308 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



The diggings on the Stanislaus, and several other tributaries of the 



JPO 



San Joaquin, have been discovered and opened within the last two 

 months, and many hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars dug 

 out. Some instances have occurred of individuals obtaining from fif- 

 teen to twenty-five pounds of gold in a single day, i, e., from 3,000 to 

 5,000 dollars. One lump of pure gold was found weighing eighteen 

 pounds avoirdupois. This I have not seen, but am credibly informed of 

 the fact. It was found by Lorenzo Trugillo, a New-Mexican, and I 

 presume he has taken it home with him. 



I am told that in one or two places gold has been found in place, in 

 veins or beds of quartz interposed among other rocks. But to this fact 

 I cannot vouch, as I have not seen any such myself. Dikes or beds 

 of quartz rock many feet in thickness, and often of great length, are 

 numerous, and generally among nearly perpendicular strata of some 

 form of slate or gneiss rock. All the gold thus far discovered occurs 

 uniformly, so far as I have observed, in one geological formation and 

 no other — i. e., the drift or diluvium, a bed of pebbles and gravel of va- 

 rious sizes lying next beneath the soil, and resting, unconformably, on 

 the rocks beneath — which in most of the diggings are some form of 

 slate or gneiss, running about N.N.W. and S.S.E., and dipping nearly 

 perpendicularly. Like the pebbles of the drift, the gold is uniformly 

 water-worn, and unquestionably was deposited in its present position 

 at the same time and by the same agency as the stratum in which it 

 occurs. It is surprising how little accurate information respecting the 

 region exists even among the thousands of people — many of them in- 

 telligent men — at present on the ground. The general impression is 

 that the gold has been thrown from volcanoes in a melted state — numer- 

 ous places are confidently described as the craters of extinct volcanoes ; 



whereas the entire region is just about as volcanic as the stale of Con- 

 necticut and no more. The craters spoken of are some of them in a 

 region of sandstone ! and others among some magnificent ranges of 

 trap or basalt, where from the mural and blackened aspect of the 

 iges, often arranged m forms somewhat circular, such a mistake is 

 not to be wondered at in persons ignorant of geological phenomena. 



The extent of the known gold region is daily augmenting — rich ex- 

 plorations now spreading over a district some four hundred miles in 

 length by thirty or forty at least in width, in almost every part of which 

 gold is to be found in abundance. Probably over $6,000,000 have 

 already been extracted, and next spring the digging will be carried on 

 with redoubled energy. Many have already made handsome fortunes, 

 chiefly those who have had facilities for trading, or had a train of In- 

 dians digging for them, or been so lucky as to stumble on a deposit 

 containing its pounds of metal— neither of which three circumstances 

 has happened to inc. I have now resumed my former business of sur- 

 veying, and design to follow it so long as the weather will permit. 



It is now nearly time for the winter's rains to set in, but as yet the 

 weather continues delightful. I like surveying much better than gold 

 digging — chiefly because it furnishes some occupation for the mind as 

 well as the body. Living is very expensive here at present, and will 

 continue to be so — the price of iabor, provisions and every thing else 

 being proportioned tg the abundance of gold. Business is brisk — stran- 





