party, he says, "There were goldsmith's proceeding to a country where no gold existed."
While on a visit south in 1874, I met at San Luis Obispo, Mr Henry B. Blake, author of a historical sketch of southern California, who stated that the first gold shipped from California was in 1836, and came from the source of the Santa Clara river.
With regard to gold in Lower California, the Penny Cyclopædia of 1836 says:—" The mineral riches are very inconsiderable. Only one mine is worked about ten or twelve miles northwest of La Paz, where gold is extracted, but the metal is not abundant." The San Antonio mine is the one referred to. "It is supposed that the western declivity of the mountains contains a considerable quantity of minerals, but if this be the, case they will probably never be worked, as this part of the peninsula is quite uninhabitable." And the country to the northward is not very different in the opinion of this writer, who continues: "In minerals Upper California is not rich. A small silver mine was found east of S. Ines, but it has been abandoned. In one of the rivers falling into the southern Tule Lake, some gold has been found, but as yet in very small quantity."
