CALIFORNIA AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 311 



were cheered only by the curling smoke of the Indian's hut ; 

 now, they throw on the eye, at every bend, the cheerful aspect 

 of some new hamlet or town. Then, the silence of the Sierra 

 Nevada was broken only by the voice of its streams ; now, 

 every cavern and cliff is echoing under the blows of the sturdy 

 miner. The wild horse, startled in his glen, leaves on the hill 

 the clatter of his hoofs, while the huge bear, roused from his 

 patrimonial jungle, grimly retires to some new mountain-fast- 

 ness. 



" But I must drop this contrast of the past with the present, 

 and glance at a few facts which affect the future. The gold 

 deposits which have hitherto been discovered, are confined, 

 mainly, to the banks and beds of perpetual streams, or the 

 bottoms of ravines, through which roll the waters of the 

 transient freshet. These deposits are the natural results of 

 the law of gravitation ; the treasures which they contain must 

 have been washed from the slopes of the surrounding hills. 

 The elevations, like spendthrifts, seem to have parted entirely 

 with their golden inheritance, except what may linger still in 

 the quartz. And these gold- containing quartz will be found 

 to have their confined localities ; they will crown the insular 

 peaks of a mountain-ridge, or fret the verge of some extin- 

 guished volcano ; they have never been found in a continuous 

 range, except in the dreams of enchantment ; you might as 

 well look for a wall of diamonds or a solid bank of pearls. 

 Nature has played off many a prodigal caprice in California, 

 but a mountain of gold is not one of them. The alluvial gold, 

 will, at no distant day, be measurably exhausted, and the 

 miners be driven into the mountains. Here, the work can be 

 successfully prosecuted only by companies, with heavy capi- 

 tals. All the uncertainties which are connected with mining 

 operations, will gather around these enterprises. Wealth will 



