Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/62

 Poc. 4

August following  was  returned  with  the  accompany- ing certificate. "Before melting  18  34-100  oz. ;  after melting  18  1-100  oz. ;  fineness,  926-1,000;  value $344.75;  deduct  expenses,  sending  to  Philadelphia, and  agency  there,  $4.02;  net  $340.73."

By December  1843,  two  thousand  ounces  of  gold had been  taken  from  the  San  Fernando  mines,  the greater portion  of  which  was  shipped  to  the  United States; and  from  that  time  little  is  heard  of  the  place till in  1845  Bidwell  visited  it,  and  found  oaly  thirty men at  work  whose  gains  did  not  exceed  twenty-five cents a  day.

E. E.  Pickett  states  that  in  1842  he  met  men  in the  Rocky  Mountains  who  had  been  in  California  and who said  that  gold  was  there. "They were  not  the first  to  give  such  information  since  I  had  read  the  same when  a  boy." It is  such  statements  as  this  that  have so often  deceived  the  public. Mr Pickett  never  read of gold  in  Alta  California  when  a  boy. "The first hide  drogers  and  other  traders  who  visited  this  coast, even  as  long  ago  as  the  last  century,  obtained  small quantities  of  gold-dust  washed  from  the  earth  in  the southern  part  of  the  state." This assertion  is  likewise misleading if  not  absolutely  untrue. I have  elsewhere explained how  small  quantities  of  gold  found  their way to  the  coast.

In the  Emigrant's  Guide  to  Oregon  and  California,  by L.  W.  Hastings,  printed  at  Cincinnati  in  1845,  ap- pears the following: — "The  information  which  I  was able  to  acquire  does  not  afford  me  sufficient  data upon  which  to  predicate  any  very  accurate  conclusions in  reference  to  the  mineral  resources  of  California; but  sufficient  investigations  have  been  made  to  deter- mine that  many  portions  of  the  mountainous  regions abound  with  several  kinds  of  minerals,  such  as  gold, silver,  iron,  lead,  and  coal,  but  to  what  extent,  the extreme  newness  and  unexplored  state  of  the  country, utterly  preclude  all  accurate  determination.  It  is, however,  reported  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  that  some