The Shasta courier., 1858-06-26
From Frazer River.


standing so many thousands of miners have gone
to these new mines, as yet we have had so little
evidence of their being as rich as represented.
Those who have carefully read the scores of let
ters written about them, cannot have failed to
observe that the large majority of them have
been written from Victoria and Bellingham BAY,
and their statements based upon secondhand
nformation-informato furnished by men who
sa'g Others take out big wages, or heard men say
that they sa'c large sums taken out. Is it not
strange that men who were carried off to those
mines by thirst for gold, should after behold
ing the evidence of their great richness, almost
Immediately abandon them? Is it not equally
strange that very few of those who have arrived
at San Francisco from the new mines have
brought with them any of the dust?
The truth is that the productireness of the
Frazer river mines have been greatly exaggera-
ted. The good luck of the few who have been
fortunate enough to make " big strikes, has
been heralded forth with a great flourish of
trnmpets, while the hundreds who have made
nothing are spoken of in A" eloquent silence
Mr. Hicks, whom the Hudson Bay Comp. has
appointed Collector of Licenses, informs the
Alta that he averaged from So to S2e per day for
five weeks, but that he saw y two men in a
fortnight take. out s., 402-and that " he saw.
men at worl, high up on the banks who were
making from 50 to s. per day" Other persons
report that the miners are averaging from SO to
800 per day. From SO to 500 per day. Why
here in California we can say with equal truth
fulness that our miners are making from 81 to
$1,000 per day, for occasionally we hear Of men
making three or four thousand dollar strike
Depend upon it, those who are making 50 per
day Frazer river outnumber those who are
making Sl00 per day as a hundred to one And
what is So per day, where bacon, -four and gro
ceries cost from four bits to dollar per pound?
Let those who are thinking of emgrating to
these new diggings Aiak of these things.
We know that persons when laboring under
an attack of gold fever, very apt to remem-
Der only the favorable reports. Nevertheless we
know by observation and from experience that
it is the safer course always to permit the un-
favorable reports to have a share of considera-
ton. Hence those who have permitted their
imaginations to become fevered by the glowing
accounts written in San Francisco and from
Bellingham Bay, by persons who never saw the
mines Of which they write, will do well to look
at the shady side of the picture. Before becom-
ing unduly excited over the statement of Mr..
Wilson, -" that he had taken out some DAYS as
high as $780," on Sailors Bar, read the account
given by another miner of his operations on the
same Bar. He says;
l have done but little here for the last fort
night One man is reported to have taken ont
500 in his claim last Saturday ! think this
bar will pay from 81 to 50 a day when the water
goes down. have been prospecting the coun-
try back of this place, but without success do
not think there is much gold hereabouts. ex-
cept what is on the river The miners are COM
ing here thick, and many cannot get claims
Men can be hired to work here just now quite
low,-l got several last week, when the river
fell so that could work on my claim, at So q
day.
From 81 to 50 day when the water goes
down." and ''S3 a day wages, are pills that we
should think would have a tendency to allay
the intensity of the Frazer river fever
The same writer says further, q Although
great many are coming in large numbers leave
every day and return to Victoria and the places
on the Sound where living is cheaper as they
find they can do nothing here without claims. 1t
is all fooliShness for men to be rushing up here
the way they are doing at present. Those who
got in first and secured claims, viii do we'll
enough when they can work them but not the
new comers.
In this connection we would also beg leave to
administer to the victims of the Frazer river
fever as an emollient, the annexed letter ad-
dressed to w. H. Dennison, well known citi-
zen of Red Bluffs, by old mining friend who
has just returned from the Northern FL Dorado,
and which letter we find in the last Beacon:
On my return from Bellingbam Bay was told
that you were settling up business preparatory
to going to the new FL Dorado Allow me to
say a few words TO you-I have been there some
four months, and can assure you that there is
not, neither has there been, any portion of that
country as rich the old Fly-away diggings
We worked in 1851 Two dollars a day in Cal
ifornia is better than any diggings that have
been discovered in that country There are
claims that will pay five or six dollars per day
Tor four months in the year. and this is as long
as any river claim can be worked In prefer
ence to going to F. R. for one year return to our
old claim. Your friend
f. E. EMMERsoS