From the city of Sacramento, the miner has two routes before him, from which to select--he may start for the upper tributaries of the Sacramento, viz: for the town of Vernon, at the mouth of the Feather river, then up to the mouth of the Bear Creek, and farther up to the mouth of the Yuba, or to any of these points, direct from the city of Sacramento. Another route is for the American river, which has three tributaries, known as the North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork. Waggons go up to the North Fork for seventy miles. The Middle Fork is inaccessible to waggons--it empties itself into the North Fork about ten or twelve miles above the South Fork, and the latter joins the former at the distance of about thirty miles from Sacramento City. At this junction there is on the South Fork an island called Notoma, or more commonly Mormon island, from the fact that a company of Mormons were the first to dig here. The diggings have proved very good; one could average an ounce per day. There is a company of miners who dammed or rather turned the current of the river for a short space, and now are reaping abundant fruits of their labor; they are getting out from $1500 to $2,000 per week, working with mercury in the Virginia rocker. It is a trading post, where many traders are established; a stage from Sacramento City stops here on its way to Sutter’s Mill. Going to the Middle Fork one must pass the South Fork at the point where is now quite a settlement, known as Sutter’s Mill or Columa, a corruption, probably, of _Columba_. The distance from Sacramento City to this town is 45 miles of tolerably good waggon road. There is no lack of traders; there is a Saw-Mill and a Post-Office. From this point the miner has to start with pack-animals if he wish to go up any of the rivers. The points known on the Middle Fork where a good many miners have been engaged are the Spanish Bar, higher up Ford’s or Middle Bar, farther up the Big Bar, and still farther up Rector’s Bar; the first 15 miles distant from Columa, and the last about thirty miles. The hills bordering on all the streams in the gold region are difficult of descent generally speaking, and they are so at these points also. In our opinion, the South Fork, is or was one of the richest portions of the gold region, its dry diggings proved very profitable to almost all the miners that have been engaged in them. Every river has its dry diggings, as it means washing in the ravines neighboring upon rivers, and which have small streams that are sufficient to afford water for washing gold. The dry diggings on the right bank of the South Fork, known as Kelsey’s Diggings, and on the left as the Old Dry Diggings were very rich. Last winter a good many Oregon people built log houses in both of those diggings, and passed the winter digging, when the weather permitted; the fruits of their labor were abundant, and most of them have left their places with bags full of the precious