on to fortune, or, if not seized, are forever lost." (Shakespeare.)

The ideas of the people there at that time was, that a railroad across
the continent, connecting California with the East, was entirely
impracticable. That there were one thousand miles of desert to cross,
where there was no water, and the Sierra Nevada mountains presented an
impassable barrier, and they thought how could it ever be an
agricultural country, when there was no rain for more than seven months
in the year. The idea of irrigation was not thought of then. How
different every thing has turned out since, I have nothing to do with. I
must be true to my subject, the days of the Forty-niners.

As it would be, at least, three months before the ship could come in
with my houses, and my health had improved, I was anxious to get up to
the mines. I was informed that there was a party from Albany at the
Dutch bar, on the south fork of the American river, about eight miles
from Coloma, where gold was first discovered, with whom I was
acquainted. I found a sloop about to sail for Sacramento (there were no
steamers then) the starting point to the northern mine. I took passage
on board with all the passengers the boat could accommodate. I noticed
on the passage up that the mosquitoes were very large, with penetrating
bills. It was as much as we could do to protect our faces.

The only important event on the passage was that a Jew had potatoes that
he was taking up on speculation, and that he was going to treat his
fellow passengers to some, one day at dinner. We were a little
disappointed when we found they were sweet ones, but still they were a
treat. Vegetables were scarce, potatoes selling from forty to sixty
cents per pound. After a few days we arrived at Sacramento, it being
about one hundred miles from San Francisco by water. There were no hacks