Peter McCaull letter : Sacramento City, Calif., to brothers, 1858 June 15.

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McCaull, Peter. Peter McCaull letter : Sacramento City, Calif., to brothers, 1858 June 15.

Peter McCaull letter : Sacramento City, Calif., to brothers, 1858 June 15.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/426574920

Three page handwritten letter from a miner to his brothers, written on pictorial lettersheet, on two different days, June 15 and June 17, 1858. Describes the miner's daily life and experiences as the need for labor is diminishing in the declining days of the Gold Rush including the amounts paid him for laboring ($60 dollars per month), the prospects of a gold find on the Frasers River in Hudson Bay (British possession) that has encouraged other miners to leave California, and his plans to go to Placerville to secure work. The miner also describes ways he sought to save money by rooming with another man where they fixed their own food, and did their own laundry except for his "fine socks" which he gave to "Chinamen to wash, price $3 per doz." "Hutchings' California scenes. --- Methods of mining" (Baird, J.A. California's pictorial letter sheets, 1849-1869, 107; gray laid paper). 12 engraved vignettes of various mining procedures and equipment with explanatory text. A sidebar lists the names of mining localities. Pictorial engravings include miners at work and depictions of equipment including a Guyaskutus, a gold saving machine invented by Joseph Patterson. Four of the scenes are signed by noted California Gold Rush artist Charles Nahl and engraved by T.C. Boyd. At bottom of sheet: "Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1855 by James M. Hutchings, in the Clerk's office of the U.S. District Court for California. Address J F Larrabee. San Francisco. Printed by Hanna & Co."

4 p.

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