found in the main fork, and doubtless in sufficient quantities to satisfy them.  I send you a small specimen, presented by this Company, of their gold.  From this point we proceeded up the stream about eight miles, where we found a great many people and Indians, some engaged in the bed of the stream, and others in the small side valleys that put into it.  These latter are exceedingly rich, two ounces being considered an ordinary yield for a day’s work.  A small gutter, not more than 100 yards long by four feet wide, and two or three deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two men (W.  Daly and Percy McCoon) had a short time before obtained. 17,000 dollars’ worth of gold.  Captain Weber informed me, that he knew that these two men had employed four white men and about 100 Indians, and that, at the end of one week’s work, they paid off their party, and had left 10,000 dollars’ worth of this gold.  Another small ravine was shown me, from which had been taken upwards of 12,000 dollars’ worth of gold.  Hundreds of similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched.  I could not have credited these reports had I not seen, in the abundance of the precious metal, evidence of their truth.  Mr. Neligh, an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in the neighbourhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles, 2000 dollars’ worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education, and worthy of every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a machine, on the American fork, just below Sutter’s Mill, that they worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of fifty dollars a-day, but hearing that others were doing better at Weber’s Place, they had removed there, and were then on the point of resuming operations.

“The country on either side of Weber’s Creek is much broken up by hills, and is intersected in every direction by small streams or ravines which contain more or less gold.  Those that have been worked are barely scratched, and, although thousands of ounces have been carried away, I do not consider that a serious impression has been made upon the whole.  Every day was developing new and richer deposits; and the only impression seemed to be, that the metal would be found in such abundance as seriously to depreciate in value.

“On the 8th July I returned to the lower mines, and eventually to Monterey, where I arrived on the 17th of July.  Before leaving Sutter’s, I satisfied myself that gold existed in the bed of the Feather River, in the Yubah and Bear, and in many of the small streams that lie between the latter and the American fork; also, that it had been found in the Consummes, to the south of the American fork.  In each of these streams the gold is found in small scales, whereas in the intervening mountains it occurs in coarser lumps.

“Mr. Sinclair, whose rancho is three miles above Sutter’s on the north side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north fork, not far from its junction with the main stream.  He had been engaged about five weeks when I saw him, and up to that time his Indians had used simply closely-woven willow baskets.  His net proceeds (which I saw) were about 16,000 dollars’ worth of gold.  He showed me the proceeds of his last week’s work—­14 lbs. avoirdupois of clean-washed gold.