40 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



Business of every kind was neglected, and the 

 ripened grain was left in the fields unharvested. 

 Kcarly the whole population of Upper California he- 

 came infected with the mania, and flocked to the 

 mines. AVhalers and merchant vessels entering the 

 ports were abandoned bj their crews, and the Ameri- 

 can soldiers and sailors deserted in scores. Upon the 

 disbandment of Colonel Stevenson's regiment, most 

 of the men made their way to the mineral regions. 

 Within three months after the discovery, it was com- 

 puted that there were near four thousand persons, 

 including Indians, who were mostly employed by the 

 whites, engaged in washing for gold. Various modes 

 were adopted to separate the metal from the sand and 

 gravel — some making use of tin pans, others of close- 

 woven Indian baskets, and others still, of a rude 

 machine called- the cradle, six or eight feet long, and 

 mounted on rockers, with a coarse grate, or sieve, at 

 one end, but open at the other. The washings were 

 mainly confined to the low wet grounds, and the mar- 

 gins of the streams — the earth being rarely disturbed 

 more than eighteen inches below the surface. The 

 value of the gold dust obtained by each man, per day^ 

 is said to have ranged from ten to fifty dollars, and 

 sometimes even to have far exceeded that. The natu- 

 ral consequence of this state of things was, that the 

 price of labor, and, indeed, of every thing, rose imme- 

 diately from ten to twenty fold.* 



As may readily be conjectured, every stream and 

 ravine in the valley of the Sacramento was soon ex- 

 plored. Gold was found on every one of its tributa- 



♦ Official Despatch of Colonel Mason, Commander of the 10th Mili- 

 tary Department, August 17, 1848.— Letters of Thomas C. Larkin, 

 U. S. Consul at Monterey, to the Secretary of State, June 1, and 

 June 28, 1848. 



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