44 HISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 



three pieces, labeled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence. 

 You will perceive that some of the specimens accom- 

 panying this, hold mechanically pieces of quartz ; that 

 the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in the 

 crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been car- 

 ried far bv water, but must have remained near where 

 it was first deposited from the rock that once bound 

 it. , I inquired of many people if. they had encountered 

 the metal in its matrix, but in every instance they 

 said they had not ; but that the gold was invariably 

 mixed with washed gravel, or lodged in the crevices 

 of other rocks. All bore testimony that they had 

 found gold in greater or less quantities in the numer- 

 ous small gullies or ravines that occur in that moun- 

 tainous region. 



" On the 7th of Julv I left the mill, and crossed to 

 a stream emptying into the American Fork, three or 

 four miles below the saw-mill. I struck this stream 

 (now known as Weber's creek) at the washings of 

 Sunol and Co. They had about thirty Indians em- 

 ployed, whom they payed in merchandise. They were 

 getting gold of a character similar to that found in 

 the main fork, and doubtless in suflficient quantities to 

 satisfy them. I send you a small specimen, presented 

 by this company, of their gold. From this point, we 

 proceeded up the stream about eight miles, where we 

 found a great many people and Indians — some engaged 

 in the bed of the stream, and others in the small side 

 valleys that put into it. These latter are exceedingly 

 rich, and two ounces were considered an ordinary yield 

 for a day's work. A small gutter not more than a 

 hundred yards long, by four feet wide and two or three 

 feet deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two 

 men — William Daly and Parry McCoon — had, a short 



