66 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



most important center of trade and population in the State, 

 next to San Francisco, and it has continued to hold the same 

 relative position, growing with the growth of the State, not- 

 withstanding many severe disasters to which it has been ex- 

 posed. In 1851 there was a serious riot about land titles ; on 

 the 3d of November, 1852, the greater part of the town, in- 

 cluding six hundred houses, was destroyed by fire, with a 

 pecuniary loss estimated at the time at $5,000,000 ; and the 

 city was flooded in January, 1850, in March, 1852, in January, 

 1853, in December, 1861, and in January and February, 

 1862. In 1853 the business part of the town was raised about 

 five feet, the streets being filled in with gravel to that depth, 

 and a levee or embankment was built round the city, extend- 

 ing about a mile along the bank of the Sacramento, and three 

 or four miles along the bank of the American. The flood of 

 1861 and '62 proved extremely disastrous. It filled every 

 part of the city ; was three feet deep in every street in some 

 places fifteen feet deep. Gardens were destroyed, fences car- 

 ried away, domestic animals drowned, furniture ruined, and 

 many of the people driven to take refuge in San Francisco and 

 other towns not afflicted by the general scourge. The business 

 district has since been raised above the level of the flood of 

 1862, and the embankment of the Central Pacific Railroad 

 coming from the north is a great protection to the district 

 which has not yet been filled in. 



The town has many elegant residences and gardens, and the 

 vegetation is very luxuriant in the summer. E. B. Crocker 

 has a private gallery of oil paintings, including many of great 

 merit. 



The State Capitol is 286 feet long, 142 wide, and 220 high 

 to the top of its dome ; and its design is creditable as a work 

 of architectural art. The cost was about two and a half 

 million dollars. 



The site of the town was badly chosen, but the establish- 

 ment of the State Capitol there, and the policy of the Cen- 



