Having reached the mines, I shall close with some remarks in relation
to the country, &c. California is a country of contrarieties in every
respect. Probably there is no country so much belied, for, generally,
those who admire the country and speak in its praise, tell the truth in
such a way that it amounts to a falsehood, when judged by the lights
which his audiences in the States will have, to enable them to
understand him, while the man who has been unfortunate gives it the
same false coloring when detracting from its merits, and what is worse,
both parties speak literally the truth, but unless his auditors have
been here they cannot obtain a correct idea of the country. It is the
best country in the world, and at the same time the worst, as every man
will find that comes here, according to the circumstances in which he
may chance to be placed. It is thought that the diggings are exhausted,
but from observation I am satisfied that so far from this being the
case, their riches have only began to be discovered, and although the
gulch and ravine diggings are pretty much worked out, yet all those
mountains and hills composed of gravel and earth, will be found to
contain riches of great value, on the surface of rock upon which they
rest. Mining hereafter will be attended with greater expense, on
account of the depth which the miner will have to dig to reach the
gold, but there will be rich gold diggings in California for a hundred
years to come, in my opinion. Great sickness has prevailed thro' the
fall in the mines, there being buried from Hangtown alone about 13 a
day. At the least calculation, one fourth of the emigration of 1850
have, or will die, by the first of January 1851. Miners at this time
are getting but small pay, very many not more than paying board. Almost
all who came here thought that they should make from 12 to 20 dollars a
day, but instead of those prices, they are glad to get from four to
eight per day, and very many do not make but half that sum. Yet
nevertheless California is a good country, and if people would move to
it with their families, and make their homes here, in a few years they
would be richly paid.
The old adage, "a rolingstone gathers no moss," is exemplified every
day here. The same restless spirit that prompted men to come, keeps
them constantly on the move while here. Many who are making from three
to six dollars a day, work until they obtain two or three hundred
dollars, then hearing of richer diggings otherwheres, pull up and leave
sure work and travel until they have spent what they have got and a
month or two in prospecting, when they become strapped, to use a
favorite expression here, and are compelled to work for less pay, until
they make a raise, when the same spirit puts them in motion again. I
have known men who have been here two years, and have sometimes had a
thousand dollars on hand, that, when I saw them, had not a dollar, and
were compelled to obtain credit to enable them to live for a time until
they could make a raise again, and all the result of this restless
spirit. In my opinion one half of the aggregate time of the miners of
California is spent in traveling from one section of the mines to
another. California may be properly divided into four ranges, or
divisions. The first, the alluvial bottoms of the rivers or bays, and
the plains, which comprise all of the agricultural country in the
State, the area of which would probably amount to one half of the area
of the State of Illinois. This range is exceedingly fertile, probably
equal to any soil on the earth. The climate is excellent, the air pure
and healthy, neither too cool nor too hot, and well calculated for the
products of a temperate climate, as well as many of tropical. Grass
grows on the bottoms all the year, and farming may be carried on in all
months of the winter, if not prevented by the rain. No frosts ever nip
the crops, and the seasons present a perpetual spring. The plains are
somewhat elevated from the bottoms, gently rolling, and resemble our
prairies. The soil is fertile, but cannot be cultivated without
irrigation in the summer, although crops are raised by sowing in
November and December, which enables them to get so far advanced by the
commencement of the dry season as to avoid the drouth. In the spring
they are covered with a great variety of flowers, wild oats, and
clover. The timber on this range consists of live oak, and various oaks
resembling white burr and black oak, besides various shrubs. The second
range is the lower hill or mountain range, which is also the gold
range. The soil would admit of cultivation if it could be irrigated,
but this would be impossible, from the nature of the country. It will
be only available for its gold, which is inexhaustible in my opinion,
although the business of gathering it will not be as profitable
hereafter as it has been. The timber in the range consists of the
various kinds of oak and pine, with some cedar and spruce; it is not
valuable, but will answer the wants of this range for the present. The
third range is the timber range, which in time will be the most
valuable part of California. Probably no part of the world will furnish
such pine and cedar timber. The valleys are filled with trees from two
to three hundred feet high, clear from limbs nearly to their tops, and
of the best quality for lumber; many of the trees from five to ten feet
in diameter at the foot. I saw a pine tree said to be 11, and a cedar
15 feet thro', and have no doubt but such was the fact. They can only
be got out of the mountains by railways or the rivers at flood time,
consequently it will be some years before the attention of the
Californian will be turned to this branch of trade. But little gold has
been found in this range, or probably ever will be, as the quartz
veins, the original deposit of gold, if they exist at all in it, lie
deep under the granite ridges.
The next range and the last lies upon the bald peaks of the Sierra
Nevadas, and is too much elevated even for timber to grow to any
extent. Their summits are covered eternally with snow, and their sides,
where uncovered, present a barren shingle, or ragged walls of lava. But
little gold is found in this range, and I know of no use of it in the
economy of nature except to hold the world together. The valleys fit
for cultivation, are so cold that vegetation cannot grow, except grass,
which is of better quality where it can grow, than in the two next
lower ranges. This range was also the district of volcanoes, the
extinct craters of which indent the mountains in every direction, and
are now generally lakes and ponds forming the heads of the various
streams. The water in them is very pure and clear; they are well
stocked with trout. By their sides in many places, the ragged
perpendicular walls of lava rise thousands of feet high, black and
gloomy, as it cooled off, when thrown from the bowels of the earth. The
east side of the mountains on the descent to the Carson Valley is well
timbered, and furnishes some good gold diggings, although not very much
prospected. The Carson Valley is perhaps one of the most desirable
farming districts in California. The bottom is very fertile, and
covered with a heavy growth of wild clover, wheat, oats, &c. The plains
by the side of the bottoms are barren deserts covered with wild sage,
and utterly worthless. The climate is very favorable to the growth of
the cereal grains, but the nights are too cold for corn. It is best
calculated for stock growing, and is capable of supporting a population
of many thousands.--The air is very pure, and the water power and water
very abundant, and of excellent quality, the valley being well supplied
with numerous small clear streams of ice cold water, running from the
mountains across the valley, and emptying into the Carson River. The
California railroad, if built by way of the South Pass of the Rocky
Mountains, will follow up the valley of this river, in which case this
fertile valley will soon teem with populous villages of civilized men,
instead of the few squalid, thieving diggers who are now its sole
tenants.
The gold digging of California is much less profitable than it was in
1849, the shallow ravine diggings having been pretty much worked out,
but there is no doubt but that the hills still contain inexhaustible
supplies, which though attended with greater expense in obtaining, will
nevertheless pay well for working, when the same shall be worked by a
permanent settled population, aided by mechanical science. It is folly
in my opinion for a man to leave home and family, with all his home
interests, to go to California for a mere temporary sojourn for one or
two years. A man should take his family and household goods with him,
and make a permanent settlement, which would aid him very materially in
his business prospects. He would then remain in one location, and would
consequently save both time and money. And there is another gain in
locating more permanently, that is in acquiring a better knowledge of
his location. Every section of the mines has its distinct
characteristic, and a person having learnt the location and features of
gold deposits in one section, in removing to another will have to learn
this anew. When this fact is taken into consideration it will be quite
evident that a man will always succeed best when permanently located.
Any man of sober, industrious habits, who may make his home in
California, will in 10 years, with ordinary luck and health, and the
vicissitudes of life, acquire a fortune sufficiently ample to maintain
himself for the balance of his life in the old states, but many who
have resided for that length of time in California will be unwilling to
leave its beautiful climate to go back to the old states to live in
their variable climates.
Many conjectures have been put forth as to the cause of the deposits of
native gold on the surface, and many have asserted that it came there
by being thrown out of the craters of volcanoes. This idea is now
pretty much exploded amongst intelligent miners. It is evident that the
gold originally lay in the quartz mines, and has been loosened by the
action of fire decomposing the quartz, and by abrasion of the
atmosphere and water. In evidence of this it will be observed that in
those sections richest in melted or deposit gold, there are but few
gold bearing quartz veins, and those bearing evidence of great heat,
while in those locations rich in quartz veins, there is but little
surface gold, and that very fine, and generally found on the bars of
the rivers, and along their banks. The whole country has at some day
been in a state of fusion, as the quantity of cinders found in the
gulches bear ample testimony, and in those sections where the heat was
greatest, the quartz became intirely decomposed, allowing the gold to
drop like molten lead upon the slate and granite substratum, where when
undisturbed by the action of water, it now remains imbedded in the
rock. This is not mere opinion, but a statement made from personal
observation in working in deep diggings, where it was evident that the
gold had not been disturbed since it was melted from the quartz veins,
I having frequently taken pieces from the slate that fitted the
interstices as closely as it would have done if I had melted it myself
and turned it in to cool.
The best mining country appears to be a strip of land about 30 or 40
miles wide, running north and south, or nearly so, and extending the
whole length of California, and as I have been informed on reliable
authority as far north as Puget's Sound, where gold has been found in
small quantities. This information I had from a gentleman of
intelligence and observation, from Missouri, Mr. Sherwin, who spent the
summer of 1850 at that place. The quartz veins also lie in this general
course, one of which may be traced hundreds of miles. No great amount
of gold has been found out of this district, although it is possible
that in time it may be; but in my opinion, if the original stratum of
quartz veins extended back into the mountains, that it there ceases to
be the surface, and becomes the substratum; if this proves to be the
case, there is no estimating the mineral wealth of California. It will
take ages to exhaust the supply. The supposition that this stratum does
reach back of the now known district, under the mountains, is a
reasonable one, as the rock in view, generally, on the first range or
plains, is slate; in the second range, quartz veins resting in and on
slate, in the third range granite ridges, with occasional spur quartz
veins in view, and on the fourth or summit range, either granite, or
molten rock, or lava cooled off, as it was cast out of the numerous
extinguished craters, California furnishes a great field for study to
the geologist, and much may be learned which is not now known, and
which will be useful in developing her vast resources.
Many suppose that gold was not known here until discovered by the
Americans. This I am disposed to doubt, but whether known to civilized
man, or only the native digger, I would not hazard an opinion. A
discovery which occurred immediately under my own observation,
satisfies me that the gold had been sought for many years before that
time. A miner in sinking a hole at the head of the Spanish Ravine,
which had been one of the richest in California, found a plain gold
ring of rude workmanship, soldered together with silver, or some white
metal, about four feet from the surface of the ground. On the inside of
it was a cross stamped very legibly, indicating that it was made by a
christian. This was in new diggings, where the earth had never been
disturbed so far as appearances would indicate, and moreover he found
but one small piece of gold besides that in the claim. How long it
would take to form four feet of solid earth, or how it came there, no
one can say, but certainly it must take a great number of years for
that depth of soil to form, and the ring itself shows workmanship of an
early and rude age.
The limited space of this work necessarily precludes me from going into
a lengthened detail of incidents and description of California, but in
closing I must remark that California, from its variety of climate,
which is so great that a man may walk in a day from the region of snow
through a temperate climate to another of perpetual summer, where the
flowers cover the earth, and render the air fragrant with their
perfume. From its great resources in gold and other mineral treasures,
and its boundless forests of pine and cedar, from its great amount of
water power, and its great agricultural and commercial advantages, is
yet destined to be the first State in the Union, as it now is the most
pleasant to reside in, and it behooves our government to so cement the
bonds of union in commercial interests--while now cemented by the
feelings of "Padre pais"--with a belt of iron from ocean to ocean, with
the iron horse with the sinew of steel and breath of fire for a
messenger, that the time may not come, when the diverse interests of
the Pacific states may induce their inhabitants to form a government of
their own.
It is a well known fact in history, that a country divided by a great
natural barrier, cannot remain long under one government, but that
their several interests call for separate governments. The great
natural barrier between the Atlantic and Pacific States is, the Rocky
mountains and the deserts, which can only be overcome by railroads,
which will bring the two sides of the continent within a few days of
each other, and render much now useless territory available, either in
an agricultural, manufacturing or commercial point of view. Although
the country, from the Missouri river to the Pacific, is quite as well
adapted to the building of railroads--if we except the Nevada
Mountains, and this exception would not apply to the Oregon route--as
any of the eastern States, yet no private company can, or should be
allowed to build such road, but it should be a national work, and
subject to the regulation of the government, for the good of the
people, when completed. If it should be built by a private company, it
would become one of the greatest and worst monopolies in the country,
rivaling the British East India company monopoly. This may not be so
evident to a person who has not traveled the route, but I believe that
every thinking man who has traveled it will agree with me. This is a
matter which it were well for our legislators to consider well and act
upon before it is too late, for it will soon be found that those routes
now opening through Central America and the Isthmus, will not answer
the wants of the growing commerce with the Pacific, and every year is
cementing the bonds of interest between California and Oregon, and the
Spanish countries on the Pacific.
But I must bring my work to a close, and bid farewell to California,
its lofty snow capped peaks, its beautiful valleys, its flowery plains,
its rapids, rivers and broad bays. Farewell! It was with a feeling of
sadness, that I turned, on the last range of hills to look back towards
those busy valleys teeming with life and energy, and when on the planks
of the vessel crossing the bar into the broad ocean, I turned to look
for the last time on the Queen City of the Pacific, embosomed in hills,
by the sparkling waters of the Bay. But home, family and friends, call
me away.
Farewell Reader!
Improved Farms for Sale.
_A RARE CHANCE FOR EMIGRANTS AND OTHERS WISHING TO PURCHASE IMPROVED
FARMS._
The undersigned, Real Estate Agent, has constantly at his disposal,
Improved Farms of various size and quality of improvement, which he
offers for sale to Emigrants and others as cheap, if not cheaper than
can be bought in the Western country. These farms are located in and
about Antioch, Lake county, Illinois; also in McHenry county, Ill., and
Kenosha county, Wisconsin.
They are situated in one of the most desirable sections of the western
country, are mostly opening timber and small prairie, combining the
advantages of excellent land, easy of cultivation, with abundance of
timber and fuel, and good water on the same farm. The country is well
watered by the Fox and O'Plain rivers and their branches, and by
numerous small clear lakes of excellent water, well stocked with fish.
The country around is one of the best stock and grain countries in the
world, and from its proximity to Lake Michigan, and to the valuable
markets, which its numerous part towns afford, and the cheapness of
improved farms, the emigrant cannot find a more desirable country to
locate in.--All who are desirous of purchasing a farm will find it for
their interest to give the undersigned a call at Antioch, Lake county,
Illinois, before buying elsewhere.
Antioch is a flourishing village, situated in the north-west corner of
the county, four miles east of Fox River, and one mile south from the
Wisconsin State line. It has two dry goods stores, one shoe store, one
hotel, a saw-mill, and various mechanics, and more are wanted. Chicago
is distant 48 miles south and east; Waukegan 17 miles south and east;
Kenosha 18 miles north and east; Racine 25 miles north and east,
Milwaukee 42 miles north and east, consequently Antioch has _five lake
cities_ within a day's drive of it. There are five flouring mills, and
five saw-mills within 12 miles of the village, two of which and three
saw-mills are within six miles of it. Besides these, a company has been
formed and a part of the stock subscribed for a steam flouring mill to
be built in the village, and a Plank Road is in contemplation of being
built directly from Waukegan to Antioch. The country around being
removed from the raw winds near Lake Michigan, and at the same time
near enough to it for all practical wants, is one of the most desirable
to locate in that the emigrant, seeking a new home in the far west,
will be able to find, combining all the advantages of proximity to good
markets, and good lands, good society, and everything that the heart of
man can desire. Remember to call on the undersigned, who will give you
the best bargains in farms that can be got in this country.
The following is the route from different cities on the Lake to
Antioch: From Chicago to Dutchman's Point, 12 miles; to Indian Creek 26
miles; to Libertyville 32 miles; to Antioch 48 miles.
From Waukegan to the O'Plain bridge, four miles; to Milburn 11 miles;
to Antioch 17 miles. From Kenosha to Jackson's Tavern at the O'Plain
river, 12 miles; to Brass Balls 16 miles; to Antioch 22 miles (via.
Bristol nearer, but not so good a road.)
From Racine to Martin Stand, (Ingall's Hotel) on Pleasant Prairie, nine
miles; to Jackson's Tavern 18 miles; to Brass Balls 22 miles; to
Antioch 28 miles.
From Milwaukee to Ive's Grove in Yorkville, 20 miles (through the
Milwaukee woods); To Paris 29 miles; to Brass Balls 37 miles; to Antioch
43 miles.
(Another route quite as good, but distance greater, is by way of
Racine, and another by Rochester on the Fox river. Antioch is 25 miles
from Rochester, Wis.)
Antioch, June 1852. E. S. INGALLS.
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