Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/465

Rh wine of which was abundant and delicious. The fine natural grasses and oats of California, aided greatly in satisfying and perpetuating the nomadic vaquero or herdsman, who was the type of the region before the cession to the United States; and it is calculated that the grazing grounds in the State are extensive enough to produce many thousand more cattle than will be required annually, for the vast increase of population.

Notwithstanding the union of California with her sister States, and her favorable position for commercial purposes, it is scarcely probable that she would so soon have assumed almost a national rank, had not a mechanic, named James W. Marshall, who was employed during the latter part of February, 1848, in building a saw mill for Captain John A. Sutter on the south branch of the American Fork or Rio de los Americanos, discovered certain pieces of gold glistening at the bottom of the sluice. In a few days fragments to the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars were removed from the water; and as the news spread among the settlers all over the region, farms. Workshops, professions and homes were deserted to explore the promised Dorado.

The results of this accidental discovery are already known all over the world. California has become a centre of attraction for population, wealth and trade. The grand auriferous region which has thus far been examined and partially drained of its deposits, is between four and five hundred miles long, and from forty to fifty broad, following the windings of the Sierra Nevada. New discoveries will doubtless enlarge this area, but the present recognized limits are the hills and lesser ranges rising from the eastern border of the Sacramento and San Joaquin plain, and extending fifty or sixty miles eastward, until they reach an elevation of nearly four thousand feet, where they mingle with the main ridge of the Sierra Nevada. The numerous springs, originating in the snows and rains of the mountain summits, pour down their rugged sides, cutting deep channels or barrancas through the talcose slate, and even down to the quartz of which the foot hills are formed. The streams, in creating these gorge-like channels, have come in contact with the quartz containing gold, and, by constant attrition, have cut or ground the metal into fine flakes, scales and dust. The precious deposit is, accordingly, found among the sand and gravel of the river beds at those places where the swiftness of the current reduces it in the dry season to narrow limits, or when the streams may be damed and turned. In other places auriferous quartz has