The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1869-10-26
Letter From Oregon.

We are indebted to our friend GEORGE |
ILIFr, for the perusal of an interesting |
private Letter from j. W. CASE, written |
from Astoria, Oregon, from which we
are permitted to take the following ex-
tracts
81 remained in California
from May 80, to June Is. 1 tried to
make good use of my time, and visited
number Of points, the principal OF
which were Santa Clara. San Jose, San
Diego, Los Angeles, Vallejo, Oakland,
San Leandro, San Joaquin, Sacramento,
etc. San Jose and Santa Clara, are the
pride of. California. cannot go into
detail about the above named places
but will commence at San Diego, which
is in the extreme Southern part Of the
State, 500 miles from San Francisco. It
has about 1900 to 1000 in habitants-is
q sea, coast town-some good farming
land around, and great deal of desert
land-its principal products are grapes
The next place in rotation, is Los An.
gelos. which is $50 miles from San Fran.
cisco. 1t has 5000 to 1000 inhabitants
extensive Vineyards and wine distille>
ries, and great deal of waste land
around about. San Francisco has 150,-
900 inhabitants, and is q sfast place
built upon sandy desert on the Bay.
Sacramento is a low, level place, and
has $4,000 inhabitants-iti is surrounded
with raised levees, to keep the water
from the Sacramento river inundating
the city. Ague and mosquitoes abound;
yet it is q nicer city than San Francisco.
The balance Of the afore mentioned
places are villages of small consequence.
81 am now more thoroughly convinc-
ed than ever, that California has been
over estimated by her population.
found great scarcity Of water and tim
ber and a vast quantity Of desert land
thousands of acres that never can be
cultivated for want of water, and it is
no uncommon thing for farmer to have
in thousand acres of grain, without
enough fence upon his farm to keep q
COW off one acre. I will give you q
sample: man in San Joaquin Valley,
told me he had 1000 acres Of grain this
year, and he had his COW 'sstaked" out
with rope, not having lot to put her
in; and nine e-tenths of the farmers are in
the same fix. 1t is true, they have lots
of big trees but they are all in the
mountains!
Well, left San Francisco, June 10
passed up the Sacramento river $50
miles, on the splendid steamer "New
| World" to Sacramento-kereI took rail
to Oroville, then stage the balance of
the distance. From Sacramento, th e
first place of interest is Suffers Mill
the spot where the yellow ore, "filt thy
lucre,' was first discovered. passed
up the Sacramento Valley, 200 miles,
through Marysville, Chico, and Red
Bluffs. Through this valley, there are
miles upon miles and thousands upon
ten thousands of acres Of land, entirely
destitute of water and timber-the soil
is sandy waste. At Red Bluffs, we
left the river and took to the hills, forty
miles to Shasta, q mountain mining
town, which has retrograded 'muchly''
since visited it in 1856. Here, we
commenced the hills and mountains in
good earnest; and here wish you could
have been with me. I think L. could
have enjoyed it hugely rather imagine
she would have thought it decidedly ro-
mantle. Tell her to imagine, if she can,
herself riding in stage up a continu-
GUS ascent for seven miles-the grade
being as steep and narrow as the hill is
going from your place to Richmond
and. upon one side or the other, all the
way, offsets as abrupt as it is at the
turn of the road at Whitewater Hill
and the distance so great that you can
look down (not up) into the tops of the
trees, $50 to 800 feet high, that grow
upon the mountain sides-in fact, the
Kenyons are so deep that your vision
cannot penetrate to the bottom /! Well
when about one mile up the mountain
We overlook some fifteen or twenty
freight teams plodding slowly along
Our driver chafed along behind &
short time, and resolved to pass them
and, in doing so, the wheels of our coach
passed within ten or twelve inches from
the edge of the precipice. I was riding
on the outside with the driver-his hor.
ses would prance and shy sometimes al
the huge freight wagons-now an d ther
he would give them the lash, and, AZ
our wheels would near the dumping of
place." my hair would raise and my
muscles would be braced for spring
in case our vehicle should make the ia
tai leap. Oft times I picked out spots
upon the freight wagons, or betweel
them, to alight; but must praise th'
:ol