52 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



number. Our prices current, many valuable commu- 

 nications, our marine journal, and other important 

 matters, have also been crowded out. But to enable 

 our distant readers to draw some idea of the extent 

 of the gold mine, we will confine our remarks to a few 

 facts. The country from the Ajuba to the San Joaquin 

 rivers, a distance of about one hundred and twenty 

 miles, and from the base toward the summit of the 

 mountains, as far as Snow Hill, about seventy miles, 

 has been explored, and gold found on every part. 

 There are now probably 3000 people, including Indians, 

 engaged collecting gold. The amount collected by 

 each man who works, ranges from §10 to §350 per 

 day. The publisher of this paper, while on a tour 

 alone to the mining district, collected, with the aid 

 of a shovel, pick and tin pan, about twenty inches in 

 diameter, from §44 to §128 a day — averaging §100. 

 The gross amount collected will ' probably exceed 

 §600,000, of which amount our merchants have re- 

 ceived about §250,000 worth for goods sold ; all within 

 the short space of eight weeks. The largest piece of 

 gold known to be found weighed four pounds. 



" Labor has ever been high in California, but pre- 

 vious to the discovery of the placera gold, the rates 

 ranged from §1 to §3 per day. Since that epoch 

 common labor cannot be obtained, and if to be had, 

 for no less price than fifty cents per hour, and that the 

 most common. Carpenters and other mechanics have 

 been ofi'ered §15 a day, but it has been flatly refused. 

 Many of our enterprising citizens were largely engaged 

 in building, and others wish to commence on dwellings, 

 warehouses, and the like, but all have had to suspend 

 for the lack of that all important class of community, 

 the working men." 



