The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-12-25

the opinion Of ALL that 30 or 40 600 persons could
oe Prohsably employed the ground now ex-
Plored. nor Is gold the only mineral discovered
here Platlna has been found in one place in some
considerable quantity, and very extensive mines Of
silver ore have recently been discovered within FIVE
miles of the saw-mll and are said to be very rich
Iron is also abundant, and will pay about IS
per cent
The richness of the soil in the immediate neigh
borhood of the mines is NEST astonishing. Farms
can be made in every direction that will feed all
the miners that can be employed. The climate is
found TO be very healthy and free from the chilly
winds that howl around the seacoast. The granite
of the mountains is said 10 be equal TO the eee-
brated Quincy and beautiful quarry OF marble
has been discovered On the Consumes river;
specimens of which will, before many years,
adorn the fronts Of public buildings in your flourish
ing city. ma. ,..;,;,r
this, two men have just arrived from valley some
five or six miles distant, bringing with them two
hundred and fifty dollars worth OF gold obtained IN
There is an area explored within which body
of so 600 men can advantageousy labor without
maliciously interfering with each other.
In another place it is said
The Mormons have laid claim to a large portion
Of the territory, and demand per centage Of the
ore taken therefrom. An express has been sent to
the Salt Lake settlement, where about TO- OC0 Nor
mons are located. There is rumor that equally
rich mines have been discovered in that region,
and that the Momons encamped there are engaged
in mining operations. II this be not true, the whole
Mormon force will probably muster and come to
the Sacramento for the purpose Of digging gold.
From the Baltimore PatriotI
We copy from the New York Journal of Com
merce the following letter, which gives more sat
isfactory account of the gold region than we have
yet seen in so small space.
Itmay not be improper under the circumstances
to say that this very interesting letter is from Rev
Walter Cotton, alcalde of Monterey. This Is
sufficient voucher for the statements contained in II:
Correspondence of the n Y journal Of COmmsrcsl
MONTEREY, California, Aug. 90, 194e.-The gold
discoveries still continue-every day brings some
new deposit to light. It has been found in large
quantities on the Sacramento, Feather river, Yerba
river, the American fork-north and south hFanch-
es-the Cosamer, and in many dry rayines, and,
indeed, on the tops Of high hills. The extent of
country in which it is ascertained TO exist extends
some two hundred miles north and south, and some
sixty east and west and these limits are every day
enlarging by new discoveries On the streams
where the gold has been subjected to the action Of
water and sand, it exists in fine grains on the bills
and among the clefs Of the rocks It 10 found IN
rough, jagged pieces of quarter or half ounce
in weight, and sometimes two or three ounces
AT present the people running over the coun-
try and picking it out of the earth here and there,
Just as thousand hogs, let loose in forest, would
| root up ground-nus. Some eight or ten ounces
day, and the least active one or two They make
the most VINO employ the WllQ INDIANS 10 nunb ~ lOI
| them. There is one man who has sixty Indians in
| his employ; his profits are dollar minute. The
| wild Indians know nothing Of its value, and won
der what the pale-faces want to do with It. They
will give an ounce Of i for the same weghtot com
ed silver or a thnble-full of glass beads or glass
| Of grog. And white men themselves often give an
ounce of it (which is worth at our mint eighteen
dollars or more fora bottle Of brandy, bottle OF
soda powders, or plug Of tobacco.
| As to the quantity which the diggeTs get, take
favv facts 90 eyidence. / know seven men who
worked seven weeks and two days, Sundays ex-
cepted, Feather river; they employed on an
average fifty Indians, and got out in these seven
| weeks and two days. two hundred and seventy-hve
pounds Of pure gold. | know the men and have
seen the gold, and know what they state to be
! fact; so stick a pin there know ten other men
! who worked ten days in company, employed no In
dians and averaged in these ten days fifteen hun
| bred dollars each; so stick another pin there. i
| know another man who got out OF basin IN
| rock, not larger than wash-bow two pounds and
half of gold in fifteen minutes; so stick another
pin there. Not one Of these statements would
| believe, did not know the men personally, and
| know them to be plain matter-offact men-men
who open vein Of gold just as cooIly as you would
a potato hill
The gold is obtained in variety Of ways some
| wash it out of the sand with bowls, some with
| machine, made like cradle, only longer and open
at the other end instead of squaling infant there
is a Grating upon which the earth is thrown, and
then water; both pass through the grating-the
cradle is rocked, and being on an inclined plane,
the water carries off the earth, and the gold is de-
posted in the bottom Of the cradle. So the two
things most priced in this world, gold and infant
beauty are both rocked out of their primitive state
one TO pamper pride, and the other to pamper the
worm Some foFego cradles and bowls as too tame
an occupation. and, mounted on horses, half wild,
dash up the mountain gorges, and over the steep
hills picking the gold from the celss of the rocks
with their b0wie-knivesa much better use to
make of these instruments than picking the life out
of mems bodies; for what is man with that artl-
Gle picked out Of him!
A larger party, well mounted, are following up
the channel Of the Sacramento, to discover where
this gold, found in It's banks, comes from and
imagine that the rivers font they will find the
great yellow mass ITSELF But they might as well
hunt the fleeing rainbow. The gold was thrown
, I'D from the bed of the ocean with the rocks and
sands in which it is found and still bears, where It
has escaped the action Of the elements, vivid traces
Of volcanic fire. 1t often encases crystal OF
quartz in which the pebble lies as If it had sum-
bered there from eternity its beautiful repose sets
human artifce az defiance. How strange that tins
ore should have lain here scattered about IN all d.
rections, peeping everywhere out OF the EARN, ana
sparkling in the sun, and been trod upon Tor ages
bv white men and sayages, and BY the emlssarIes
of every scientific association IN the world, and
. never till now have been discovered. What an
, ass man is with all his learning He stupidity
stumbles over hills of gold to reach the pepper pod,
4 | or rifle birds nest
!, The whole country is now moving on the mines.
: Monterey. San Francisco, Sonoma, San Jose, and
Santa Cruz are emptied Of their male population.
a A stranger coming here would suppose he had ar
Z | rived among race of women who, by some anon
aIons provision of nature, multiplied their images
s without the presence of the other But not a
: few Of the women have gone too, especially those
/. who had got out Of teafoF what is woman with
q out her tea-pot IA pythoness without her shaking
g tripod-an angel that has lost his Tyre. Every
E bowl, tray, warmng-pan, and piggin, has gone &c
) the Mines Everything, in short, that has SCOOP
II in H. that will hold sand and water Ali the lror
3 has been worked up into crowbars, pck-axes, anC
a shades And all these roll back upon US IN thy
Is shane Of gold We have therefore plenty OF gold
n Int little TO eat and siii less to Our slPPie
s must come from Oregon, Chill, and the Umleo
TO States Our grain gold, in exchange for COM sen
for nine and ten dollars the ounce though It Is wei