THE USES OF THE CAMEL. 



INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS. 



The cession of California to the United States by the treaty 

 of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, was an event fraught with the 

 most important consequences to our country. It was one of 

 those events which mark eras in a nation's history. It gave to 

 us an uninterrupted stretch from ocean to ocean across the 

 finest parallels of the earth's surface. It opened to the imagin- 

 ation a new highway to the Indies, and foreshadowed the idea 

 of a continental domain where the world's last great empire 

 should sit enthroned. Yet its first promise, though grand, was 

 somewhat remote and . obscure until illumined by the halo of 

 that wonderful discovery of gold which followed immediately 

 upon our occupation of its territory. 



The efiect of this discovery was not merely to infuse new 

 vigor, and a broader, hardier development into the American 

 character, and give a swift impetus to our national growth; but 

 it made our country, as it were, a centre to which was attracted 

 the migratory population of other lands. Circumstances 

 favored this end. An appalling famine was scourging Ireland. 

 Europe was rocking under political convulsions, and a great 

 tide of immigration, following the traditional path of empire, 

 was surging upon our Atlantic shores. The volume was easily 

 broken, for a long-continued influx of immigrants had at length 

 raised up a barrier against themselves, and a portion was swept 

 round to the Pacific. There, on those golden shores, where toil 

 and recompense went hand in hand, representatives of every 

 country in Europe worked side by side with American citizens, 

 native Indians, Peruvians, Chilians, and the half-breeds of Mex- 

 ico and Central America. " The Australian joined them from 



