ges; with other
details of interest relative to the state of the gold districts:

_Extract from a Letter from Mr. Larkin, United States Consul at
Monterey, to Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State at Washington._

"San Francisco (Upper California), June 1, 1848.

"Sir: * * * I have to report to the State Department one of the most
astonishing excitements and state of affairs now existing in this
country, that, perhaps, has ever been brought to the notice of the
Government. On the American fork of the Sacramento and Feather River,
another branch of the same, and the adjoining lands, there has been
within the present year discovered a placer, a vast tract of land
containing gold, in small particles. This gold, thus far, has been
taken on the bank of the river, from the surface to eighteen inches in
depth, and is supposed deeper, and to extend over the country.

"On account of the inconvenience of washing, the people have, up to
this time, only gathered the metal on the banks, which is done simply
with a shovel, filling a shallow dish, bowl, basket, or tin pan, with a
quantity of black sand, similar to the class used on paper, and washing
out the sand by movement of the vessel. It is now two or three weeks
since the men employed in those washings have appeared in this town
with gold, to exchange for merchandise and provisions. I presume nearly
20,000 dollars of this gold has as yet been so exchanged. Some 200 or
300 men have remained up the river, or are gone to their homes, for the
purpose of returning to the Placer, and washing immediately with
shovels, picks, and baskets; many of them, for the first few weeks,
depending on borrowing from others. I have seen the written statement
of the work of one man for sixteen days, which averaged 25 dollars per
day; others have, with a shovel and pan, or wooden bowl, washed out 10
dollars to even 50 dollars in a day. There are now some men yet washing
who have 500 dollars to 1,000 dollars. As they have to stand two feet
deep in the river, they work but a few hours in the day, and not every
day in the week.

"A few men have been down in boats to this port, spending twenty to
thirty ounces of gold each--about 300 dollars. I am confident that this
town (San Francisco) has one-half of its tenements empty, locked up
with the furniture. The owners--storekeepers, lawyers, mechanics, and
labourers--all gone to the Sacramento with their families. Small
parties, of five to fifteen men, have s