76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



heads. At this juncture our settled Western limits did not 

 advance by pressure of population or effort to secure homes ; 

 but, ignoring all ordinary motives, one Avild, mad rush was 

 made, without regard to distance, dangers or difficulties, for 

 the place Avhere it was said the shining ore could be gath- 

 ered in handfuls. To reach the diijoino-s, some risked a sea 

 voj^age of eleven thousand miles ; others dared disease and 

 death in the fetid swam[)s of the Isthmus ; and many others 

 took their lives in their hands, defying all the horrors of the 

 little-known continental desert, the barriers of untrod snow- 

 capped mountains and wild canons, the trackless alkaline 

 plains, the animosity of lurking savages, and laid their way 

 directly westward from the waters of the great river to those 

 of the Pacific Ocean. Obstacles before unheard of or en- 

 countered hedged up their way. Many perished of weari- 

 ness, of cold and starvation, and others fell by savage hands. 

 Some, after indescribable sufferings, worn and exhausted, 

 reached the goal sought, to find all ability to labor gone, 

 and that the adage was true, — that all is not gold which 

 glistens. They all suffered ; a few received a recompense, 

 most did not ; but they marked out trails and passes west- 

 ward, of immense value in the subsequent development of 

 our domain. By their hardihood and pluck a great State 

 was established in the region of the setting sun ; but it was 

 not the West, — it was only California. 



Then came that to the North, sudden convulsion, to the 

 South, the long and deliberately planned War of the Re- 

 bellion, for the dismemberment of the nation, and the 

 extension and perpetuation of slavery. For a time the 

 Union of the fathers appeared to be rent in twain from 

 East to AVest, and there were mutterings in the air, that the 

 Western and North-western States had so little direct con- 

 nection with the parent States bordering on the Atlantic, 

 that they would set up for themselves ; that California, discon- 

 nected from all the others by two thousand miles of roadless 

 deserts and impassable mountains, swarming with implacable 

 foes, was beyond the reach of the forces of freedom, and 

 would fall into the hands of those of slavery. The masses 

 trembled in fear of the impending calamity, but soon rallied 

 under the leadership of far-seeing, sagacious and courageous 



