69 



The close similitude in. most of the fossil vegetation found in the drift beds, 

 would render it difficult to define from what portion' of the State any one suite 

 of those specimens may have been taken. I have the impressions of leaves from 

 the counties of El Dorado, Tuolumne, and Trinity, (the two latter counties 

 being two hundred and seventy -five miles distant from each other,) that a close 

 observer would be very likely to declare as having all been taken from the same 

 locality. These organic forms are now in the hands of gentlemen fully compe 

 tent to define their generic and specific characters, and whenever their investiga 

 tions shall have been completed, the same will be placed before you. 



PLACER MINING. 



This branch of industry in this State has been prosecuted with much vigor 

 during the past year, and many new discoveries of placer deposits have been 

 developed within the past season. Those who have engaged in the heavier opera- ,. 

 tions of this department, have carried their workings to an extent heretofore 

 unparalleled in the history of mining in this State, the details of which will be 

 noticed more at length in the following pages. 



In the present article I shall review, briefly, the history of this branch of 

 industry, and adduce such testimony of their probable continuance as has fallen 

 under my observation, and such as will be found supported by facts alone. 



There has been much discussion abroad relative to the probable continuance of 

 the placer deposits of California, and attending this discussion, a manifest disposi 

 tion among Atlantic writers to underrate the capacities of the State for the produc 

 tion of gold. So far as the personal interests of such individuals are involved in 

 this question we have nothing to do ; but when the publication of such articles are 

 carried to an extent that a public injury is sustained upon our shores as a conse 

 quence, then it becomes a duty we owe to ourselves to speak in defence of the 

 State of our adoption, and place the question before our friends and relatives 

 abroad upon that basis upon which alone it can stand. 



We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to facts, as developed within the past year 

 and the year preceding, which will define, to some extent, the areas of the placer 

 ranges on the western slope of the mountains ? and it is to be hoped that they may 

 prove sufficient to convince such as may be seriously affected with melancholy for 

 our future fate in this particular, that they are in no danger of sinking deeper into 

 the slough of that insolvency which their over-heated imaginations have prepared, 

 from any failure, on the part of this State, to produce even an increase on her past 

 annual exports. The commercial circles of the East, have been saved from bank 

 ruptcy by our exports, and we shall still continue to exercise the same paternal % 

 care over their interests as formerly, provided they will relieve us from accepting < 

 the entire produce east of the Rocky Mountains. Since 1849, we have had but a 

 reiteration, from year to year, of this doleful prognostic, and this in the face of a 

 continual advance on each annual aggregate exported from our shores, until now 

 the public mind has become less sensitive to the dismal moan, which greets the eye 

 or ear from some portion of the Atlantic board on the arrival of almost every 

 mail. 



The failure of an arrival of the accustomed number of millions per month to the 

 Atlantic cities, is found to create a feverish panic among our distant friends, which 

 is to be regretted, as an injustice to the people of this State, usually follows such a v 

 contingency, from some portion of the Atlantic board. This arises from the fact ( 

 that parties abroad do not possess the local information of those causes which are ' 

 productive of such a failure, neither could they properly appreciate the same, were 

 it in their possession. 



