The tolling of

the deepest grief and mourning in the wearer. great bells, the measured boom of the bass drum and the swelling wail of wind instruments turned the hearts of the people heavy and sorrowful. A hundred low-hung flags drooped over the city, and numerous bands of music played dead marches. If mechanical means could inspire or strengthen genuine sorrow, it was 80 on this occasion. The procession moved through the principal streets till it reached the plaza. There, the orator of the day, Judge Hoffman, delivered an appropriate and eloquent address. The dead no longer heard his praises chanted; but the memory of his deeds, his fiery eloquence, and the numberless benefits conferred on his country and on the world, by the famous orator and statesman, will long gratefully fill the minds of American citizens.

The occasion was worthy of a grand display; and it was admitted by everybody, that the procession, the ceremonies and general mourning, were of the most novel, imposing, and splendid description that had ever been witnessed in San Francisco.

26

CHAPTER XXII.

1852.

Australian gold mines.-Restlessness of miners.-Many who emigrated to Australia return to California-Superior advantages of the latter place.-Second city directory published.-California Telegraph Company.-General election.-Fire in Sacramento city.-Another fire in San Francisco.-Intelligence received of the death of Daniel Webster.-Falling of the waters of Lake La Mercede. Another city directory.-Firemen's election.-Legal execution of José Forni.-Destructive storm.

SEPTEMBER. For some time back a large number of vessels had left San Francisco with adventurers to the Australian gold mines, while now other vessels were bringing many of the same parties back again. A short notice on this subject may not be out of place.

Gold is perhaps the most extensively diffused metal in the world, although it is commonly found in very small particles. Every land is historically known to have had its auriferous distriet. California, however, stood alone in this respect, so far as it yielded large quantities of the precious metal, procured with less labor than any other country. Its gold possessions had already drawn upon it a vast population, who came hither hastily to collect the sparkling treasure, and then leave. The miners generally never contemplated a permanent residence in the country. When they had raised their "pile," they hurried home-to the wives and families or the friends they had left in the Atlantic States or in Europe. So long as they remained in California, they were not closely attached to any one gold-bearing district, however rich it might be. More often, they were incessantly moving about and prospecting, hoping and looking for new and richer claims. When a particularly valuable district happened to be discovered, then a "rush" to it took place from all the neighboring regions, and even from places hundreds of miles distant.

This restlessness has always been a peculiar feature in the character of the miner, who is naturally speculative. He works hard -harder than an Irish laborer or an English "navvie," for perhaps one month-then he grows weary and discontented with his trifling gains, and wanders about for as long a period prospecting, poking into every odd crevice in likely rocks, sinking pits here and there, and trying the sandy bed of every stream he may see in his rambles, wistfully hoping, though seldom finding, some rich secret deposit that will repay his previous fruitless labor. When his means of living without immediately profitable and earnest work are nearly exhausted, he gets tired of this new occupation, and a supposed good claim may perhaps also be found. Then the digger sets vigorously to work once more, for another month or two, until new ennui and restlessness force him to go on the tramp again, and look about for the fanciful great gains that can alone satisfy his hopes. He chases the rainbow to find its base. The gold miner, like man in the abstract, "never is, but always to be blest." His business is closely allied to gambling, with its rare chances of suddenly making a great fortune, or of losing time and labor, which make his capital.

While the miner grew thus restless, and was attracted to new placers upon the least rumor of their fancied superiority, and when idle tales arose and were circulated by the weak, indolent or unlucky, that all the best fields had already been gleaned of their rich harvest, he was naturally prepared to go farther, and to seek in other lands the wealth which he had happened somehow to miss in California. It mattered little in what place or country he made his "pile," so that it was found. The discovery of gold in Australia, nearly a year and a half ago, had produced in that country, and subsequently over a great part of the world, a repetition of the troublous scenes which had occurred immediately after the discovery of gold in California. When, therefore, intelligence of the great quantities of the precious metal which were being found in Australia reached San Francisco, and subsequently the mining regions of California, great excitement was produced over all the country. Successive reports confirmed the first astonishing yields. Rich as the Californian placers had been esteemed, the Australian diggings appeared much to exceed them

in that respect. A good story by travelling loses nothing of the marvellous. The first wonderful tidings of the Sydney diggings --including the notable hundred-weight of pure gold, were almost forgotten, when later intelligence came of the newer gold fields of Victoria-of the famous Mount Alexander region, and its districts; Forest Creek, Friar's Creek and the rest, and also of the

renowned Ballarat and Bendigo. Large numbers of the migratory and discontented miners in California now hurried to San Francisco, to depart for the newer and perhaps true Dorado, just discovered in Australia. Many adventurers from the city joined these emigrants, and set sail for Sidney and Melbourne. At the same time, great numbers of Australians, who had come to California after 1848, now took the opportunity of returning to their original homes. Some of these had wrought patiently at the mines, or lived as good citizens in various parts of the country, while others had long been the disgrace and terror of the commu

nity. The "Vigilance Committee" of San Francisco, and similar associated bodies that had been formed in other towns of California, had already driven the worst of the last class of Australians away. The news of the gold discoveries in their own country, speedily carried off the rest. The migration from California at this period was therefore not an unmingled evil, although its own mines wanted every hand that could dig a hole or feed a long-tom. After a time, most of the Californians in Australia grew sick of their new country. They had perhaps found the auriferous earth in general rather richer than what it was in California; but not so rich as their brilliant hopes had pictured it. At the same time, since the gold happened in general to be buried much deeper in the ground, the labor of extracting it was greater, while the water for washing purposes was often lamentably deficient. Then there was the moral contamination of working beside the convicts of Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales, the unhealthiness of the mining country, the scarcity of proper water to drink, the privations from want of food and severity of the weather, and excessively severe labor. The Californians were farther disgusted by the imposition of a tax of seven and a half dollars per month, laid by the government upon all miners for license to work, as well as by the occasional outbreaks of national jealousy, and disputes between themselves and British subjects. On the whole, therefore, the Americans were glad to leave the country to its first inhabitants and their coming brethren from England; and so soon as the former contrived to gather the pecuniary means, and had the opportunity, they hastened back to their old quarters in California, now doubly endeared to them by their luckless absence. The reports brought by these returned emigrants before long satisfied the wavering and adventurous, that no special benefit was to be obtained by any American in leaving the rich mines of his own country for those, however promising they might appear, of another. On the contrary, all he could look for were many additional hardships, physical and moral, and severe labor ill-requited. Of late, accordingly, comparatively few adventurers have sailed from San Francisco for the Australian gold fields. This is well for California. It may just also, while on this subject, be said in passing, that other labor in