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will be from birds. This fact is true also of California, where it 

 never rains from May to October; and their horses are out all 

 the year, living on the wild oats, and keeping seal fat. On one 

 occasion some of the people, oppressed by the multitude of horses, 

 speared 7,000 of them in order to lessen the crowd of them. 

 The cattle were encouraged. On one ranch there was ten thou- 

 sand head of cattle, and after being out all winter they were, in 

 April, as fine as our show beef. They live on the inexhaustible 

 wild oats. The soil of California is wonderfully fertile. I be- 

 lieve that one hundred and twenty-five bushels of wheat have 

 been raised there on one acre of land. The largest crop ever 

 raised in England was from 80 to 90 bushels an acre. I exam- 

 ined wheat on one ranch. The farmer had sown one bushel of 

 wheat on an acre and a quarter of land. The crop was reaped 

 by Indians, and yielded 102 bushels. I pulled one bunch of the 

 wheat, having only one tap root, and having 90 heads of wheat, 

 so very extensive was the tillering. I was very anxious to find 

 out, if possible, the cause of such astonishing fertility. The air, 

 and all other circumstances do not appear to be diflierent from 

 from those of many other regions. I looked carefully at the soil. 

 I had no means for making an analysis, but I was drawn to one 

 peculiar circumstance in the soil, that is a white, fine powder, 

 which is visible at every tread of my foot. I supposed it to be 

 potash in some form. I found the inhabitants very indolent. I 

 wanted some milk at a ranch, and the man, (a Spaniard,) said he 

 had none. He had a thousand cattle, but was too lazy to milk 

 the cows! One man with whom I put up was in a melancholy 

 condition, ruined, (as he said,) had only eight hundred cattle 

 left, had been robbed of the rest by Fremont. Mr. Gray spoke 

 of Captain Sutter as a man of the most noble, generous character, 

 whose immense estate has been taken from him, and he left in 

 poverty. 



On this side of the Rocky Mountains I met with several singu- 

 lar circumstances: A natural fountain of perfect soda water, which 

 I drank, adding a little lemon syrup— all New-York could not 

 in the hottest August drink it up. I saw a plain covered six 

 inches deep with pure snow white sal-ajratus— it almost blinded 

 me. I saw one drove of buffaloes which was ascertained to ex- 

 tend about five miles in breadth by about fifteen miles in length; 

 I thought the earth fairly trembled under their tread. We then 

 had plenty of meat, and I do not know more delicious meat than 

 the humps and tender loins of the buffalo— it was tender as 



