agriculture. It is nevertheless, of great importance,
and I have the satisfaction of assuring you that it
forms ii California one of the most valuable resources
which that department contains."
The bed whence the gold was obtained was of gravel, and the cuts into the banks, even as late as 1845, did not exceed thirty feet. Some of the more experienced miners, were able by merely looking at the ground, to tell whether or not it contained gold, and would scrape the surface with a scoop or spoon made of bullock's horn. The earth was then thrown into a basket, which was emptied on a platform made of stakes about three feet high, driven close together into the ground, with poles placed lengthwise and filled in with grass, the whole being covered with a cotton sheet. Then water from a distance of six feet was thrown over the mud, and in an hour or two the dirt would be washed away while the gold remained.
As soon as this gold discovery was more generally known, many people flocked to the mines, and in May 1844, Ignacio del Valle was appointed juez de policia, and Zorrilla, his substitute, to keep order, as well as to levy dues upon the sale of liquors, to portion out. the land, and to impose taxes if necessary. It was his business likewise to collect fees for wood, pasture, and mineral privileges. About this time there were one hundred persons at work in the mines ; but the numbers decreased as the running water failed, which they continued to do until the miners were unable to obtain enough to drink. They were a steady and hardworking people, but with all their labor were unable to earn more than from one to two dollars a day. So scanty indeed were their earnings that no taxes or dues were levied for that year.
Abel Stearns in November 1842 sent to the Phila- delphia mint for assay, as specimens of this placer gold, eighteen and three quarter ounces mint weight, and twenty ounces by California weight, which in
C'al. I^'T.
