The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-08-26

Ihedepopulatl0n OF Cailforn1a, which
has been going on ever since the begin
nlng of the Fraser River excitement,
was too violent and unnatural condi-
ton of things to last. As was to be
expected, it has come to sudden end.
Nearly every city and county of any
size in California has suffered greatly,
both from the withdrawal of numbers
of its population and from the ruinous
downfall in the prices of houses and
real estate. Comparatively little was
known of the prospect for miners, the
nature of the new country or its gov
eminent, or the means of access to the
gold region; but Notwithstanding these
drawbacks, which should have delayed
prudent men, California has for three
months been subject to depletion
which has drawn off 10000 of her
population, and will leave hundreds of
them to perish from the hardships of
travel to the gold region, the jealousy
Of the Indian tribes, the want of pro-
visions, and the want of money to buy
the commonest necessaries of life. One
would have supposed the Californians-
than whom none know more intimately
the color and exaggerations that gold
digging stories take on-would be the
last to be carried away by such an un-
reasonable mania. But they were the
first. Happily they were the first to
return to their senses.
There are now in New Caledonia, or
British Columbia, as it will be called,
many more mouths than can be fed by
the limited supplies which the exclusive
and inadequate trade of the Hudson
Bay Company furnish, many more
bodies than can be sheltered from the
coming winters cold by the few houses
of the traders or the huts of the Indi-
ans. For the present year emigration
thither is, therefore, unwise, not to say
wicked. Whoever reaches there be-
fore next spring, will either starve him.
self, or make somebody else .starve.
1t is remarkable fact that this sud-
den collapse of the Fraser River mania
followed hard upon news confirming
the richness of the dry diggings, and
was not FASTENED by any adverse news
from the river-bed diggings. 1t is
clearly the natural aud healthy reaction
from a very unnatural and unhealthy
excitement, which, if long continued,
would have retarded the prosperity of
California materially.
The reliable information concerning
the productiveness of the Fraser River
mines, still continues somewhat limited,
and will be so until the subsistence of
the present high water. Numerous
and very profitable dry diggings are
said to have been discovered.
An important feature of the news by
this arrival is large discoveries of gold
in Oregon and Washington Territories.
These discoveries, of course, are mere
ly confirmatory of those made several
years ago by Indians and the early set
tiers, and only certify the opinion we
have several times expressed, that the
gold-producing region would be found
In a greater or less degree to include
the territory between California and
British Columbia. With the added
publicity which they will receive at this
opportune time, and from their near
ness to the Fraser River region, it is
more than probable that the miners who
find it impossible to sustain themselves
in that crowded section, in the lack OF
tools and provisions, will betake them
selves to less occupied. territory,
where they may secure both at low
prices, and aid in developing the min.
eral resources and gold-producing areas
of our most northern Pacific States.