Mr. Marshall, to save labour, let the water directly into the race with a strong current, so as to wash it wider and deeper.  He effected his purpose, and a large bed of mud and gravel was carried to the foot of the race.  One day Mr. Marshall, as he was walking down the race to this deposit of mud, observed some glittering particles at its upper edge; he gathered a few, examined them, and became satisfied of their value.  He then went to the fort, told Captain Sutter of his discovery, and they agreed to keep it secret until a certain grist-mill of Sutter’s was finished.  It, however, got out and spread like magic.  Remarkable success attended the labours of the first explorers, and, in a few weeks, hundreds of men were drawn thither.  At the time of my visit, but little more than three months after its first discovery, it was estimated that upwards of four thousand people were employed.  At the mill there is a fine deposit or bank of gravel, which the people respect as the property of Captain Sutter, though he pretends to no right to it, and would be perfectly satisfied with the simple promise of a pre-emption on account of the mill which he has built there at a considerable cost.  Mr. Marshall was living near the mill, and informed me that many persons were employed above and below him; that they used the same machines as at the lower washings, and that their success was about the same—­ranging from one to three ounces of gold per man daily.  This gold, too, is in scales a little coarser than those of the lower mines.  From the mill Mr. Marshall guided me up the mountain on the opposite or north bank of the south fork, where in the bed of small streams or ravines, now dry, a great deal of coarse gold has been found.  I there saw several parties at work, all of whom were doing very well; a great many specimens were shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight; and I send three pieces, labelled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence.  You will perceive that some of the specimens accompanying this hold mechanically pieces of quartz—­that the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in the crevice of a rock.  This gold cannot have been carried far by water, but must have remained near where it was first deposited from the rock that once bound it.  I inquired of many if they had encountered the metal in its matrix, but in every instance they said they had not; but that the gold was invariably mixed with wash-gravel, or lodged in the crevices of other rocks.  All bore testimony that they had found gold in greater or less quantities in the numerous small gullies or ravines that occur in that mountainous region.  On the 7th of July I left the mill, and crossed to a small stream emptying into the American fork, three or four miles below the saw-mill.  I struck the stream (now known as Weber’s Creek) at the washings of Sunol and Company.  They had about thirty Indians employed, whom they pay in merchandise.  They were getting gold of a character similar to that