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a kindhearted man but not avaricious, and he still thought his visitor a little insane. Leading him within, he set food before him, and then giving him for a piece of the quartz a napoleon, and telling him to call again whenever he pleased, dismissed him. The man never reappeared, but the rock, when analyzed, was found to be rich in gold. Fifteen years elapsed, and the incident was well-nigh forgotten, when one day a small, heavy parcel, enclosed in a torn and greasy handkerchief, was handed with a letter to the antiquarian, by the keeper of a lodging house in a neighboring street, who said that they were left there by a man who had died, and that they had been a long time mislaid. What was the antiquary's astonishment, on opening the letter, to find it from the poor invalid, and dated but a few days after his visit, while the heavy package was the block of quartz. "I am dying," he wrote. "You alone listened to me. You alone stretched out a helping hand. I bequeath you my secret. The country whence I brought this gold is called California!"

It is stated that a Scotchman, Young Anderson by name, attempted, in 1837, to enlist English capital in mining ventures, through representations made to him by a Guatemalan priest who had lived in California, that gold existed in the neighborhood of San Francisco. The Scotchman was unsuccessful.

In 1851, some three years after Marshall's discovery, it was related in the Worcester Transcript that one W. F. Thompson, an experienced trapper, remembered having found gold while on the north Yuba, some twelve years before, a pound of which he carried with him to Fort Leavenworth. There he left it, no one seeming to know or to care what it was. When tidings of the gold excitement were noised abroad, he was engaged in trapping in the far north, and recognizing his mistake, at once hurried back to the spot, only to find every inch of the ground uprooted.

There was quite a mania for mining in Alta Cali

Silver was then the
Men, women, and

fornia about the year 1840. attraction, rather than gold. children talked about their ores very much as in later years stocks were discussed. Copper was about that time discovered at Soledad pass, some ninety miles north of Los Angeles.

The Quarterly Review of 1850 states that the English botanist, Douglas, was blamed for not having discovered gold on this coast after having travelled over so much of it, and that, too, when "the roots of some of the pines sent home to England were found to have small flakes of gold held together in the clotted earth still attached to them!"

Juan B. Alvarado says that the rings which he used at his wedding, in August 1839, were of California gold, and that his eldest daughter has still in her possession a golden ring fashioned in 1840 at Monterey from metal procured at San Fernando.

In his manuscript dictation, California 1841-8, John Bidwell remarks: "Among our party of 1841, the general opinion was that there was gold in the Rocky Mountains. Some trapper in the Black Hills had picked up a stone, and carried it with him for a whetstone, and in the pocket in which he carried the stone he found a piece of gold. My comrade, James John, before mentioned, actually proposed to me, while we were crossing the plains, to remain behind the company in the Rocky Mountains to hunt for gold and silver. It was almost a daily occurrence to see men picking up shining particles, and believing them to be something precious."

When James D. Dana, of the United States' exploring expedition entered California from Oregon, in 1841, it is remarkable how many authors copy each other's errors, and write this date 1842,-he noticed that "the talcose and allied rocks of the Umpqua and Shasty districts resemble in many parts the goldbearing rocks of other regions, but the gold, if any there be, remains to be discovered." And on his re

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turn, when he published his book on geology, he made mention of gold-bearing rocks and quartz veins both in Oregon and California. Hence the report became current, after the discovery of gold, that Dana had told of its existence in California seven years before, which was not the case, as he himself distinctly states. "It is very doubtful," justly observes Tuthill, in his History of California, "whether it occurred to Professor Dana that there was gold to be found here in quantities that would ever get into more practical use than to lie as rare specimens behind plate doors in the mineralogical cabinets of the colleges." Murchison made similar remarks on the auriferous rocks of Australia, and so have twenty other persons spoken of twenty other places, which, however, is far from the actual discovery of gold. It is, moreover, a little singular that so shrewd a man, and so experienced a scientist as Dana, should not have seen the gold which with the sand and gravel he displaced during his journey along Feather river.

James Anthony Froude claims that by reason of his geological knowledge Sir Roderick Murchison was enabled to foretell the discovery of Australian gold. It is true that Murchison said that this metal might be found in Australia; a safe affirmation for one laying no claim to geological divination, and considering the size and character of the country.

At last we have a veritable gold discovery, and gold mines worked in Alta California, with greater or less success, for a period of six years prior to the discovery of Marshall. They were situated in the San Fernando valley, on the rancho of Ignacio del Valle, fourteen leagues from Los Angeles, and eight from the San Fernando mission, toward the Sierra Nevada. The discovery, which occurred in March 1842, was in this wise: Two vaqueros were searching for stray cattle in the valley, and when tired, threw themselves upon the ground to rest. One of them casually taking some earth in his hand, noticed shining particles,

which he fancied were copper. He showed them to his companion, who said they looked like gold, and then scraped up some earth, and rubbing it between his hands, found more of the metal. Both decided to take the dust to Los Angeles, and ask the opinion of some of their friends who had worked in the mines of New Mexico. It was not until some days later that they arrived there, and showed it to certain Sonorans who were then at the settlement. They declared that it was placer gold, and asked Francisco Lopez-for that was the name of the man who found it-to take them at once to the locality. Soon afterward they set forth, with a number of their friends, for the San Fernando valley, guided by the two vaqueros.

Another version of the discovery is, that in the early part of 1840 Don Andrés Castillero, a Mexican mineralogist, picking up a pebble, called tepustete by Mexican placer miners, in the vicinity of the Las Vírgenes rancho, remarked that wherever these stones were found gold must exist. Francisco Lopez, the discoverer, overheard the observation and remembered it, when, some months later, while plucking wild onions, a similar pebble was found in the soil around the roots. He set to work examining the earth, and found a grain of gold. Juan Manuel Vaca, owner of the rancho on which was built the town of Vacaville, was the first to carry the news to Governor Alvarado at Monterey, presenting him with an ounce of gold contained in quills, from which was made a pair of earrings for his wife and a ring for his eldest daughter.

In 1842, these mines were worked for a distance of ten leagues, and in 1844 for thirty leagues. The gold was of the best quality, and many representations were made to the supreme government urging the necessity of thorough surveys, and of developing the mineral resources of California. In the Coleccion de documentos relativos al departamento de Californias, Manuel M. Castañares writes, "this branch ought to be considered less worthy of attracting attention than

MISLEADING STATEMENTS.

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agriculture. It is nevertheless, of great importance, and I have the satisfaction of assuring you that it forms in California one of the most valuable resources which that department contains."

The bed whence the gold was obtained was of gravel, and the cuts into the banks, even as late as 1845, did not exceed thirty feet. Some of the more experienced miners, were able by merely looking at the ground, to tell whether or not it contained gold, and would scrape the surface with a scoop or spoon made of bullock's horn. The earth was then thrown into a basket, which was emptied on a platform made of stakes about three feet high, driven close together into the ground, with poles placed lengthwise and filled in with grass, the whole being covered with a cotton sheet. Then water from a distance of six feet was thrown over the mud, and in an hour or two the dirt would be washed away while the gold remained.

As soon as this gold discovery was more generally known, many people flocked to the mines, and in May 1844, Ignacio del Valle was appointed juez de policía, and Zorrilla, his substitute, to keep order, as well as to levy dues upon the sale of liquors, to portion out the land, and to impose taxes if necessary. It was his business likewise to collect fees for wood, pasture, and mineral privileges. About this time there were one hundred persons at work in the mines; but the numbers decreased as the running water failed, which they continued to do until the miners were unable to obtain enough to drink. They were a steady and hardworking people, but with all their labor were unable to earn more than from one to two dollars a day. So scanty indeed were their earnings that no taxes or dues were levied for that year.

Abel Stearns in November 1842 sent to the Philadelphia mint for assay, as specimens of this placer gold, eighteen and three quarter ounces mint weight, and twenty ounces by California weight, which in.

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