Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1850-08-21
FROM CALIFORNIA.

We have been permitted TO lay the fol
lowing extracts Of letter TO lady in lhl
ploce. from her brother in California. be
fore our readers. The initials will bt
readily recognized. and We think The ex
tracts will be found 10 possess considerable
in,erest.-Ed. Chroa.
SACRAMENTO CITY, June l6, 1850.
Dear Sister: You will observe, by
the heading Of my letter, that | am still IN
hi. place, where the renowned Fort OF
Capl. Suffer, which heilowed forth lis
lhunders in by gone days. is situated.
The great old saw mill, belonging to The
sane rerson when the gold was first dis
-asered, is situated abou: 45 miles from
this place, and the name and place will be
remembered as long as gold is found in
California.
This place is increasing with the mos,
astonishing rapidiiy. A illle more than
wear ago there were not three frame
houses in this place. NV the principal
business street is something more than one
mile in length. Many of the stores would
do credit 10 our Cities..at home, and range
in size Of from sixty 10 ones hundred feet
in depth. Vessels Of large tonnage can
come up to this place direct from the states.
The river has quite the appearance Of a
seaport. We have steam boats in any
quantity, and some Of them Of very large
size, and elegan, accommodations. From
this place the river is navigable for a
smaller class of boats for something like
900 miles. We have no less than two
Theatres and Circus, and very large
and splendid concert room. This room is
l3O fee, deep, by 40 in breadth, so that
you observe we do things upon a large
scale here.
San Francisco has been almost literally
burn, up since last January. No less
than three mos, destructive fires have taken
place since then. This will always be The
case as long as they continue TO build frame
houses, in consequence of high winds that
prevail there during The whole year. Be-
tween the fires, and reckless specula'ions
that many persons were engaged in, The
town is pretty well used up. Many per-
sons who counted their hundreds of thou
sands, are now not worth dime. This
place is bull, upon more solid basis, and
hence, the business is in a more hea!ihlul
condition.
There have been some new discoveries
made near the head waters of Feather riv-
er. but whether they are as rich as they
are represented | can no, ,ell-Hayes and
| intend trying our luck at the mines
again. We think we can do better there
than here. 1t requires large capital TO
DO business here, and the competition is
SO grea, that the profits here are nearly as
small as they are at home, for all leading
articles. Profits therefore depend much
upon the amount Of sales, and that takes
large capital. When one is ordinarily
successful, mining is one Of the pleasant.
rs, employments person can engage in.
There will he vast deal Of gold taken out
this summer. Persons are becoming more
skilled in searching and finding it. One
can find gold any where in the gold region,
even up to the tops Of the highest mountains.
but il will no, in all cases pay for working
it. 10 some localities you can not wash
basin Of dirt, taken at random. without
finding some grains Of gold. John and
have purchased share in FL Dorado City
al thousand dollars. 1t is a new towu,
laid ou, on Feather river in the mining
region, and is accessible for steam loa,s
nine months in year. We though: we
might ms well try our luck in lItlle spec
ula''on as not, Every person seems dis
posed TO engage in that kind OF business,
and as all the world is coming 20 Califor.
mia, Fam in hopes that we may realize
something out Of our speculation. We
have great many arrivals here every
day. 1t is supposed that the residen.
population is from eight TO ten thousand,
and the transient population from three to
four thousand h is no, an unusual thing
10 have arrivals Of thousand persons in a
day.
Living is much better here :han you
would imagine. took dinner yesterday
Al a new Hotel down town, and We sat