HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 37 



Union, embraces an area of 448,961 square miles. It 

 extends along the Pacific coast, from about the thirty- 

 second parallel of north latitude, a distance of near 

 seven hundred miles, to the forty-second parallel, the 

 southern boundary of Oregon. On the east, it is 

 bounded by New Mexico. During the long period 

 which transpired between its discovery and its cession 

 to the United States, this vast tract of country was 

 frequently visited by men of science, from all parts 

 of the world. Repeated examinations were made by 

 learned and enterprising officers and civilians ; but 

 none of them discovered the important fact, that the 

 mountain torrents of the Sierra Nevada were con 

 stantly pouring down their golden sands into the 

 valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The 

 glittering particles twinkled beneath their feet, in the 

 ravines which they explored, or glistened in the water 

 courses which they forded, yet they passed them by 

 unheeded. Not a legend or tradition was heard 

 among the white settlers, or the aborigines, that 

 attracted their curiosity. A nation's ransom lay 

 within their grasp, but, strange to say, it escaped their 

 notice it flashed and sparkled all in vain.* 



The Russian American Company had a large 

 establishment at Ross and Bodega, ninety miles north 

 of San Francisco, founded in the year 1812 ; and 

 factories were also established in the territory by the 

 Hudson Bay Company. Their agents and employes 

 ransacked the whole country west of the Sierra 

 Nevada, or Snowy Mountain, in search of game. In 

 1838, Captain Sutter, formerly an officer in the Swiss 



* A gold placera was discovered some years ago, near the mission 

 of San Fernando, but it was very little worked, on account of the 

 want of water. 



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