But by far the greatest gold-field in the world, has been opened by the discoveries of the last few years in California. At the close of the late war with Mexico, the United States acquired, by conquest and purchase, a tract of country of some five hundred thousand square miles in extent, known as the Mexican territory of upper California. And from the western portion of this region, Congress, in 1850, created and admitted into the American confederacy, the thirty-first state, under the name of California. It is almost superfluous to say, that California is one of the most important mineral regions in the world, particularly in its deposits of gold. Vague notions of the existence of this gold, had from time to time been spread abroad; but it was not till 1848, that an accident discovered the marvelous fact of its abundance. In that year, a Mr. Sutter, a native of Switzerland, was settled near the mouth of the American fork of the Sacramento river, at the head of navigation, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. Here he had founded New Helvetia, and obtained a grant of thirty miles round. He had sent some men to the upper part of the American fork, to clear out a mill-race. The soil was washed down in the process, and some shining scales laid bare. These proved to be gold, and on investigation, not only the valley of this stream, but the beds of all the other streams running into the Sacramento, were found to have a soil full of gold, in minute scales and in bits, from a grain to many ounces in weight. New “placers,” as the “washings,” or “dry diggings” are called, have constantly been discovered, and people have rushed to these hills from all quarters, with pans, tubs, pickaxes, shovels, hoes, filtering-machines, and energetic sinews, till they have extracted, by digging, washing, &c., millions on millions of dollars’ worth of the yellow treasure. Gold is now found over an extent of many hundred miles, and also on the Gila, and throughout the great central plateau, north and north-east of it. In a favorable locality, the lucky finder of a placer will sift out hundreds of dollars’ worth in a day. Persons with not a shirt to their backs, and scarcely a whole garment upon them, are seen with bags of gold in their hands. Prices of everything went up at once to an enormous rate: laborer’s wages became eight or ten dollars a day; cooks at the diggings, ten dollars a day; clerks, fifteen hundred dollars to six thousand dollars =per annum=, &c., &c. As all the productive industry of the country is now turned to gold-digging, and as such vast numbers of consumers are flocking in from all parts, prices continue to range high for every article of necessity, although such large quantities of goods have been sent. [Illustration: GOLD WASHING IN CALIFORNIA.]