SACRAMENTO & PLACER INTELLIGENCE Sacramento City, Feb. 18, 1850.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 422, 1 May 1850, Page 3

SACRAMENTO & PLACER INTELLIGENCE Sacramento City, Feb. 18, 1850.

Eds. Alta>—Joseph Grant entertained his friends latt evening on the levee. The cloth was spread in Jfront of " Johnny's Rancho" for one hundred guests, and these in their turn were invited to give place to the rest of the hungry audience. It was announced before the eating commenced that the supper wai free, but during the repast Mr, 6. himself took round his hat to defray expenses. He collected about 20 dollars —ten per cent, only on the probable cost of the collation. If this is an index of the votes his admirers are to give him, his chance of being mayor i* a bad one. Notoriety and popularity are not the same even in Calif rnia, where so many distinctions are made. As an agent for selling lots in the new city of "Nicolaus," he is very successful. A large portion are already disposed of, owing quite as much to the well-known merits of the place, as to the able and entertaining manner in which he has preiented them. The location of Nicolaui is familiar to most of the overland population as the point where they first reached the navigable waters of California. Many thousands of the Missouri emigration encamped here last summer. Had there been supplies on the spot, it would have spared many weary travellers and worn-out animals the long journey to Sacramento City and back again in the heat of midsummer. This grazing country about the junction of Bear Creek is unsurpassed; and on the routes hence to the mines there is generally good feed all the way. This is a prominent object to teamsteri; a few miles more distance is nothing in comparison to obtaining good feed for their teams. It is somewhat early yet for much to be done in this business. A gentleman who has 30 wagons on the routes from Nicolaui, where he makes his depot for freight by water, assures me that he would much rather haul at half price, a few weeks hence, than take his cattle and mulus off the fine grais in that neighbourhood. Fortunately for those who are anxious to get out immediately to the mines, there is no lack of supplies in most of the districts for a month to come. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Berghoff going up ; he had just returned from San Jose, having settled some legislative business for the place : he is the attorney and agent for Nicolaus Allgeire in the diipogition of lots in the new city, the plan of which he bad wjtli him, lately completed by Messrs. Eddy & Higgios. I found that many of the lots had been taken in San Francisco; the original prices are 45*350 for front and first streets, ■#300 on second street, #250 on third, and so on back to <8100, which it the lowest rate. When I passed the place, going up, not a nail had been driven in the new city | coming down, a week afterwards, I saw 30,000 feet of lumber on the levee, three frames erected, one

of them ror a very large hotel; another, with the lot 20 by 100, which it occupied, sold for tfl^OO. A full lot here is 80 by 100 feet. The block on which the ranch stands is under contract to be built over in sixty days ; below this Col. M'Kinstry is about erecting a large government warehouie, The materiel for leveral other buildings is on the ground. Three steamboats landed here, going up, in one day, and one discharged a full cargo of lumber. Dr. Lawrence is about erecting an Invalided' Retreat at this point ; its high and healthy location will recommend it to the sick, and the gentleman who will conduct it is bo favourably known to a large district of the mines, that he cannot but succeed in his humane undertaking. Dr. L. gave me some distances to the principal diggings from Nicolaus. To the first government camp on Bear River, 21 miles; within a short distance of this the soldiers frequently take out *§M 0 in a day. The dry diggings on the North Fork are 25 miles distant. By the Indian trails discovered and named after Townsend, running through most beautiful valleys and capable of travel at all seasons, it is 37 miles to the rich digging* of Deer Creek and Grass Valley. To Rose's Bar, and thence to the extensive regions on the Yuba, it is 6 or i 8 miles farther thaa from Eliza or Marysville. The drawing for lots in Eliza came off on Monday, 11th instant, The lucky proprietors were iv high spirits, and one and two hundred per cent, was freely offered 1 and refused for a share, iuto forty of which the town | was divided. This place, too, though only a few days I surveyed, is fully in the field with its competitors above and below, The Linda landed 10,000 feet of lumber there on Wednesday. Buildings are going up, and more will be on the ground immediately. ' This place and Yuba city, possessing as they do the ■ great advantages of a good traversablo road to the mines at all seasons, muit command a large business. They are also at the head of navigation for the larger class of steam beau, which cannot ascend beyond the bar at the mouth of the Yuba. The El Dorado now makes weekly trips from San Francisco through to Yuba city. Passengers for the mines lave the expense t of stopping over at Sacramento city, besides 45*5 in the rate of fare, The new steamer Georgiana, now building, will succeed the El Dorado ; she draws but two feet water, has fine accommodations— a cabin fore and aft, engine ou deck, and a clear stowage from stem to stern. Until May or June, the melting of the snow keeps the water up, and permits the larger boats to run. By that time the demands of trade will bring out a large number of small, light-draft steamers, to meet the emergency, such as ply in the summer season on the upper waters of the Mississippi and Ohio, the Missouri and Illinois rivers. To the families who reach California duiing the ensuing year, these beautiful locations on Feather River must be irresistibly attractive. High, dry and healthy— they are the only pluoes where a man may leave hit wife and younger family while he and the boys are reaping the golden harvest ; at the same time they can reach theii homes in a day or two, at all seasons. Many doubt that so many places can flourish in such close proximity : they are each the river-repre9entatives of a large and prolific mining district ; some of them having good access to the minei during the wet season, will have no interference in their trade. Their growth, in the short period of their existence, shows the estimation in which they are already held. Marysville, a few weeks the older, presents the most active business aspect at this time. Yuba city has forty wooden bouies — many more in progress, besides tents and tent housei in proportion. A gentleman from Sail Francisco (who went up at the same time with me) purchased a large number of lots in the latter place, on which he will erect stores, hoteli, and other building!, immediately. To merchants of small means these points offer similar advantages to those of Sacramento city a year ago. P*o* pftrty can be had low, at original prices, and every facility in terms is given those who purchase to settle and improve ; and there, as well as here, the enhanced value of property alonft will make the first settlers rich— there will be no lack of people to populate them. No young man in America, nor anyone, who has not passed the period of ambition and enterprise, and who is Dot here or on his way, ran live contented or die happy, without seeing this great miracle— California I The rest of the world, who must heieafter always be a little behind us, will soon find themselves m the same category. This country and its commerce will flourish as well when its mines yield only two or three dollars per day, with the increased facilities of reaching and working them, as now, when from six to nine dollars is the product. That time, we all know here, is a long way off. Then, too, the mining region will be vastly extended ; indeed we may expect it to be everywhere— since the first gold has been waihed out along the levee of our city, and almost anywhere about. On the lait trip of the Lawrence, while laying-to a short time below the rapids at the mouth of the Yuba, to get up more steam, a passenger in getting ashore took up some dirt from the bottom of the river and washed it, discovered a piece of about half an inch long. At Marysville, and for two miles above, the bars and bed of the river is claimed in sections of ten feet square, aud some are said to make their ounce a day already. This may be a trader's story, like those so frequent in ihe mines: — At one camp, last summer, I was told that the same large lump had been taken out of half a dozen holes, in entirely different quarters of the digging!. A gieat excitement was created each time in the neighbourhood, and a rash of course to the favoured spot, atiended with a corresponding revival in trade. I found on my return here a proclamation posted about, to the effect that the levee shall be cleared of all tents and other incumbrances by the 25th instant ; and as I am one of the interested, I shall have to be moving. This is the last act of the old administration, and so near their decease, that the people will regard their dying request. — In public estimation, this so-called Town Council have been hopelessly low for a long time. Tiie new Charter, although undemocratic and faulty in many respects, will be assented to : it ensures the removal of the nuisance last referred to, and that of many other dead animals, the smell of whose decaying carcasses is intolerably disagreeable and equally unhealthy, to the body corporal and politic. Beyond these temporary inconveniences we have nothing at present to complain of. Uninterruptedly delightful weather, our city tolerably healthy, and business reviving. Dr. Deal is probably elected to the vacancy in the Assembly, created by the resignation of Mr. Cornwall. He ran some 800 ahead of the squatter candidate here. He is an excellent man, and universally esteemed, and will dignify the position to which he is cal'ed. L.