ver (I
should think in the States it would bring 25 to 50 cents per pound),
containing many pieces of gold; they are from the size of the head of a
pin to the weight of the eighth of an ounce. I have seen some weighing
one-quarter of an ounce (4 dollars). Although my statements are almost
incredible, I believe I am within the statements believed by every one
here. Ten days back, the excitement had not reached Monterey. I shall,
within a few days, visit this gold mine, and will make another report
to you. Inclosed you will have a specimen.

"I have the honour to be, very respectfully,

"THOMAS O. LARKIN.

"P.S. This placer, or gold region, is situated on public land."

"_Mr. Larkin to Mr. Buchanan._

"Monterey, California, June 28, 1848.

"SIR: My last dispatch to the State Department was written in San
Francisco, the 1st of this month. In that I had the honour to give some
information respecting the new 'placer,' or gold regions lately
discovered on the branches of the Sacramento River. Since the writing
of that dispatch I have visited a part of the gold region, and found it
all I had heard, and much more than I anticipated. The part that I
visited was upon a fork of the American River, a branch of the
Sacramento, joining the main river at Sutter's Fort. The place in which
I found the people digging was about twenty-five miles from the fort by
land.

"I have reason to believe that gold will be found on many branches of
the Sacramento and the Joaquin rivers. People are already scattered
over one hundred miles of land, and it is supposed that the 'placer'
extends from river to river. At present the workmen are employed within
ten or twenty yards of the river, that they may be convenient to water.
On Feather river there are several branches upon which the people are
digging for gold. This is two or three days' ride from the place I
visited.

"At my camping place I found, on a surface of two or three miles on the
banks of the river, some fifty tents, mostly owned by Americans. These
had their families. There are no Californians who have taken their
families as yet to the gold regions; but few or none will ever do it;
some from New Mexico may do so next year, but no Californians.

"I was two nights at a tent occupied by eight Americans, viz., two
sailors, one clerk, two carpenters, and three daily workmen. These men
were in company; had two machines, each made from one hundred feet of
boards (worth there 150 do