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CONTENTS


  Preface                                                    3
  The Country and Its Resources                              5
  The Gold Region                                           24
  Advice to the Miner                                       33
  Towns of California, and What Relates to Them             49
  The Harbor of San Francisco                               55
    Directions for Entering the Harbor of San Francisco     55
    Regulations for the Harbor and Port of San Francisco    56
  The Towns of California (_continued_)                     57
  Errata                                                    61




  CALIFORNIA

  AS IT IS, AND AS IT MAY BE,

  OR,

  A GUIDE TO THE GOLD REGION.

  BY F. P. WIERZBICKI, M. D.
  SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

  FIRST EDITION.

  **

  SAN FRANCISCO:
  PRINTED BY WASHINGTON BARTLETT,
  NO. 8, CLAY STREET.
  1849.




COPY RIGHT SECURED.




PREFACE.


The residence of several years in the country together with his
familiarity with its whole extent, not excluding the Gold Region in
which he passed more than four months rambling over its mountains,
and even crossing the Sierra Nevada to the verge of the great Western
Desert, give the writer of these pages a degree of confidence in the
belief that by presenting this work to the public, notwithstanding the
numerous books that have already appeared upon the subject, he supplies
the desideratum so much needed at this moment, and renders justice to
California that of late suffered a little in her reputation by the
indiscretion of some of her friends.

  THE AUTHOR.

  SAN FRANCISCO, SEPT. 30, 1849.




CALIFORNIA.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS RESOURCES.


The country lying between the _Sierra Nevada_ and the Pacific Ocean,
and bounded at the north, though somewhat indefinitely, by the Oregon
Territory, and at the South by the Lower California, confined by
the late treaty of the two neighboring Republics to the line three
miles south of San Diego, is known as Upper California, a country
now engrossing the attention of the civilized world with its future
importance. There is no other instance known in history where a country
just emerging so to say, from obscurity, immediately acquired such
complicated and multifarious relations, not only to the nation of whose
territory it is only a small portion, but to the whole civilized world,
as California has. In view of these various relations, we propose here
to consider the subject of Upper California.

Before California can answer all those expectations, the realization of
which the world with good reason looks for, an increase of population
must be secured for her. To effect which it will not be very difficult,
if to its natural advantages, the government of the Union will add its
efforts to promote by every legislative and administrative measure the
influx of new settlers. But in all its proceedings, liberality should
be its motto, and none of that miserly policy that is afraid of losing
an acre from its lands or a dollar from its treasury.

California holds in its bosom resources that no other country can
boast of comprised in so small a territory--its mineral wealth, its
agricultural capacity, its geographical position, conspire to make it
in time one of the most favored lands. And it will lie in the power of
the government either to accelerate or <DW44> the unfolding of its
future importance. When considered in point of mineral productions,
if allowed to be developed by capitalists, California is capable of
becoming an important centre of the commerce of the Pacific. Here
we find in the neighborhood of the Clear Lake, about a hundred and
twenty-five miles north of Sonoma, Lead, Copper, Sulpher and Saltpetre;
on the South side of San Francisco Bay, Silver-mines have been found
in the vicinity of Pueblo de San Jose; Quicksilver mines which are
pronounced to be richer than those of Spain, are already being worked
to a great profit in the same region; Coal strata have been also found
in the coast range of mountains near Santa Cruz, in the neighborhood
of the Mission of San Luis Obispo, and near San Diego. California Coal
seems to be in the intermediate state between the anthracite and the
bituminous; it is not as hard as the former nor so soft as the latter;
it burns more easily than the first, and does not give out so smoky and
unpleasant a flame as the second; it ignites easily and burns with a
very pleasant flame without much smoke. Iron is scattered through the
mountains of the country, and we have no doubt that a workable mine