 Complete the following phrase:  These forty-niners left behind families and jobs in the hope of instant wealth. A few succeeded handsomely, but the gold fields destroyed some and disappointed many more. The gold fields were very lucrative with up to 50,000,000 in gold being found every year for several years; but the gold finds were spread very unevenly. As the easily mined placer gold deposits were worked out the much more capital intensive hard rock mining took over. Americans and foreigners of many different countries, statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all 96 were young men under age 40. Women in the California Gold Rush were initially less than 4 of the population in 1850 and had many opportunities to do new things and take on new tasks in women poor California. 