HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA, 245 



facturing, and mining community. The session of the 

 Legislature must have been laborious, indeed ; but 

 the members have acquitted themselves of their ar- 

 duous duties rapidly and well. One great measure 

 adopted by the Legislature was the substitution of 

 the common law for the uncertain civil law which 

 existed in California when ceded to the L^nited States. 

 The whole legal administration will now conform to 

 that of most of the other States of the L'nion. The 

 provisions in the Constitution for the purpose of edu- 

 cation, have been nobly carried out by an act for the 

 incorporation of colleges. 



Agriculture in California appears to be improving, 

 and as it is getting to be as profitable as any thing 

 else, it is attracting increased attention. Boxes of 

 garden seeds which had cost nine dollars, have been 

 gold for one hundred dollars, and scythes which cost 

 three dollars, sold for forty-five dollars. The seeds 

 which were sent around Cape Horn, were almost use- 

 less, while those which went over the Isthmus, her- 

 metictxlly sealed, came up first. One man near San 

 Jose, has made fifty thousand dollars by raising pota- 

 toes. What toil in digging and washing gold would 

 be necessary to realize that amount ! 



Among the recent mining incidents, the following 

 is remarkable: — Last winter, three men accidentally 

 struck uj^on a rich deposit of gold, in a gulch about 

 twelve miles from Knight's Ferry, on the Stanislaus 

 River, and four or five miles back from it. They 

 worked this vein with great success, managing to keep 

 it a secret, until an Indian, wandering through the 

 locality, discovered the secret, and communicated it 

 to his tribe. The next day, several hundred Indians 

 fell to work, with the same success ; but as they spent 



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