brought gold to the value of over a million
of dollars. The accounts from the gold mines are unusually good. The
high water at most of the old mines prevented active operations; but
many new deposits had been discovered, especially upon the head waters
of Feather river, and between that and Sacramento river. Gold has also
been discovered at the upper end of Carson river valley, near and at the
eastern base of the Sierra Nevada. A lump of quartz mixed with gold,
weighing thirty pounds, and containing twenty-three pounds of pure gold,
has been found between the North and Middle Forks of the Yuba river. At
Nevada and the Gold Run, where the deposits were supposed to have been
exhausted, further explorations have shown it in very great abundance,
at a depth, sometimes, of forty feet below the surface. The hills and
ravines in the neighborhood are said to be very rich in gold.--A very
alarming state of things exists in the southern mines, owing, in a great
degree, to the disaffection created by the tax levied upon foreign
miners. Murders and other crimes of the most outrageous character are of
constant occurrence, and in the immediate vicinity of Sonora, it is
stated that more than twenty murders had been committed within a
fortnight. Guerrilla parties, composed mainly of Mexican robbers, were
in the mountains, creating great alarm, and rendering life and property
in their vicinity wholly insecure. Fresh Indian troubles had also broken
out on the Tuolumne: three Americans had been shot.--The Odd Fellows
have erected a grand edifice at San Francisco for the accommodation of
their order.--The Fourth of July was celebrated with great enthusiasm
throughout California.--It is stated that a line of steamers is to be
run from San Francisco direct to Canton. Whether the enterprise be
undertaken at once or not, it cannot, in the natural course of events,
be delayed many years. The settlement of California will lead, directly
or indirectly, to a constant commercial intercourse with China, and will
exert a more decided influence upon the trade and civilization of
eastern Asia, than any other event of the present century. California
can not long continue dependent upon the Atlantic coast, still less
upon the countries of Europe, for the teas, silks, spices, &c, which her
population will require. She is ten thousand miles nearer to their
native soil than either England, France, or the United States, and will,
of course, procure them for h