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START FOR THE MINERAL REGIONS—BANKS OF THE SACRAMENTO RIVER—SHOT AT—GOLD 
VS. MICA—SUTTERVILLE—PRIMITIVE MODE OF LIFE—SACRAMENTO CITY—AN INDIVID¬ 
UAL WHO HAD “SEEN THE ELEPHANT.” 
I spent the interval between the 5th of July and the 19th in 
preparing for the mines. I found many of the miners in town 
on account of the high state of water in the rivers. My friends 
who had visited the interior, spoke discouragingly of the mines, 
preferring the mercantile business. But goods were at the 
time selling at less than New York prices, and rents were enor¬ 
mously high. Many of the merchants were anxious to sell out 
and go into the mines, and I came to the conclusion that mining 
was the only sure way of making a fortune. 
On the 19th July I went on board the brig “ North Bend,” 
with three men who had been hired in New York and sent out 
by a company in which I had an interest, and sailed for the 
Sacramento river. We crossed the bay, and in an hour were 
in the strait, running up with a stiff breeze, passing numer¬ 
ous small islands inhabited by water fowl and covered with 
“ guano.” There were innumerable ducks, brant, loons, and 
geese flying through the air; the scenery delightful, the first 
fifty miles being a succession of small bays, all studded with 
islands. At the right the bank rises gradually to the height of 
from twenty to fifty feet, covered with wild oats, with an occa¬ 
sional “live oak” tree, and relieved by frequent ravines through 
which small streams find their way to the strait. This plain, 
during the rainy season, furnishes pasture for heads of wild cat¬ 
tle—elk, deer, and antelope, but at this season they had retired 
to the marshes and lower lands; and the whole of the right 
bank, as far back as the eye could reach, appeared one immense 
field of ripened grain. The left bank, on the immediate margin, 
