of a ditch, or for something else to turn up, 

 lie is too high-minded to accept small pay, and would rather 

 be idle — at the risk of the boarding-house keeper and store- 

 keeper. His idleness is frequently called "prospecting;" he 

 travels about hunting for a place to work ; and this prospect- 

 ing may be said to employ nearly a fourth part of the mining 

 population. The consequence is, that a large portion of the 

 miners are always moneyless, or provided with an exceedingly 

 small amount of money. At other times they fall upon rich 

 deposits, and then try to make up in dissipation for past pri- 

 vations. And so the mining population comes to be an im- 

 provident one — unsteady, fond of gambling and other wild 

 amusements. The fact is that there is not in the whole world 

 such another reckless, thriftless, extravagant, improvident pop- 

 ulation as in the mining districts of California. 



Another evil effect of our present system of land tenure in 

 the mineral districts, is to be found in the gradual lowering of 

 the general character of the population in the mining counties. 

 Most of the steady, prudent, economical men leave the state 

 with more or less money, while the dissipated, thriftless fel- 

 lows remain ; the latter class increasing in numbers, the for- 

 mer decreasing every year. The only means of fixing and in- 

 creasing the former class, and giving them the proper influ- 

 ence in our society, is to give them permanent homes ; and 

 this policy will at the same time drive away the wrecked spe- 

 cimens of humanity among us, and compel them to seek homes 

 in the Cimmerian darkness beyond our borders. 



It is one of the great evils of the tenant-at-will system, that 

 there is little security for the investment of capital. Land 

 should be the main stock of wealth and the main basis of 

 credit, and the increase of its value with increasing popula- 

 tion should be one of the main sources of riches in every new 



