FISHERIES. The fisheries on our northwestern coast, and in the Arctic Ocean, are becoming a very important interest, having rapidly expanded within the past few years. The arrivals belonging to the whaling fleet during the year 1867 amounted to twenty-two, of which thirteen were from the Arctic Ocean, seven of these vessels belonging to the port of San Francisco. The product of the catch for the season consisted of 13, 149 barrels of oil, and 186,600 pounds bone, showing an average of 600 barrels oil and 8,500 pounds bone to each vessel. There were twentysix arrivals in 1866, bringing 15,000 barrels oil and 220,000 pounds bone; and twenty arrivals in 1865, with 11,320 barrels oil and 114,000 pounds bone. The most of the fleet engaged in these northern waters were formerly in the habit of repairing to Honolulu for the purpose of making sale or re-shipment of cargo and obtaining supplies. For several years past more of them have made San Francisco their place of rendezvous, and it is altogether probable that the number repairing to that port will be annually increased hereafter. The first adventure from San Francisco, in the cod fisheries of the north, was made in 1862. Three years later seven vessels were engaged in the business, the number having been increased to eighteen in 1866. In 1867, twenty cargoes were received at San Francisco, one vessel having made two trips during the season. All these vessels but two were fitted out at the port last mentioned. The number of fish caught during the latter year was 943,400, amounting to 1,183 tons, dried fish. In 1866 there were eighteen arrivals, bringing 724,000 fish, amounting to 902 tons of the dried article; the arrivals in 1865 having been sevennumber of fish taken, 469, 400-tons dried, 587. The time consumed in making the round trip by these vessels, in 1867, ranged from ninetyfive to one hundred and ninety-three days. IMMIGRATION. Almost every chapter in this volume may be said to contain something pertinent to the question of immigration. In fact, all that has been written about the soil, climate, agricultural advantages, rate of wages, manufacturing and mining industries, and almost every other leading topic treated of in these pages, may be considered as having a direct bearing on this subject; therefore, we will not pursue it further in this place than to say the present seems an auspicious season, inviting general emigration to California. Every industrial interest is at this time exceedingly prosperous. Farming in all its branches, of grain, fruit, grape, wool, and cattle growing, has paid munificently for several years past, having, to all appearance, an equally prosperous future before it. Lands of good quality, unless sought after in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco, are cheap and procurable on easy conditions; the opportunities for making money in the mines are still excellent, while labor of nearly every kind is in demand at liberal prices, which the prospective requirements for railroad construction promises to sustain for a long time to come. The rates of passage by the several steamship lines are extremely low, the transit being made with expedition, comfort, and safety. The various overland routes are also in better condition for travel than ever before, the more central being settled up for a long stretch at each end, with numerous towns and stations at intervals along it, enabling the emigrant to obtain supplies without carrying them as formerly all the way through. There will, moreover, be but little to fear from Indian molestations on this route hereafter. To such, then, abroad, as may entertain the idea of an early change of locality, or who may ever have contemplated a removal to California, it may be said that the present is every way an opportune moment for emigration to this State. POPULATION, VOTERS, RACES, ETC. According to a semi-official enumeration, more recent than any in this work heretofore alluded to, the population of California, all classes included, may be set down at about 550,000, of which about 350,000 are males; the preponderance in favor of this sex being much less now than it was twelve or fifteen years ago. Of the entire number of inhabitants, fully one fifth consist of children under eighteen years of age. The population of the State is composed of the various races in about. the following proportions: white, 478,000; colored, 5,000; Chinese, 60,000; domesticated Indians living in families, about the towns or on reservations, 4,000; and wild Indians, 3,000. A just apportionment of the voting population, numbering about 130,000, would give to the several nationalities composing it something like the following figures: native born Americans, 85,000-55,000 from the free and 30,000 from the former slave States; Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, etc., 20,000; English, Scotch, and Welsh, 5,000; Irish, 15,000; French, Italians, Spanish Americans, etc., 5,000. Of the Chinese population, it is estimated that about thirty-eight or forty thousand find employment in working such mines as have generally been abandoned by the whites; about eight thousand of their number having also been engaged for the past few years as common laborers on the Central Pacific railroad. Of the balance, some are scattered over the country, or, remaining in the cities and towns, are employed as cooks or in more menial capacities; a few hundred find service in our woolen mills and similar establishments, while a considerable percentage carry on laundries on their own account or engage in trade, gardening, or other pursuits, their customers in these latter branches being found mostly among their own countrymen. In some respects they have proved a useful class, inasmuch as certain of our manufacturing industries could not without their aid have obtained a foothold thus early; nor but for this could the Central Pacific railroad, an enterprise vital to every interest in the State, have been pushed forward with the speed it has been; not so much, in the latter case, from their cheapening labor as in their filling a demand that must otherwise have remained, at least for the time being, unsupplied. But, notwithstanding the useful purpose they have served in this connection, a strong feeling of dislike, not to say hostility, is entertained towards this people, especially on the part of the laboring classes-a feeling which, it is but just to say, has sprung as much from the natural antagonism of the races as from any apprehended reduction of wages likely to be offected by the presence of these Asiatic competitors in the labor market. What shape this vexed question is likely to take is at this juncture difficult to predict; though, from the fact that both those who favor, and those who oppose their admission into the State, have some sound reasons to sustain their views, it seems destined to be a disturbing element for some time to come. LIBRARIES, LITERATURE, JOURNALISM, ETC. There are thirty-one libraries in California, containing each 1,000 volumes or more, and an aggregate number of about 130,000 volumes. The largest of these institutions, the State Library, contains a little more than 30,000 volumes. In addition to the above, there are about forty smaller libraries in the State, belonging to the various towns, public schools, literary associations, etc., and containing from 300 to 1,000 volumes each, making a further aggregate of about 20,000 volumes. Besides these public libraries there are many reading rooms, where the leading journals, magazines and other periodical publications of the day are to be found-a vast amount of reading matter of this description being imported on every steamer arriving from the East. There are two hundred and thirty-eight different newspapers and periodicals published in California, of which twenty-eight are issued daily; two, tri-weekly; five, semi-weekly; ninety-two, weekly; one, trimonthly; one, semi-monthly; eight, monthly, and one, bi-monthly; besides which, five of the dailies issue steamer editions, and twelve issue weekly editions. Seven of these newspapers are published in foreign languages, two being in German, two in French, and one each in Spanish, Italian and Chinese. There are fifty-three different publications issued in San Francisco, five in Sacramento, and several other towns in the interior have two or more. From the foregoing it will be seen that California contains a large number of newspapers in proportion to its population, the tastes and habits of the people inclining them to indulge in this style of reading more than any other. The liberal support bestowed upon this class of publications, and the lively interest evinced by their patrons in public affairs, have tended to impart to journalism in this State a high character for enterprise and ability; several of the leading dailies, both in San Francisco and in two or three of the interior towns, being conducted with a degree of energy, tact and talent that would do no discredit to the ablest journals in the metropolitan cities of the Atlantic States or Europe. Indeed, it may be justly said that some of these San Francisco papers are scarcely inferior in this respect to any published in these great centers of wealth and enlightenment. While many meritorious and popular works have been produced by California authors, it can hardly be claimed that anything like a distinctive literature has yet been eliminated from the product of their labors, nor have their merits always met with that ready recognition even at home that is generally so freely accorded everything indigenous to the State. The reason of this is found in the fact that so large a share of reading matter is imported from the East, to a want of permanent homes among the people, and to an absolute lack of population, and not so much to the absence of a fair proportion of appreciative readers; though California, no doubt, contains a large element which prefer the sensational and overwraught style of modern current literature to that of a more solid and useful kind. Still, several California writers have acquired more than a mere local reputation, not only in the walks of humor, poetry, and fiction, but also in jurisprudence, science, history, mathematics, etc., some of whose works have been accorded very honorable recognition in the world of letters. The leading publishing houses in California are those of H. H. Bancroft & Co., and A. Roman & Co. The following bibliographical table contains a list of the principal books issued from the press of this State, besides which there have been published great numbers of pamphlets on various topics, political, religious, economical, educational, etc., together with more than one hundred maps, all of more or less local, and some of general interest : HISTORY-History of California; by Franklin Tuthill. Colonial History of California; by J. MINING Hand Book of Mining in the Pacific States; by John S. Hittell. Processes of Silver and Gold Extraction; by Guido Kustel. Sulphurets; by W. Barstow. Concentration and Chlorination Processes; by Guido Kustel. AGRICULTURE-Theory and Practice of Bee Culture; by J. S. Harbison. California Silk Grower's Manual, by Louis Prevost. Grape Culture and Wine Making in California; by T. Hart Hyatt. EDUCATIONAL-Instructions in Gymnastics; by Arthur and Charles Nahl. Clarke's New School Geography for Schools in the Pacific States; by Chas. Russell Clarke. Clarke's New Primary Geography. Elements of Composition; by Augustus Layres. Belles Lettres; by Augustus Layres. Carrie Carleton's Letter Writer. Manual of Oral Instruction; by Laura T. Fowler. Common School Readings; by John Swett. POETRY-Anselmo; by Geo. R. Parburt. The California Hundred; by J. H. Rogers. Outcroppings of California Verse. Poems; by Sarah E. Carmichael. Poetry of the Pacific; edited by May Wentworth. Poesies; by Pierre Cauwet. Poems; by Chas. Warren Stoddard. The Lost Galleon, and other Tales; by F. Bret Harte. Poems; by John R. Ridge. FICTION-In Bonds; by Laura Preston. The Greek Slave; by Ianthe. Leah's Confessions. RELIGIOUS The California Pilgrim; by Rev. J. A. Benton. Esther: the Hebrew Queen; MISCELLANEOUS Geological Survey of California; by J. D. Whitney. Confucius, and the |