BOOKS.

KELLY'S EXCURSION TO CALIFORNIA.* ML WrT,T,TAM KELLY is an Irishman of some enterprise and expe- rience, who started for the -United States in January 1849 to seek fortune in California. From New York he made his way to the Western waters, by Albany, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago ; he descended the Illinois to St. Louis, and thence ascended the Mis- souri to Independence, the starting-point in that quarter for ad- venturers who make the overland passage. En route, Mr. Kelly had fallen in with different persons bound for the same El Dorado, possessing education and "means to fit out" according to the X. P.'s ideas of "the right thing." They prepared for their jour- ney in good style,—a species of green uniform, waggons, mules, outfit, and provision of the best quality ; a kind of military order was established, and a ballot placed Mr. Kelly in command of the expedition. The event seems to have justified the choice ; for al- though he, like the rest of the company, was without experience in

desert travelling, he successfully carried the expedition in one hundred and two days over a distance exceeding two thousand

miles, across the Prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and the terrible country between the city of the Mormons and the gold district, Within easy reach of the city of Sacramento, the band separated, and Mr. Kelly passed the time of his stay in exploring various diggings, and digging himself; he also visited Sacramento, St. Francisco, and other places,- before he took leave of California. MT. Kelly, as may be inferred from his undertaking and its suc- cess, is a person of vigorous mind and body, with coolness, fertil- ity of resource, and possibly some experience of service. He has powers of description and recounting, of a rather coarse kind, such as men pick up in coffeerooms and messrooms. He has also the prejudices which cosmopolitans of this class, strange to say, generally possess ; and theugh he possesses a fair share of Irish nationality, the Americans find small favour in his eyes, and, we think, to some extent unjustly. He does not sufficiently draw a distinction between the inhabitants of the older States and the rude adventurers from the West and the outcasts of great cities who form the mass of the population in California : he makes the cus- toms that prevail among the classes with leisure in an old and wealthy community the test of propriety in a young and busy country; and, like the generality of travellers, he does not suffi- ciently reflect that the people seen by a stranger moving quickly through a country do not by any means form the elite of the inhabi- tants, especially among an active population like that of America. A man who chronicled all the instances of coarseness, vulgarity, selfishness, and low language, that he encountered on railroads, in steam-boats, and taverns in this country, might fill a book with

queer specimens of British manners. With the qualities he possesses, Mr. Kelly could snake an

amusing and informing book out of any travels ; but the in- terest of the volumes before us arises from the novelty of the subject. A waggon-journey across the prairie is not altogether new, but it is rare enough to be fresh. The same remark applies to California. It may be said, too, that former travellers have often been inferior to -Mr. Kelly in rough vigour of style, as well as in that judgment which arises from experience.

The author rapidly passes over his tour through the States, ju- diciously devoting his elaboration to the overland journey and his sketches in California. Through the Prairie, the difficulties were considerable, but usual in travelling with waggons for many hundred miles, when the only road is an indistinct trail, the country continually intersected by streams and rivers, that have to be crossed in spite of precipitous banks or deep waters, with barren land occasionally occurring where water and pastur- age are scarce. Natural obstacles increase on approaching the Rocky Mountains ; but soon after they are crossed the traveller is involved in an inhospitable region. Heavy sands, scanty vegeta- tion, water impregnated with saline particles, sometimes so potent as to be undrinkable, rugged ways and precipitous mountain-paths, characterize the country for about six hundred miles ; a desert of sixty miles intervenes without any water whatever, and the most arduous difficulties of the road occur when the animals and the men are almost worn out. Although the party started early in the season, and from the completeness of their outfit pushed on rapidly, the summer was well advanced before they reached the worst part of the journey ; and their sufferings in crossing the desert on the North. of California were very great.

"The direct flames of the solar fire seemed absolutely to curl around us, creating a wavy visible sort of atmosphere, as if we were moving through transparent smoke ; and this at length produced a state of insensibility in some and madness in others; four of the men coming up to me and demand- ing water in a most peremptory tone, as if I had a supply, and denied them access to it. About twelve o'clock we halted, to administer the gruel to the animals, but there were only seven men out of the entire able to lend a band. Some were howling for water, and some threw themselves in a fainting state under the shade of the waggons. I never felt myself so nearly overcome; and only for a great effort I made, feeling that, as the conductor of the com- pany, it was incumbent on me to set a good example, I should have also sank in the struggle. As soon as the poor brutes in harness heard the gur- gling of the water from the kegs, they brayed, as I thought, in a piteous tone, saying,. Oh! let us have some' ; while the others pressed around, being with difficulty restrained from trampling on us while we were draining it off; and it was a matter of no small trouble to give each his basin, from the manner in which the ether would poke into it. "This done, the word Moee ' was passed ; but I found one of the team- * An Excursion to California over the Prairie, Rocky Mountains, and Great Sierra Nevada. With a Stroll through the Diggings and Ranches of that Country. By William Reny, J.P. tu two volumes, Publiehed by Chapman and lialL stem altogether incapable of driving, and, sore against my grain, had to place him and the two insane men in the waggons, the latter having become so restless and outrageous that I was reluctantly constrained to resort to the dis- agreeable alternative of tying them down. Those that were under the waggons did not appear to hear the order, nor could they be got to heed its iteration until the waggons were moved on, and they were leftexposed to the sun ; when they arose, but in a dreadfully enervated state. I implored, I exhorted them to struggle on for two hours more, when we would reach relief; but they were deaf and insensible, and had to be lifted into their saddles. At length we all got in motion, and three of the least exhausted men rode ahead on our best horses, with directions to return and meet us as soon as possible with water, which I knew, from the time of travel, could not be more than ten or twelve miles off, unless we missed our way ; an idea I would not listen to, for it involved our entire destruction.

"I heard from the same parties who gave use the information respecting Humboldt river, that the scenes and occurrences in the Desert[by succeeding parties later in the season] even transcended the others in melancholy horror ; the whole line being marked with putrid caresses and deserted waggons, while the air was filled with the moans of the.dying, the wails of the suffering, and the wild screams of the maniac. Few, if any, had teams in a state to take them over the barren waste at one flight, the nine-tenths being obliged to wait in the middle of this oven, and send on the animals to recruit for a few days ; when some few that were in a position to do so, commenced a trade of packing small kegs of water on their mules and re- tailing it at exorbitant rates ; but their heartless extortions drove the suf- ferers into an united exertion to sink a well, which was rewarded by a mode- rate supply of tolerable water. I have no manner of doubt, that had we proceeded without lightening our loads, 'we would Also have been obliged to halt, for even with what we carried we had very little indeed to spare.' Difficult passes or passages of rivers had been encounterea-ost both sides of the Rocky Mountains, but the pass of the Great Sierra Nevada was the worst and the last.

"Towards even we came to a lake close under the main ridges of the mountain, which explorers call Reed Lake—from the broad margin of reeds that surround it; and a short distance beyond the lake came to the foot of the steep, where the trail curled up to the formidable pass, at the foot of which we halted for the night, to make preparations for the undertaking. Had we met such an ascent in the earlier part of the journey, I fancy we would have pronounced it insurmountable and turned back in despair; but having encountered so many dangerous places and overcome so many diffi- culties we became inured to hazard and toil, only regarding the greatest ob- stacles as merely perplexing but never impossible; and as this was the only remaining one we were resolved not to be stopped, if recourse was to be had to the agency of powder. By way of experiment, in the evening, just to see if the animals could clamber up or work in such a, perpendicular posture, I tried my horse with a hold of his lariat; but when I brought him to the base of the ascent, he had as little idea of facine° it as he would have of climbing a good wall ; for, as one of the party said, 'It was not only right up and down, but leant a little over.' I tried to persuade him first, and then to whip him ; but neither was of any use : he did not comprehend me. Not so old Sacramento (the mule), who like a practised hod-man, reared on end as soon as he was brought to the ase, and commenced the escalade without an instant's hesitation, clambering frequently in a position that made use fear he should have fallen backwards, until he got to a ledge or shelf, where there was a narrow resting-place. It was quite clear from this essay that we could not calculate much on draught, when the animals would find such difficulty in getting up themselves ; so we were all reconciled to the alterna- five of dismounting the waggons, and hauling them up piecemeal by ropes, only determining first to try one in the usual way, and, if it failed, then re- sort to the other mode."

The judgment of Mr. Kelly upon the agricultural capabilities of California is opposed to that of Fremont. The soil in many places is indeed excellent, capable of producing anything ; but the sea- sons and the duration of the winter render wheat cultivation im- possible: indeed, bread-stuffs, rice, 8cc., can be imported cheaper than they tan be grown with labour at all approaching present wages. Of the golden capabilities of the country Mr. Kelly thinks more highly than many people. He considers that the deposits are not merely superficial, but that the earth teems with the precious me- tal. This, however, can only be extracted in the regular way by sinking mines, smelting the ore, and all the other mining pro- cesses, which require so large a capital that few individuaLs can attempt it, and absorb so much money that few whether indivi- duals or companies can be certain of much profit. The diggings,

or superficial deposits' were exhausted in some places when Mr.

Kelly was there—that is, for extraction by rough processes ; but he is of opinion that gold may yet be profitably obtained by scien- tific methods. It is, however, a remarkable fact, that neither Mr.

Kelly nor any other writer who records his experience of and his opinion on the gold region stops there. The company, it is true, is none of the choicest, the work is very hard, and the deductions owing to the high price of food and merest necessaries are very great,—reasons enough to deter a man from going there. But Mr.

Kelly was there, was accustomed to "rough it," and had got ac- quainted with the work. Still he left the diggir.gs, and he advises others to stay away. This is from some sensible parting advice to emigrants. "The labourer, who all his life has been accustomed to hard toil and ex- posure, whose frame has been casehardened by snows and sunshine, whose constitution will not shrink under the vicissitudes of diet and climate, is the

proper manner of man for a miner. He has shivered the rock in the quarry at home—he can do the same in California; he has worked in mud and water

digging the canal in his native state, and can endure wet feet in the vocation of a gold-digger. He was never over-daintily ministered to in food, nor does he pine at the rough fare of the mines. But take the carpenter from behind

his dry bench, the smith from his warm forge, or the spruce clerk from his high stool, and place them in cold water, with a red-hot sun glaring down upon them,—let them strain every muscle in this novel sphere of labour, rough it on hard bread and salt junk, seeking repose on the damp earth, and: believe me, they will soon exhibit the sad effects of so radical a change. "Besides, steady, employment about the different cities will enable a man to enjoy more comforts and save more money than he can as a general thing by the precarious income of the diggings. The average daily income of miners, embracing all the diggings% has been computed, by persous in a position to make the calculation, at eight dollars ; which, from my own observe taking good mines and bad, energetic men and slothful, good workmen those unused to toil, I consider tolerably near the mark. Let me next see the number of days this income can be reckoned on : we first subtract fifty-two Sundays, and at least ninety-one days for the winter and high-water sawn,

making together one hundred and forty-three days ; those from three hun- dred and sixty-five leave two hundred and twenty-two days, or within a fraction of thirty-two weeks ; then all miners allow at the rate of one day in the week for prospecting, seeking new ground, which leaves a residue of one hundred and ninety working-days ; from which I might, and should, deduct largely for sickness and other contingencies ; but admittting one hun- dred and ninety days as the yearly average at eight dollars per day, it yields a total of 1520 dollars, showing that something over four dollars per day for the year round is the miner's income. Let the mechanic or clerk, in follow- ing this calculation, also bear in mind, that while he in Francisco or Sacra- mento lays in his necessaries at reasonable rates, the miner has to submit to the most usurious exactions ; and, after a little sober reflection, I conceive he will come into my view of the matter."

Of the state of society in California Mr. Kelly gives as bad an account as well can be, not only in the diggings but everywhere else where Americans are found. The peculiar " smartness " in Francisco, Sacramento, and the mines, seems characteristic of the Yankee ; but the civilized world appears to contribute its quota to the gambling, and the blasphemy and ribaldry of the miners are not peculiar to congregations of Americans. Passage after passage might be quoted descriptive of the state of society as to morals, but we will rather quote one indicative of manners. The scene occurs at San Jose, a place where the Spaniards are numerous. One main attraction of the festa was a horse-race between Spanish and American owners.

"While the ground was being measured, hundreds of speculators, carrying about their dollars and dubloons in shawls and handkerchiefs, kept up a stormy vociferation, in which it was apparent the American horse had the call; and after all the money was staked, horses, mules, and accoutrements were betted one against the other, until four-fifths of those on the ground were impli- cated in the issue. During the excitement the lines were somewhat broken, and the principals, with some special friends, rode along to have them readjusted, affording an opportumty of contrasting the demeanour of the Spaniard and the Yankee: the one all courtesy and urbanity politely motioning the people back ; the other, in a tone of vulgar insolence, using the most frightful imprecations, and plunging their horses amongst them whenever they came to a Spanish group. I never remember to have been snore deeply impressed with ineffable disgust than while witnessing this exhibition of arrogant brutality. Talk of Americans 'going ahead' ! but in order to be unencumbered in the strife, they cast aside every figment of olden civilization, not even retaining the fig-leaf of decency or decorum,— at least so far as the Californian emigrants are concerned."

The American won.

"The Yankee uproar was terrific, and the inherent bad taste and under- breeding evinced at the triumph, was the more repugnant from the placid and goodhumoured temper in which the Spaniards bore their defeat. I knowed we would whip them damned tawneys,' and such like expressions, met your ears at every turn, and as they led off the Spanish horses past their late masters, who were returning on foot to the town, they let slip no opportunity of venting their obscene and ribald buffoonery. "I was induced, by an indescribable feeling of attraction, as if to fill up the measure of my loathing at their day's conduct, to look on at a Yankee drinking-match, perfectly in character and keeping with the tenour of their other goings-on. It took place at one of the open booths on the course, attracting a great crowd, and giving rise to fresh betting,s. The man who won the toss for choice of fluids selected port wine, each tumbler having a raw egg broken into it—a potion that appeared to take his opponent by sur- prise; however, they went to work, and with the short necessary pauses, got up as high as the ninth glass each, when one betrayed symptoms of dis- tress, and, to make use of Lord Norbury's pun, could not 'be egged on' any further ; for, in attempting to raise the tenth to his mouth, the stomach rebelled, after a fashion that communicated a spasm of nausea to me, which it required all the muscular power in my throat to subdue. I afterwards heard the victor vauntingly proceeded to the baker's dozen, and wound up by drinking the spectators' health in a bumper of brandy-and-water."