RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 259 



here, and those gentlemen, with the Messrs. Sturtevant, Ellis 

 and others, whose names I cannot now mention, have done all 

 in their power for us while we have been here. As strangers, 

 we have been " taken in," not in the Yankee, but in the scrip- 

 tural sense, " and done for," and last evening we were done 

 exceedingly Broion ! (Laughter find applause.) In behalf of 

 the Board, I again tender our thanks for what we have enjoyed, 

 and trust that the only ill result which sliall follow from our 

 presence here may be that you will see us again. 



The Chairman. Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is said that 

 Alexander the Great wept because he had no more worlds to 

 conquer. We have with us to-night a gentleman devoted to 

 the interests of peace, who has spent a long life in subduing 

 nature this side of the Rocky Mountains, and I understand that 

 he has found a new world to conquer beyond. I have the 

 pleasure of introducing to you the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder. 



CALIFORNIA: 



A COMPAKATIVE ViEW OF HER ClIMATE, RESOURCES AND PROGRESS, WITH OBSER- 

 VATIONS MADE IN A Recent Tour to the Pacific Coast. 



BY HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 



California is a wonder ! wonderful alike for the wildness and 

 grandness of her scenery, for the richness of her mines, for the 

 fertility of her soils and for the salubrity of her climate, — a 

 climate as delightful and healthy as any upon which the sun 

 ever shone ; a soil in whose bosom most of the products of the 

 habitable globe find a congenial home ; and a country overflow- 

 ing with the bounties of Providence, where God and nature 

 seem to have set their seal as the garden of the world. The 

 fertility of her soils and the salubrity of her climate must always 

 exercise a powerful influence on the prosperity of her agricul- 

 ture. In most parts of the State no buildings are needed for 

 stock, and none for the storing of the crops ; and the bags of 

 grain during the summer months are allowed to remain in the 

 open field until removed for shipment. 



Why the resources of such a country as California were not 

 earlier developed seems to our finite minds a mystery. But the 

 marvellous workings of God's providence are now clearly seen. 

 Thus when the balance of trade against our country became so 

 large and continual, thereby causing periodical revulsions and 



