In regard to the minerals of California, not much is yet known.  It has been the policy of the owners of land upon which there existed minerals to conceal them as much as possible.  A reason for this has been, that the law of Mexico is such, that if one man discovers a mine of any kind upon another man’s land, and the proprietor does not work it, the former may denounce the mine, and take possession of it, and hold it so long as he continues to work it.  Hence the proprietors of land upon which there are valuable mineral ores conceal their existence as much as possible.  While in California I saw quicksilver, silver, lead, and iron ores, and the specimens were taken from mines said to be inexhaustible.  From good authority I learned the existence of gold and copper mines, the metals being combined; and I saw specimens of coal taken from two or three different points, but I do not know what the indications were as to quality.  Brimstone, saltpetre, muriate and carbonate of soda, and bitumen, are abundant.  There is little doubt that California is as rich in minerals of all kinds as any portion of Mexico.

I have taken much pains to describe to the reader, from day to day, and at different points during my travels in California, the temperature and weather.  It is rarely so cold in the settled portions of California as to congeal water.  But twice only while here I saw ice, and then not thicker than window-glass.  I saw no snow resting upon the ground.  The annual rains commence in November, and continue, with intervals of pleasant springlike weather, until May.  From May to November, usually, no rain falls.  There are, however, exceptions.  Rain sometimes falls in August.  The thermometer, at any season of the year, rarely sinks below 50 deg. or rises above 80 deg..  In certain positions on the coast, and especially at San Francisco, the winds rise diurnally, and blowing fresh upon the shore render the temperature cool in midsummer.  In the winter the wind blows from the land, and the temperature at these points is warmer.  These local peculiarities of climate are not descriptive of the general climate of the interior.

For salubrity I do not think there is any climate in the world superior to that of the coast of California.  I was in the country nearly a year, exposed much of the time to great hardships and privations, sleeping, for the most part, in the open air, and I never felt while there the first pang of disease, or the slightest indication of bad health.  On some portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, where vegetation is rank, and decays in the autumn, the malaria produces chills and fever, but generally the attacks are slight, and yield easily to medicine.  The atmosphere is so pure and preservative along the coast, that I never saw putrified flesh, although I have seen, in midsummer, dead carcasses lying exposed to the sun and weather for months.  They emitted no offensive smell.  There is but little disease in the country arising from the climate.