r ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched.
I could not have credited these reports had I not seen, in the
abundance of the precious metal, evidence of their truth. Mr. Neligh,
an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in
the neighbourhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles, 2000 dollars'
worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education, and worthy of
every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a
machine, on the American fork, just below Sutter's Mill, that they
worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of fifty dollars
a-day, but hearing that others were doing better at Weber's Place, they
had removed there, and were then on the point of resuming operations.

"The country on either side of Weber's Creek is much broken up by
hills, and is intersected in every direction by small streams or
ravines which contain more or less gold. Those that have been worked
are barely scratched, and, although thousands of ounces have been
carried away, I do not consider that a serious impression has been made
upon the whole. Every day was developing new and richer deposits; and
the only impression seemed to be, that the metal would be found in such
abundance as seriously to depreciate in value.

"On the 8th July I returned to the lower mines, and eventually to
Monterey, where I arrived on the 17th of July. Before leaving Sutter's,
I satisfied myself that gold existed in the bed of the Feather River,
in the Yubah and Bear, and in many of the small streams that lie
between the latter and the American fork; also, that it had been found
in the Consummes, to the south of the American fork. In each of these
streams the gold is found in small scales, whereas in the intervening
mountains it occurs in coarser lumps.

"Mr. Sinclair, whose rancho is three miles above Sutter's on the north
side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north fork,
not far from its junction with the main stream. He had been engaged
about five weeks when I saw him, and up to that time his Indians had
used simply closely-woven willow baskets. His net proceeds (which I
saw) were about 16,000 dollars' worth of gold. He showed me the
proceeds of his last week's work--14 lbs. avoirdupois of clean-washed
gold.

"The principal store at Sutter's fort, that of Brannan and Co., had
received in payment for goods 36,000 dollars' worth of this gold from
the 1st of May to the 10th of July. Other me