Between Marysville and Sacramento we passed the large and magnificent claim called "Sutter's Ranch," though not under a high state of cultivation. The old pioneer is now poor, but his friends are sufficiently zealous in his behalf to see that his wants go not unsupplied. One can not pass over this region and at the same time observe how rapidly the Sacramento River is being obstructed by the immense deposits of sand and sediment which its current is daily bringing down, thus forming bars and deltas destined not only to intercept but probably to suspend at no distant day navigation to its upper waters,--without feeling the pressing importance of a railroad connection between Sacramento and the more northern regions of California. Already are parties out viewing and prospecting a road through Noble's Pass, where it is proposed by some to carry the Pacific railroad line. That California will be covered with a network of railways is only a question of time, and that time determined by the low rates of interest that will cause capitalists to become interested in these great works of internal improvement. Local trade and travel must always be great, and must always increase so long as gold shall be mined, and that period seems to be illimitable. From Sacramento we took passage on the fine steamer Antelope, for San Francisco, which in six hours and at a cost of $5 brought us to the end of one section of our journey. There are no opposition steamers on now and hence the monopolists command the river. The signs of the devastation of the flood marked the entire distance from Sacramento to the bay of San Francisco. But here and there we found the inhabitants raising their dwellings a story, and by levees and other improvements trying to reclaim their fields, as well as to defy the freshets of coming years. No one can pass over this exceedingly interesting region from Portland to Sacramento without feeling a thrill of pride and of pleasure to see what American energy and American capital have accomplished during the past fourteen years of its occupancy; and to picture in imagination what the next fourteen years may produce, would almost render oneself liable to such an unjust criticism that I would forbear to enter upon a theme so pregnant with interest; suffice it to say, let those who have not made the trip, make it at least once and see for themselves pleasant homes and well-tilled fields, grand mountains, useful rivers, forests of orchards, and oceans of grain; miles of sluice boxes and tons of gold; and the beauty of a region redolent with the songs of thrift and industry--and if they be not well repaid for all the fatigues of a mountain journey, the fault will certainly be theirs, and not the bounty of generous nature, who with lavish hand has spread so many pictures of the grand and beautiful--nor yet the fault of the inhabitants by the wayside, who by culture and improvement have framed these pictures in gilded and