It is situated on the highest and healthiest ground on the river. It is not, like Sacramento, subject to an annual overflow. The town was originally laid out by Captain Sutter and others; and is owned by Hon. John McDougall, Lieutenant-Governor of California, and Captain Sutter. It has a thriving business population, and its position, and the fertility of the neighboring country will soon make it a place of import

ance.

Stockton is to the southern portion of the gold region what Sacramento is to the northern. It is situated upon a slough, or a succession of sloughs, containing the back waters formed by the junction of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. It is about fifty miles from the mouth of the San Joaquin, and one hundred from San Francisco. The ground upon which it is situated is high and is not subject to overflow. Vessels drawing nine feet water can ascend the San Joaquin as far as Stockton, and discharge their cargoes on the bank. In the latter part of 1848, the town was laid out and a frame building erected by Charles M. Weber. In eight months from that time, it contained a population of about two thousand permanent residents, and a large number of temporary residents, on their road to the mines. Communication is with San Francisco by means of steamboats and launches, and the commerce of the town is constantly increasing.

Other towns exist-on paper-in the neighborhood of San Francisco and the gold region, and, doubtless, they will, in the course of time, become settled by a thriving, go-ahead population from the Atlantic States. Land speculation in California is as profitable a business as gold-digging-and less toilsome. Many of 10*

the shrewd ones, who early took advantage of this "tide in the affairs of men," have already reached the goal of their hopes, an independent fortune. Those who saw how things would turn out, and purchased land in the neighborhood of the region which promised to receive the principal current of the emigration to California, found themselves wealthy in the short space of a few months.

The great influx of emigrants to Upper California has brought the subject of the settlement of the peninsula into consideration. There is but little doubt that Lower California will, sooner or later, become the property of the United States, and then its settlement and progress will be rapid. The coast upon the gulf affords many excellent harbors, and the mountainous region of the interior gives abundant evidence of mineral wealth, as far as it has been explored. Several silver mines have been opened in different places, the principal of which are at San Antonio, between La Paz and Cape San Lucas. Near Loretto, the first settlement in California, extensive copper mines have been opened, and lead and iron abound in all directions. The pearl fishery of the gulf has already yielded an enormous wealth, having been prosecuted from the time of the discovery of the peninsula. The fishing season lasts from May till November, and more than a hundred vessels are yearly engaged in the business. These resources, despite the general unfitness of the country for agricultural purposes, will soon attract their full share of consideration, and cause an influx of emigrants and adventurers from the United States and other countries. Some portions of the country are susceptible of irrigation, and might thus be rendered fit for cultivation.