Our placer,
or gold region, now extends over 300 or 400 miles of country, embracing
all the creeks and branches on the east side of the river Sacramento
and one side of the San Joaquin. In my travels I have, when resting
under a tree and grazing my horse, seen pieces of pure gold taken from
crevices of the rocks or slate where we were stopping. On one occasion,
nooning or refreshing on the side of a stream entirely unknown to
diggers or 'prospectors,' or rather, if known not attended to, one of
my companions, while rolling in the sand, said, 'Give me a tin pan; why
should we not be cooking in gold sand?' He took a pan, filled it with
sand, washed it out, and produced in five minutes two or three dollars'
worth of gold, merely saying, as he threw both pan and gold on the
sand, 'I thought so.' Perhaps it is fair that your readers should
learn, that, however plenty the Sacramento Valley may afford gold, the
obtaining of it has its disadvantages. From the 1st of July to the 1st
of October, more or less, one half of the people will have fever and
ague, or intermittent fever. In the winter, it is too cold to work in
the water.
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