HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 87 



common wash pan ; but still, the field for invention is 

 open, and the labor now necessary for procuring the 

 gold is susceptible of considerable diminution. Of 

 course, the means of transporting provisions and other 

 necessaries to the mines are constantly improving, as 

 the country is becoming settled ; and thus, one great 

 source of privation and disease is rapidly diminishing. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THE CITIES AND TOWNS OF 

 CALIFORNIA, BEFORE AND AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF 

 THE GOLD MINES. 



At the time of the discovery of the existence of 

 gold in the region of the Sacramento, San Francisco 

 was a very inconsiderable town. As soon as the news 

 of the discovery was spread among its inhabitants, it 

 became almost deserted. Indeed, at one time, there 

 was only seven male inhabitants left in the town. The 

 site of the present city of San Francisco was not then 

 occupied by more than fifty houses in all. These 

 were occupied by a few foreign merchants and some 

 native Californians. The houses were rudely con- 

 structed, the principal materials being adobe's, or un- 

 burnt bricks. They were generally one story high, 

 and most of them were erected near the beach ; while at 

 the rear of the "town," was a sandy plain terminated 

 by a range of hills. But as soon as the news of the 

 gold discovery reached the United States, and other 

 countries, companies for mining purposes were imme- 



