winter and early spring; while the left and eastern bank is low and fringed with tamarisk and willow, and occasionally a thicket of lofty cane, and tangled masses of shrubs and creeping plants, gave it the appearance of a jungle. The No less than twenty-two nights were spent by the party upon the lake. During this time the whole circuit of it was made, including the back-water at the southern extremity, which had never before been explored in boats. Every object of interest upon the banks was examined; and the lake was crossed and recrossed in a zigzag direction through its whole extent, for the purpose of sounding. figure of the lake, as sketched by the party, is somewhat different from that usually given to it. The breadth is more uniform throughout; it is less narrowed at the northern extremity, and less widened on approaching the peninsula in the south. In its general dimensions it is longer, but is not so wide as usually represented. Its length by the map is forty miles, by an average breadth of about nine miles. The water, a nauseous compound of bitters and salts. A fresh north wind was blowing as they rounded the point. They endeavored to steer a little to the north of west, to make a true west course, and threw the patent log overboard to measure the distance; but the wind rose so rapidly that the boats could not keep head to wind, and it became necessary to haul the log in. The sea continued to rise with the increasing wind, which gradually freshened to a gale, and presented an agitated surface of foaming brine; the spray, evaporating as it fell, left incrustations of salt upon the voyagers' clothes, as also their hands and faces; and, while it conveyed a prickly sensation wherever it touched the skin, was, above all, exceedingly painful to the eyes. The boats, heavily laden, struggled sluggishly at first; but when the wind. increased in its fierceness, from the density of the water it seemed as if their bows were encountering the sledge-hammers of the Titans, instead of the opposing waves of an angry sea. Finally, such was the force of the wind, that it was feared both boats must founder. Knowing that they were losing advantage every moment, and that with the lapse of each succeeding one can venture upon this sea and live, and the sad fates of Costigan and Molyneux are repeatedly cited to deter such attempts. The first one spent a few days, the last about twenty hours, and returned to the place from whence he had embarked without landing on its shores. One was found dying upon the shore; the other expired, immediately after his return, of fever contracted upon its waters. The northern shore is an extensive mud flat, with a sandy plain beyond, the very type of desolation; branches and trunks of trees lay scattered in every directionsome charred and blackened as by fire, others white with an incrustation of salt. The north-western shore is an unmixed bed of gravel, coming in a gradual slope from the mountains to the sea. The eastern coast is a rugged line of mountains, bare of all vegetation-a continuation of the Hauran range, coming from the north, and extending south beyond the scope of vision, throwing out three marked and seemingly equi-distant promontories from. its south-eastern extremities. Lieutenant Lynch fully sounded the sea, determined its geographical position, took and deepest one, in a line corresponding with the bed of the Jordan, is a ravine, which also seems to correspond with the Wady el-Jeib, or ravine within a ravine, at the south end of the sea. At one time, the sea was observed to assume an aspect peculiarly somber. Unstirred by the wind, it lay smooth and unruffled as an inland lake. The great evaporation inclosed it in a thin transparent vapor, its purple tinge contrasting strongly with the extraordinary color of the sea beneath, and, where they blended in the distance, giving it the appearance of smoke from burning sulphur. It seemed a vast caldron of metal, fused but motionless. The surface of the sea was one wide sheet of phosphorescent foam, and the waves, as they broke upon the shore, threw a sepulchral light upon the dead bushes and scattered fragments of rocks. The exhalations and saline deposits are as unfriendly to vegetable life as the waters are to animal existence; that fruit can be brought to perfection there, may therefore well be considered improbable. The celebrated "Apples of Sodom," so often spoken of by ancient and modern writers, are peculiar to this locality. The at the head of a deep, narrow, and abrupt chasm. Immediately pulling in for the shore, the lieutenant in company with Dr. It❘ Anderson, went up and examined it. The beach was a soft, slimy mud, encrusted with salt, and a short distance from the water, covered with saline fragments, and flakes of bitumen. They found the pillar to be of solid salt, capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front and pyramidal behind. The upper or rounded part is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval pedestal, from forty to sixty feet above the level of the sea. the level of the sea. It slightly decreases in size upwards, crumbles at the top, and is one entire mass of crystallization. A prop or buttress connects it with the mountain behind, and the whole is covered with debris of a light stone color. Its peculiar shape is attributable to the action of the winter rains. Lieutenant Lynch gives no credit to the representations that connect this pillar or column with Lot's wife. And this is true of most travelers who have visited the spot, though Montague gives it, as his opinion, that Lot's wife having lingered behind, she, while so lingering, became overwhelmed in the descending fluid, and formed the model or foundation for this extraordinary column; a lasting memorial of God's punishing a most deliberate act of disobedience. In regard to the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned,-one of the most remarkable facts recorded in holy writ,and the continued existence of which has always been asserted by the natives, as well as by many travelers, Lieutenant Lynch asserts that a pillar is there to be seen; the same, without doubt, to which the reports of the natives and of travelers refer. But that this pillar, or any like it, is or was that into which Lot's wife was transformed, cannot, of course, be demonstrated. It is a lofty, round pillar, standing apparently detached from the general mass, After an absence of a little more than a year, Lieutenant Lynch returned, with his companions, to the United States, the expedition having been highly successful in accomplishing the purpose for which it was planned; comparing most favorably in this respect with the results of explorations made by othe. parties, and receiving the highest encomiums of English reviewers, some of whose comments, throwing additional light on various points involved in the subject, are here presented. XLV. DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT SUTTER'S MILL, CALIFORNIA.-1848. Widely Extended and Inexhaustible Deposits of the Precious Metal.-The News Spreads like Wild-fire to the Four Quarters of the Globe.-Overwhelming Tide of Emigration from All Countries.-Nucleus of a Great Empire on the Pacific.-California Becomes the El Dorado of the World and the Golden Commonwealth of the American Union.-First Practical Discovery of the Gold.-On John A. Sutter's Land.-Found by J. W. Marshall-Simple Accident that Led to It.-Marshall's Wild Excitement.Shows Sutter the Golden Grains.-A Dramatic Interview.-The Discovery Kept Secret.-How it was Disclosed.-A Real Wonder of the Age.-Trials of the Early Emigrants.-Their Bones Whiten the Soil.-All Professions at the Mines-Impetus Given to Commerce.-Life Among the Diggers.Disordered State of Society.-Crimes, Outrages, Conflagrations.-Scarcity, Fabulous Prices.-Mining by Machinery.-Order and Stability Reached.-Population in 1857, 600,000.-Gold in Ten Years, $600,000,000. "Gold to fetch, and gold to send, ITHOUT any exaggeration, it may be asserted that no modern event has been the cause of so much romance in real life,-no branch or sphere of trade, even though perfected by long experience, has called into employment so many of the means and instrumentalities of diversified human industry and commercial intercourse,-indeed, nothing within the memory of man, except the achievements of steam and the electric telegraph, approaches so nearly to magic, as the discovery of gold, in luxurious deposits, on the shores of the Pacific, and that, too, in the soil of a territory which, by conquest and purchase, had but just fallen, like fruit golden MINING OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. ripe, into the lap of the Great Republic. This discovery occurred at Sutter's mill, in Coloma county, California, in February, 1848. Here, however, it deserves to be stated as a matter of historical interest, that gold placers were worked in certain portions of California, long before the discovery just mentioned. The tations of oak and fir, red-tiled houses, yellow-washed church, and white cottages evidence of this appears in a letter ad- | over grassy hills, wide sloping fields, plandressed by Abel Stearns, of Los Angeles, to Louis R. Lull, secretary of the California Society of Pioneers. Mr. Stearns, who went to California from Mexico in 1829, states that on the 22d of November, 1842, he sent by Alfred Robinson-who returned from California to the states by way of Mexico-twenty ounces California weight, or eighteen and three-fourths ounces mint weight, of placer gold, to be forwarded by him to the United States mint at Philadelphia; the mint assay was returned August 6, 1843. This gold was taken from placers first discovered in March, 1842, by Francisco Lopez, a Californian, at San Francisquito, about thirty-five miles north-west from Los Angeles. It appears that Lopez, while resting in the shade with some companions, during a hunt for stray horses, dug up some wild onions with his sheath knife, and in the dirt discovered a piece of gold. Searching further, he found more pieces, and on returning to town announced his discovery. A few persons, mostly Sonorians, who were accustomed to placer mining in Mexico, worked in the San Francisquito placer from this time until the latter part of 1846 (when the war with the United States disturbed the country), taking out some six thousand to eight thousand dollars in value, per annum. The United States mint certificate for the assay made for Mr. Stearns in 1843, is now in the archives of the "Society of California Pioneers." Before the great event which made the year 1848 so memorable, the influence of the United States had already become conspicuous in the affairs of California, and had in a degree prepared the way for what was to follow. In the words of a British writer, the United States spread her actual influence long before she planted a flag as the sign of her dominion. For two years previous to the capture of Monterey, in 1846, her authority had been paramount in California. At length, toward the close of the summer of 1845, Fremont appeared in the neighborhood of Monterey, whose parklike scenery-trees scattered in groups showed in pleasant contrast to the desolate region of the Rocky mountains he had left. He was accompanied by some of his trappers men of muscle and daring, dressed in deer-skin coats, with formidable rifles, and mounted on tall, spare horses. They rode in Indian file through the outskirts; their leader viewed the town, and they vanished. Soon again he appeared, with an ominous array of thirty-five followers, encamped on a woody height; was commanded to depart, was driven to the hills, pursued, and again lost sight of. An American ship then sailed into the harbor. Fremont was again at Monterey. The Californians foresaw the probable progress of events, and perhaps secretly desired the fostering protection of the great republic. While balancing between that and independence, two United States vessels simultaneously entered the harbors of Monterey and San Francisco, and in July, 1846, the whole of California came under the rule of America. A new era was again opened. An immediate change appeared. Industry was revived; deserted villages were repeopled; neglected lands were again cultivated; decaying towns were renovated; and the busy hum of toil broke that silence and lethargy which brooded over an ill-governed country. But another and greater change was at hand, to turn the tide of her fortunes into a new, a wider, and more diffusive channel, and to raise California from the condition of a wild and isolated territory, to be the very focus of the world's attention,-the spot where innumerable streams of emigration from the four quarters of the world, from barbarous and civilized countries, pouring across the Rocky Mountains, or brought over the sea, from distant shores, were to meet in tumultuous confluence, and, flowing upon each other, form an eddying whirlpool of excitement, such as few countries on the globe, in any period of their history, could present to the observation of mankind. |