found himself in San Francisco.  From this spot he crossed the bay and went up the Sacramento River, where he built a stockade, known as Sutter’s Fort, and erected a saw mill at a cost of $10,000, and a flour mill at an outlay of $25,000.  Here in 1847 he was joined by James Wilson Marshall, born in New Jersey in 1812.  Marshall was sent up to the North Fork of the American River, where at Coloma he built a saw mill.  This was near the center of El Dorado county, and in a line northeast from San Francisco.  The mill, in the midst of a lumber region, was finished on January 15th, 1848, and everything was in readiness for the sawing of timber, which was in great demand in all the coast towns and brought a high price.  The mill-race, when the water was let into it, was found too shallow, and in order to deepen it Marshall opened the flood gates and allowed a strong, steady volume of water to flow through it all night.  Nature, aided by human sagacity, having done her work well, the flood gates were closed, and there in the gravel beneath the shallow stream lay several yellow objects like pebbles.  They aroused curiosity.  The miller took one and hammered it on a stone.  He found it was gold.  He then gave one of the “yellow pebbles” to a Mrs. Wimmer, of his camp, to be boiled in saleratus water.  She threw it into a kettle of boiling soap, and after several hours it came out bright and shining.  It is yellow gold, California gold, there can be no mistake!  Next, we see Marshall, all excitement, hastening to Sutter’s Fort, and informing his employer, in a mysterious way, that he has found gold.  Sutter goes to the mill the next day, and Marshall is impatiently waiting for him.  More water is turned on, and the race is ploughed deeper, and more nuggets are brought to light.  It is a day of supreme joy.  The excitement is great.  Even the waters of the American River seem to “clap their hands” and the trees of the wood wave their tops in homage and rejoice.  At the foot of the Sierras is the hidden treasure, which will thrill the civilised world when it hears the tidings with a new joy, which will bring delight beyond measure to thousands of adventurers, which will enrich some beyond their wildest dreams, and which will prove the ruin of many an one, wrecking, alas! both soul and body.  Sutler’s plan was to keep the wonderful discovery a secret, but this was impossible.  Even the very birds of the air would carry the news afar to the coast in their songs; the waters of mountain streams running down to the Sacramento River and on to San Francisco Bay and out to the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate would bear the report north and south to all the cities and towns, to Central and South America, to China and Japan, to Europe and more distant lands; and the wings of the wind would serve as couriers to waft the story across the Sierras and the Rocky Mountains and the plains, till the whole world would be startled and gladdened with the cry, Gold is found, gold in California!  One of the