PREFACE. Vv 
dozen species grow to be more than two hundred and fifty 
feet high, and one species has reached a height of four hun- 
dred and fifty feet, and a diameter of forty feet in the trunk ; 
by a peculiar zoology, composed chiefly of animals found 
only on this coast, and including the largest bird north of 
the equator, and the largest and most formidable quadruped 
of the continent; by the importation in early years of all 
articles of food, and then by the speedy development of 
agriculture, until her wheat and wine have gone to the 
furthest cities in search of buyers, and until her markets 
are unrivalled in the variety and magnificence of home- 
grown fruits; by the largest crop of grain, and the largest 
specimens of {fruits and vegetables on record; by a society 
where for years there was not one woman toa score of men, 
and where all the men were in the bloom of manhood; by 
the first large migration of eastern Asiatics from their own 
continent; by the first settlement of Chinamen among 
white men ; by the entire lack of mendicants, paupers, and 
alms-houses; by the rapid fluctuations of trade; by the ac- 
cumulation of wealth in the hands of men, most of whom 
came to the country poor; by the practice, universal i 
early vears, of going armed; by the multitude of deadly 
affrays, and by extra-constitutional courts, which sometimes 
punished villains with immediate execution, and sometimes 
proceeded with a gravity and slow moderation that might 
become the most august tribunals. I write of California 
while she is still youthful, and full of marvels; while her 
population is still unsettled; while her business is still 
fluctuating, her wages high, her gold abundant, and her 
birth still fresh in the memory of men and women who 
have searcely reached their majority ; and I write of her 
while she still offers a wide field for the adventurous, the 
enterprising, and the young, who have life before them, and 
wish to commence it where they may have the freest career, 
