gold one month;
most, however, appear to have averaged an ounce per day. I think there
must, by this time, be over 1,000 men at work upon the different
branches of the Sacramento; putting their gains at 10,000 dollars per
day, for six days in the week, appears to me not overrated.

"Should this news reach the emigration of California and Oregon, now on
the road, connected with the Indian wars, now impoverishing the latter
country, we should have a large addition to our population; and should
the richness of the gold region continue, our emigration in 1849 will
be many thousands, and in 1850 still more. If our countrymen in
California, as clerks, mechanics, and workmen, will forsake employment
at from 2 dollars to 6 dollars per day, how many more of the same class
in the Atlantic States, earning much less, will leave for this country
under such prospects? It is the opinion of many who have visited the
gold regions the past and present months, that the ground will afford
gold for many years, perhaps for a century. From my own examination of
the rivers and their banks, I am of opinion that, at least for a few
years, the golden products will equal the present year. However, as
neither men of science, nor the labourers now at work, have made any
explorations of consequence, it is a matter of impossibility to give
any opinion as to the extent and richness of this part of California.
Every Mexican who has seen the place says throughout their Republic
there has never been any 'placer like this one.'

"Could Mr. Polk and yourself see California as we now see it, you would
think that a few thousand people, on 100 miles square of the Sacramento
valley, would yearly turn out of this river the whole price our country
pays for the acquired territory. When I finished my first letter I
doubted my own writing, and, to be better satisfied, showed it to one
of the principal merchants of San Francisco, and to Captain Fulsom, of
the Quartermaster's Department, who decided at once I was far below the
reality. You certainly will suppose, from my two letters, that I am,
like others, led away by the excitement of the day. I think I am not.
In my last I inclosed a small sample of the gold dust, and I find my
only error was in putting a value to the sand. At that time I was not
aware how the gold was found; I now can describe the mode of collecting
it.

"A person without a machine, after digging off one or two feet of the
upper ground, near t