112 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



trading depot for the richest portion of the mining 

 regions. 



Where the city of Sacramento now stands, at the 

 time of the gold discovorv, there stood, "solitary and 

 alone," a small fort. This formed the nucleus, about 

 which, at the commencement of the rush of emio^ra- 

 tion, the town soon sprang into existence. Its increase 

 has been almost as rapid as that of San Francisco. 

 During the rainy season of the early part of 1850, 

 the population numbered somewhere between twenty 

 and thirty thousand. But at that poriod, a consider- 

 able portion of the gold-diggers made Sacramento and 

 the other towns in the neighborhood of the mines, 

 their resort, to escape the severity of spending the 

 season at the open and exposed valleys of the gold 

 region. The city is regularly laid out, but its appear- 

 ance evidences the rapidity of its erection. The 

 greater number of the houses and stores in the neigh- 

 borhood of the river are constructed of wood, while 

 the outskirts, particularly upon the south, are occupied 

 by the tents of the constantly-arriving overland emi- 

 grants. Before the commencement of the last rainy 

 season, the number of these emigrants reached two or 

 three thousand. They squatted upon the vacant lots 

 which had been surveyed and sold to other persons. 

 This caused a considerable agitation in the town, which 

 continued till the disastrous flood swept both the par- 

 ties off the ground, and thus left the field clear for 

 another commencement. Sacramento is the grand 

 receptacle of the overland emigration, and this, com- 

 bined with its commercial facilities, will continue to 

 give the city a superiority over the majority of the 

 other places in California. 



Adjoining Sacramento city, is the town of Sutter. 



