Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/777

and summer of 1812 ; the destruction of life at that time would probably have been large if California had been as thickly settled as it now is. During the whole of May of that year the southern part of the State was violently agitated, and the disturbances continued with more or less severity throiigh the entire summer. So frequent and violent were the shocks that the people abandoned their houses and slept on the ground. In September the missions of San Juan Capistrano and La Purisima were destroyed, and thirty or forty persons killed at the first-named place ; also a considerable number at Purisima, but how many was never ascertained. At Santa Barbara a tidal wave rushed into the interior ; but the inhabitants, having observed the previous recession of the sea, had fled to the adjacent high ground, and thus escaped destruction. In the year 1808, in the months of June and July, there were numerous shocks at the Presidio of San Francisco. On the 8th of October 1865 the whole region adjacent to the Bay of San Francisco was violently disturbed, and many buildings thrown down, while hardly one of brick or stone within the city itself escaped injury ; but few lives were lost, although great alarm was felt. Since that time there has been no severe shock having its focus near the coast ; but in 1872 the whole Sierra Nevada, and the adjacent State of Nevada, were most violently shaken, the centre of the shock having been along the axis of the range, from which the waves were propagated east and west with about equal velocity. Immense quantities of rock were thrown down from the granite pinnacles in the Highest Sierra, The small settle ment of Lone Pine, in Owen s Valley, at the east base of the mountains, was completely demolished, and between twenty and thirty persons killed. Luckily the heaviest part of the shock was limited to a region hardly at all inhabited, so that the destruction of life was insignificant in comparison with the extent and violence of the disturbance. Lighter shocks continued to be felt, for two or three months after the first severe one, through the whole extent of Owen s Valley. The extinct or dormant volcanoes, of which there is a fine group midway in the valley between its two extremities, showed no signs of being affected by this exhibition of the seismic forces. There are in the Coast Ranges long and very straight fissures in the rocks, which have been produced by earthquakes in modern times ; and these have, in some instances, been accompanied by changes in the relative level of the ground on each side. Mining. California was for many years chiefly known to the world as the region where gold was obtained in extraordinarily large quantities. The excitement occasioned by the discovery of the precious metal was very great through out the United States, and this and the finding of an equally important auriferous region in Australia, only two or three years later, produced an immense effect on the commerce of the world, stimulating emigration in a way never before dreamed of. The existence of gold had long been known in California, and washings had been carried on in the southern part of the country, near the San Fernando Mission, for several years, having commenced there as early as 1841. No discovery had been made, however, which attracted much attention, or caused any excitement, previous to the occupation of the country by the Americans. In January 1848, a piece of native gold was picked up in an excavation made for a mill-race on the South Fork of the American River, at a place now called Coloma. It was several months, however, before the number of persons brought together by this discovery had become large ; but, by the end of December, washing for gold was going on all along the foot-hills of the Sierra, from the Tuolumne River to the Feather, a distance of 150 miles. The first adventurers came from Mexico, the South American coast, and even from the Sandwich Islands. The 701 excitement extended to the eastern Atlantic States in the- course of the autumn and winter succeeding the discovery and, in the spring of 1849, the rush of emigration across the plains, and by way of the Isthmus of Panama, com menced; and it was estimated that 100,000 men reached California during that year, among whom were representa tives of every State in the Union. The emigration to the land of gold was continued, with but little abatement, during the three succeeding years; but the excitement fell off in a marked degree in 1854, at which time there was a decided reaction throughout the United States in regard to mining matters. The Californian discoveries had given rise to a general search for metalliferous deposits in the Atlantic States ; and this had been followed by wild speculations, a great deal of money having been sunk in opening new mines, and in attempting to develop old ones which had never yielded anything of value. How many miners were actually at work in California at the time of the greatest excitement can only be a matter of conjecture. It is generally believed that not less than 50,000 men were engaged in mining for gold at the close of the year 1850. Those who had good opportunities for observing think that there were as many as 100,000 at work in 1852 and in 1853. At the time of their greatest productiveness, the yield of the Californian gold washings reached about sixty- five millions of dollars in value a year; this was from 1850 to 1853. If there were 75,000 miners actually employed at this time, the average amount obtained must have been fully $8 a day per man. The average is thought by many to have been as high as $20 a day during the year follow ing the first discovery. At this time the diggings for gold were chiefly along the rivers. These were " flumed," that is, the water was taken out of the natural channel by means of wooden flumes, and the accumulations of sand and gravel in the former beds were washed. All the small " gulches " or ravines leading down the sides of the steep and narrow valleys, or canons, were worked over, either with or without the aid of water. These were the first and richest "placers," and in them the precious metal was most unequally distributed. Those who first got hold of the rich bars on the American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus, and the other smaller streams in the heart of the gold region, made sometimes from one to five thousand dollars a day ; these rich spots were chiefly very limited in area, and after one was worked out, it might be days or weeks before another was found. During the year 1851 the miners, not finding any longer room for employment on the river-bars, began to extend their " prospecting " to the higher ground, and it was not long before it was discovered that the so-called "high gravels" that is, the detrital deposits of Tertiary age contained gold, although the quantity was so small that washing it in the ordinary way was not profitable. This led, in 1852, to the invention of the "hydraulic process" of working the auriferous detritus, the idea of which is due to E. E. Matteson, a native of Connecticut. This process has now received an immense development, successive improvements having been made in the method and the machinery for applying it, until the results have become indeed wonderful. The " sluice " which is used with it, and, in fact, in all gold-washing in California at present, almost without exception, is also a Californian invention. Previous to its introduction, first the " rocker " and then the " torn " were employed. During the first years of the Californian excitement there was much wandering about within the State and in the adjacent territories in search of new " diggings," the miners seeming to have the fixed idea that somewhere an auriferous centre or focus would be found, vastly richer than any thing previously discovered.

They were an excitable body of men, and frequently left