440 RESOURCES OP CALIFORXIA. 



tection to the valuable goods kept in them ; but with these ex- 

 ceptions, and a few fine residences, even nominal "cities" are 

 collections of shanties, scattered about with little regard to 

 order, and fitted up with little provision for comfort. 



The wandering character of the population, and the want of 

 permanent and comfortable homes, render the mines an unsuit- 

 able place of residence for families. There are a few women 

 in the mines, and of these few a considerable share are neither 

 maids, wives, nor widows. The general j^roportion of adult 

 men to adult women, throughout the mining districts, is prob- 

 ably not less than three to one, and to married women, four 

 to one. 



It sometimes happens that miners having wives in the east- 

 ern states have them come to live in the mines ; but in a con- 

 siderable proportion of cases this arrangement is not a per- 

 manent one. Anxious as the inexperienced wife may have 

 been to live with her husband, and willing as she might be to 

 share his privations, the result has often been that she found 

 life in the mines unsuited for herself and her children. There 

 are many good, virtuous, and intelligent women living in the 

 mines, and perhaps as well contented there as they would be 

 in any other part of the world ; but there are not enough of 

 them. ^ 



If there were no other evil than this scarcity of women 

 traceable to the present tenure of the mineral lands, that one 

 fact would be enough to settle the question that the mines 

 must be sold. The family is no less essential to the good order 

 of society and the prosperity of the state than it is to the hap- 

 piness of the individual. A community of American families 

 must have permanent homes ; they must own the land in fee- 

 simple ; and there cannot be a large community of families in 

 the mining districts of California unless the land there be sold. 



The scarcity of women is again the first link in a great 

 chain of evils. Some men in the mining counties would like 

 to marry, but cannot find wives to their choice. They must 

 either travel thousands of miles to get a wife abroad, or take 



