therefore
keep our state's birthday. At San Jose, in '99, a Jubilee Day was
held in remembrance of the beginning of state government fifty years
before.

[Illustration: UPPER SACRAMENTO RIVER.]

[Illustration: PLACER GOLD MINING. (Washing with Cradle.)]

THE DAYS OF GOLD AND THE ARGONAUTS OF 1849

California has well earned her name of "Golden State," for from her
rich mines gold to the value of thirteen hundred millions has been
taken. Yet every year she adds seventeen millions more to the world's
stock of gold. No country has produced more of this precious yellow
metal that men work and fight and die for. The "gold belt" of the
state still holds great wealth for miners to find in years to come.

Long, long ago people knew that gold was here, for in 1510 a Spanish
novel speaks of "that island of California where a great abundance
of gold and precious stones is found." In 1841 the Indians near San
Fernando Mission washed out gold from the river-sands, and other mines
were found not far from Los Angeles.

But James W. Marshall was the man who started the great excitement
of '48 and '49 by finding small pieces of gold at a place now called
Coloma, on the American River. Marshall, who was born in New Jersey,
came to this state in 1847, and being a builder wished to put up
houses, sawmills, and flour-mills. Finding that lumber was very
dear, he decided to build a sawmill to exit up the great trees on the
river-bank. He had no money, but John A. Sutter, knowing a mill was
needed there, gave Marshall enough to start with.

So the mill was built, and when it was ready to run Marshall found
that the mill-race, or ditch for carrying the water to his mill-wheel,
was not deep enough. He turned a strong current of water into it,
and this ran all night. Then it was shut off, and next day the ditch
showed where the stream had washed it deeper and had left a heap
of sand and gravel at the end of it. Here Marshall saw some shining
little stones, and picking them up he laid one on a rock and hammered
it with another till he saw how quickly it changed its shape. He was
sure that these bright, heavy, easily hammered pebbles were gold, but
the men working about the mill would not believe it. So he went to
Sutter, who lived near at a place called Sutter's Fort, because his
stores, house, and other buildings were built around a hollow square
with high walls outside to keep off the Indians. Sutter weighed the
little yellow l