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me on receiving the intelligence of the death of Com. Biddle. His last words were omens, if such a thing may be. He had ordered the Columbus to be ready for sea the next morning, and had come ashore for a walk in the woods which skirt Monterey. We had ascended the summit of a hill which commands a wide range of waving woods, gleaming meadows, and ocean's blue expanse. The great orb of day was on the horizon, and the eye of the commodore was fastened upon it as it sunk in solemn majesty from sight. He had not spoken for several minutes; when, turning to me, he said "This is my last walk among these hills, and something whispers me that all my walks end here." This was said with that look and manner in which the undertone of a man's thoughts will sometimes find words without his will. It was utterly at variance with the cool, philosophical habits which were eminently characteristic of the commodore, and which he seldom relinquished, except in some sally of humor and wit. This remark woke like a slumber of the shroud, on the sudden intelligence of his death. It may be a superstition, but I shall never resign, to a skeptical philosophy, the omen and its seeming fulfilment. The future is often prefigured in an incident or sentiment of the present.

"An undefined and sudden thrill,

That makes the heart a moment still-
Then beat with quicker pulse, ashamed
Of that strange sense itself had framed."

The hill-top and the waving forest remain, but the commodore-where is he? Gone, like a star from its darkened watch-tower on high! But the night which quenched the beam is still fringed with light. To this surviving ray we turn in bereavement and grief. His genius lighted the objects of thought on which it touched, and glanced, with an intuitive force, through the subtle problems of the mind. His mental horizon was broad, and yet every object within its wide circle was distinctly seen, and seen in its true position and relative importance. The trifling never rose into the great, and the majestic never became tame. Each stood, in his clear vision, as truth and reason had stamped it. He was cool and collected without. being stoical, and immovably firm without being arbitrary. He had that courage which could never be shaken by surprise, made giddy with success, or quelled by disaster. Whatever subject he assayed, he mastered. He has left but few behind him, out of the legal profession, more thoroughly versed in questions of international law and maritime jurisprudence. Had not his early impulses taken him to the deck, he might have been eminent at the bar, in the cabinet, or hall of legislation. He had all the clearness and comprehensiveness of a great statesman. Gratitude twines this leaf of remembrance and respect into that chaplet which the bereavement of the service has woven on his grave.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE GOLD REGION. ITS LOCALITY, NATURE, AND EXTENT.-FOREIGNERS IN THE MINES. THE INDIANS' DISCOVERY OF GOLD.-AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF CALIFORNIA.-SERVICES OF UNITED STATES OFFICERS.FIRST DECISIVE MOVEMENT FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT.-INTELLIGENCE OF THE DEATH OF GEN, KEARNY.

THURSDAY, APRIL 26. The gold region, which contains deposits of sufficient richness to reward the labor of working them, is strongly defined by nature. It lies along the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada—a mountain range running nearly parallel with the coast-and extends on these hills about five hundred miles north and south, by thirty or forty east and west. From the slopes of the Sierra, a large number of streams issue, which cut their channels through these hills, and roll with greater or less volume to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The Sacramento rises in the north, and flowing south two hundred and fifty miles, empties itself into the Suisun, or upper bay of San Francisco. The San Joaquin rises in the south, and flowing north two hundred miles, discharges itself into the same bay. The source of the San Joaquin is a narrow lake lying still further south, and extending in that direction about eighty miles.

The streams which break into these rivers from

the Sierra Nevada, are from ten to thirty miles distant from each other. They commence with Feather river on the north, and end with the river Reys on the south. They all have numerous tributaries; are rapid and wild on the mountain slopes, and become more tranquil and tame as they debouch upon the plain. Still their serpentine waters, flashing up among the trees which shadow their channels, give a picturesque feature to the landscape, and relieve it of that monotony which would otherwise fatigue the eye. But very few of these rivers have sufficient depth and regularity to render them navigable. Their sudden bends, falls, and shallows would puzzle even an Indian canoe, and strand any boat of sufficient draft to warrant the agency of steam.

The alluvial deposits of gold are confined mainly to the banks and bars of these mountain streams, and the channels of the gorges, which intersect them, and through which the streams are forced when swollen by the winter rains. In the hills and tablelands, which occupy the intervals between these currents and gorges, no alluvial deposits have been found. Here and there a few detached pieces have been discovered, forming an exception to some general law by which the uplands have been deprived of their surface treasures. The conclusion at which I have arrived, after days and weeks of patient research, and a thousand inquiries made of others, is, that the alluvial deposits of gold in California are mainly confined to the banks and bars of her streams,

and the ravines which intersect them. The only material exception to this general law is found in those intervening deposits, from which the streams have been diverted by some local cause, or some convulsion of nature. Aside from these, no surface gold to any extent has been found on the table-lands or plains. Even the banks of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, stretching a distance of five hundred miles through their valleys, have not yielded an ounce. The mountain streams, long before they discharge themselves into these rivers, deposit their precious treasures. They contribute their waters, but not their gold. Like cunning misers they have stowed this away, and no enchantments can make them whisper of its whereabouts. If you would find it, you must hunt for it as for hid treasures.

MONDAY, MAY 14. Much has been said of the amounts of gold taken from the mines by Sonoranians, Chilians, and Peruvians, and carried out of the country. As a general fact, this apprehension and alarm is without any sound basis. Not one pound of gold in ten, gathered by these foreigners, is shipped off to their credit: it is spent in the country for provisions, clothing, and in the hazards of the gamingtable. It falls into the hands of those who command the avenues of commerce, and ultimately reaches our own mints. I have been in a camp of five hundred Sonoranians, who had not gold enough to buy a month's provisions-all had gone, through their im

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