Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1848-12-20

t,ssiS GOLD MINES OF CALIFORNIA.
ss Itmay not be improper under the cir;
icumstances to say. that the very interes.
! ting letter annexed, is from Rev. Walter.
!. 'Colton, Alcalde of Monterey. This is,
sufficient vouches for the sla'emen, con-
ztained'in it.. a
MONTEREY, CALtFoRNrA,
.: s;'-s August %, lS4S. s
This gold discoveries still continue.
every day brings some new deposit 70
sfieht. Ii has been found in large quantI
s lies on The Sacramento, Feather River
: Yerba River the American Fork-North
and South branches-lEe Cosamer, and
2 in many dry srayines, and indeed on
ibe sioips of high hills. The extent of
COUNTRY in which ii is ascertained to ex-
5, isf. extends some Two hundred miles north
and south. aud some sixty east and west;
and ihose limits are every day enlarging
by, new discoveries. On. The streams
! where The gold has been subjected to the
action of water aud sand. It exists in fine
prains;- on the bills and among the cleils
OF The rocks il is found in rough, jusged
pieces Of a quarter or half an ounce i'll
: weight, and sometimes two or three ounces.
=. Al present the people are running over
. the country and picking il out Of The earth
here and there, just as, thousand hogs,
le, loose in a forest, would root up ground
nuts. Some get eight or ten ounces day;
and the least active. one or Two Ihey
! 7 make the mos, who employ, the wild In
dians TO hunt it for them. There is one
man, who has sixty Indians in his em
,plov; bis profits are dollar minute. The
wild Indians know nothing of its value,
wonder wha, the pale faces want 10 DO
{ with it; they. will give an ounce Of it for
, the same weight OF coined silver, or thin.
ble full of glass beads, or glass of srog.
Aud white men themselves often given an
s ounce Of it, which is worth at our mint
eighteen dollars or more, for bottle Of
!. brandy. bottle OF soda powders, or
!. plug of tobacco.
- = As to the quantity which the disgers get'
take a few facts as evidence. | know
3 seven men who worked seven weeks. and
8 Two days, Sundays excepted--on Feather
river; they employed on an average fifty
! Indians, and sol outin these seven weeks
~ ana Two Gays tWo nunuEeu duu so'e'y
3 FIVE pounds Of pure gold. | know the
J men; have seen the gold, and know what
they state to be fact--so slick pin
! there, know ten other men who work
ed ten days in company, employed no ln:
dians, and average 10 these ten days fifteen
hundred dollars each; so stick another
! pin there. ] know another man who got
out Of basin 10 rock, no. larger than
"A wash howl, two pounds and hall OF gold
!. in fifteen minutes; So stick anoher pin
there. Not one Of these statements would
/ believe, did ] not know the men person
!. ally. and know Them TO be plain matter
8 of fact ctmen--men who open a vein OF gold
: Just as colly, ,ss you would potato hill.
s The gold is obtained in a variety of
!; ways; some wash it out Of The sand with
bowls, some With machine, made like
: cradle, only longer aud open al, the fool,
Z while q, the other end, instead OF a squall-
iog infani, ihere-i is a grating upon which
.slhe earth is thrown and then water. boIh
..pass through The grating; the cradle is
rocked; and bei3g 90 ar inciiaed plain,