Recapitulation--Population of the Mining Region--Average Amount of
Gold Dug--Requirements of a Gold-Digger--The Best Season--In what
kind of Soil is Gold Found?--Washing Machines--California a
Habitable Country--The Learned Professions.
It is proper, before closing this work, and it will probably be
expected, that I should make a sort of recapitulation, and give some
advice in regard to prospects and plans of proceeding in the gold mines
of California. To advise is always a difficult task, and in this
instance it is peculiarly so; but I will endeavour to give a fair
statement of facts, and the best advice I can. The number of persons at
present labouring in the various portions of the mining region is about
one hundred thousand. Of these, at least one-third are Mexicans,
Chilenos, Pacific Islanders, and Chinese, and the remainder Americans,
English, French, and Germans; and I should divide their locations as
follows: on the North, Middle, and South Forks, say twenty thousand; on
the Stanislaus, Mokelumne, Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, and other
tributaries of the San Joaquin, forty thousand; on Yuba and Feather
Rivers, twenty thousand; and, scattered over the various dry diggings,
twenty thousand more. During the past summer and autumn, I should
estimate the average quantity of gold dug daily at eight dollars to a
man; for although it is by no means uncommon for an individual to
“strike a lucky place,” and some days take out from a hundred to a
thousand dollars, others spend whole days in search and labour, without
finding more than two or three dollars a day. From my own experience in
the mines I am, however, satisfied, that, during six months in the year,
a stout man, with health, energy, and perseverance, can average sixteen
dollars a day in almost any portion of the placers; and that, for twenty
years, from three to ten dollars a day can be made by individual labour.
Still, I would advise all who are in good positions at home to remain
there. The labour and hardships consequent upon the life of a
gold-digger are of the most severe and arduous nature. Prying and
breaking up huge rocks, shovelling dirt, washing it with wet feet all
day, and sleeping on the damp ground at night, with nothing above but a
thin covering of canvass, or a leaky log roof, are not by any means
agreeable to one who has been accustomed to the civilized life of
cities. Richelieu says, that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Many
a fine, spruce young clerk coming to California with golden dreams of
wealth before him has proved, to his sorrow, that the crowbar is heavier
than the pen. I hesitate not to say, that the labour of gold-digging is
unequalled by any other in the world in severity. It combines within
itself the various arts of canal-digging, ditching, laying stone walls,
ploughing, and hoeing potatoes,--and adding to this a life in the wilds
of the mountains, living upon poor provisions, continually exposed
either to the burning rays of the sun, or the heavy dews of night, and
the occupation becomes anything but a pleasant one. But to a man endowed
with a constitution to endure hardship, with hands that have been
accustomed to labour, and with a heart which suffers not itself to be
sorrowed with disappointment, there was never a better opportunity in
the world to make a fortune, than there is at present in California. To
mechanics, especially, there are great inducements; for if they do not
choose to labour in the mines, with the wages which I have previously
stated as being paid to them in San Francisco and the other towns of
Northern California, they may, in one year, save more money than in five
in any other portion of the United States.
To those who do come, I would give a few words of advice, which may be
of service. Bring with you very little clothing and provisions, as they
will only prove a burden. These can be purchased in San Francisco almost
at New York prices. Never come without money, as gold is not to be found
in the streets of San Francisco. You may be delayed several days before
going to the mines, and board at from sixteen to fifty dollars a week
will soon make a large hole in a small sum of money. Arrived at San
Francisco, beware of the vices prevalent there. Drinking and gaming are
the principal, and in fact the only amusements of the town, and many a
poor fellow, landing there with high hopes, has been fleeced and turned
adrift upon society with a broken heart. Purchase no provisions in San
Francisco. The expenses of transportation are so great, (freight up the
river being from two to four cents per pound, and by teams to the
various mining points from fifteen to fifty,) that your provisions will
cost more in money and time than they would if purchased in the mines.
Flour is now selling in the gold regions at about fifty cents per pound;
this seems like a great price, but you will find it cheaper than to
carry it with you, and will soon find that it is much easier to pay
fifty cents for a pound of flour when you are making sixteen dollars a
day, than it is to pay three cents when you are making but one. For the
same reason that you should carry no provisions, carry but little
clothing. A mere change is sufficient, and clothes can always be
purchased at reasonable rates in all parts of the mines.
The best season for proceeding to the mines is about the end of the
month of August. The waters which have been swollen by the melting of
the snows in the summer, have then subsided, and the heat of the summer
months has then given way to the cooling breezes of autumn. From that
time till the middle of December, the weather is most delightful, and
the opportunities for profitable labour are far better than at any other
time. About the middle of December, the rainy season commences; the
rivers immediately commence rising, and labour is prevented both by this
and the inclemency of the weather. The life of the miner during the
winter months is exceedingly unpleasant, and I would advise no one to
proceed to the gold region after the month of November. The rainy season
usually closes about the middle of February, but the roads are
exceedingly muddy until the first of March, and from that time till
July, labour can be performed to advantage in the various dry-diggings,
and upon some of the rivers. By this time the hot and sickly season
commences, and the waters upon the rivers are at their greatest height.
The thermometer ranges from 90° to 120° in the shade at noonday, and the
heavy dews of night fall upon the labourer, who has been all day at work
beneath a broiling sun. This of course produces disease, and in that
wild region, where the comforts and attendance that should ever surround
a sick man’s bed, are unknown, disease is usually followed by death. The
most prevalent diseases during this time are fever and ague, and bilious
fevers of the most virulent nature. But I am satisfied that, setting
aside the prevalence of diseases common to all new countries, a large
portion of the sickness of the summer months is caused by the exposure
consequent upon the present mode of life of the miner. When the same
comforts are introduced, when good houses are built, and wholesome
provisions can be procured, the mining regions of California will
compare favourably with Illinois, Indiana, or any of the new states in
point of healthiness.
It has been a frequent inquiry in the United States, “In what kind of
soil is gold found?” The answer is, that it is found in no one
particular kind of soil, but in every variety from the common loose
black earth to the hardest clay. I have found, in the dry diggings of
Weaver’s Creek, pieces of gold, some of them weighing nearly a quarter
of an ounce, lying in the upper black soil within two inches of the
surface. It is sometimes found embedded in a hard white clay, at other
times in a red, and at others in a blue clay. As a general thing, I have
found that where the gold is coarse, it usually descends until it
reaches one of the above-mentioned clays, while the finer particles rest
upon the gravelly stratum nearer the surface, and thus fine gold is most
frequently found mingled with red gravel.
In regard to bringing machines to California for the purpose of washing
gold, I must caution the miner to be careful and judicious in their
selection. Some of the more recent inventions are valuable, especially
the “Quicksilver Gold Separator,” which is constructed to operate with
quicksilver in such manner as to save the fine particles of gold which
in the ordinary cradles or rockers are lost. The only object of a
machine of any kind is to break up and keep in motion a larger quantity
of earth than a pan would hold, and at the same time prevent the gold
from being lost. I saw, last spring, hundreds of huge, bulky machines,
which had been brought round Cape Horn, and which would require, each
one of them, a large ox-team to convey them to the mining region, lying
piled upon the beach of San Francisco, destined never to fulfil the
object for which they were intended, and ere this probably used for
firewood, or in constructing habitations for their owners to dwell in.
There are, however, some small hand machines manufactured in New York,
which are really of great use to the gold-digger.
A great mistake has been made by people who have emigrated to
California, or who have desired to emigrate, in considering it merely as
a temporary home, a sort of huge goose, out of which a few feathers were
to be plucked, and then forsaken. It is for this reason that the life of
the miner is at present tenfold more arduous than it otherwise would be,
and never was there a more egregious error in regard to the character of
the country. Gold is not the only product of the soil in California. Her
fertile valleys and rich prairies are capable, when cultivated, of
producing an untold store of agricultural wealth. Her lofty pines and
spreading oak trees afford an abundant supply of material for the
erection of comfortable dwellings. Her thousand streams, pouring down
every hillside and winding through her plains, furnish an inexhaustible
supply of water-power, and her forests, mountains, and lakes abound with
game of every description. In the immense valleys of the Sacramento and
San Joaquin, are millions of acres of land entirely unreclaimed, upon
which any man may settle and make a fortune in a few years by the
cultivation of the soil. Some hundred and fifty miles above Sacramento
City, on the Sacramento River, are large tracts of valuable,
well-watered land, much of which is unreclaimed, other portions being
for sale at mere nominal prices. On one of these tracts, at “Lawson’s
Rancho,” wheat was last year raised at an average of forty-five bushels
to the acre, and is now selling delivered on the rancho at six dollars a
bushel! Cattle bring from forty to a hundred dollars a head, potatoes
twenty-five cents per pound, milk two dollars per gallon, butter from
one to two dollars per pound, and every product of a farm is at
corresponding prices. With the continued growth of California, the
demand for all these articles, most of which are now brought from the
Sandwich Islands, Chili, and Oregon, must necessarily increase, and I am
satisfied that the cultivation of the soil will yet be a more profitable
labour than extracting the gold from it.
California is a habitable country, and should be looked upon no longer
as a mere temporary residence. A state government has been organized,
the sheltering hand of law stretched over its borders, and life there
can be made as comfortable as life in any other portion of the world.
Let then the gold-digger come, and from the never-failing hills gather a
rich supply of treasure. Let the farmer come, and from the abundant soil
produce the necessaries of life, and enrich himself from them. Let the
mechanic and labourer come, and build up the towns of this new country,
and let the ladies of our land come, and with their smiles bring peace
and happiness into the wilderness.
“The world was sad!--the garden was a wild!--
And man, the hermit sighed, till woman smiled!”
In this connexion, it may be well to state, that although California
presents one of the finest fields in the world for mechanical and
industrial pursuits, it is as yet an unpromising region for what are
called “the learned professions;” and I would advise no more “of that
ilk” to wend this way. The country is already overrun with young lawyers
and doctors, who are too feeble physically to succeed as gold-diggers,
and seek in vain for fees. Nearly all the law business done here is in
the hands of a few prominent individuals, who are handsomely paid for
what they do, but could readily transact ten times the amount of
business that is ever placed in their hands. Public opinion is more
stringent here than in the older states, and contracts are faithfully
fulfilled, whether written or verbal, without evasion, under the
technicalities or subtilties of the law. The medical profession is
somewhat more in demand, but it is so crowded that few succeed, and most
persons who come here to practise medicine, are compelled to resort to
some other means of obtaining a livelihood. Hydropathy is the popular
treatment, and a good bath is thought to be far more conducive to health
than bleeding or calomel.