HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



61 



all the light earth out, and pick away the stones ; 

 after this, we dried the sand on pieces of canvas, and 

 with long reeds blew away all but the gold. I have 

 now some rude machines in use, and upwards of one 

 hundred men employed, chiefly Indians, who are well 

 fed, and who are allowed whisky three times a day. 



" The report soon spread. Some of the gold was 

 sent to San Francisco, and crowds of people flocked 

 to the diggings. Added to this, a large emigrant 

 party of Mormons entered California across the Rocky 

 Mountains, just as the aft'air was first made known. 

 They halted at once, and set to work on a spot some 

 thirty miles from here, where a few of them still re 

 main. When I was last up to the diggings, there were 

 full eight hundred men at work, at one place and 

 another, with perhaps something like three hundred 

 more passing backwards and forwards between here 

 and the mines. I at first imagined that the gold 

 would soon be exhausted by such crowds of seekers, 

 but subsequent observations have convinced me that it 

 will take many years to bring about such a result, 

 even with ten times the present number of people 

 employed. 



"What surprises me," continued the Captain, "is, 

 that this country should have been visited by so many 

 scientific men, and that not one of them should have 

 ever stumbled upon the treasures ; that scores of 

 keen-eyed trappers should have crossed this valley in 

 every direction, and tribes of Indians have dwelt in it 

 for centuries, and yet that this gold should have never 

 been discovered. I myself have passed the very spot 

 above a hundred times during the last ten years, but 

 was just as blind as the rest of them, so I must not 

 wonder at the discovery not having been made earlier." 



6 



