The winter found the miners with very
little preparation, but most of them were accustomed to a rough manner
of life in the Western wilds, and they considered their large profits an
abundant compensation for their privations and hardships. The weather
was so mild in December and January that they could work almost as well
as in the summer, and the rain gave them facilities for washing such as
they could not have in the dry season.
In September, 1848, the first rumors of the gold discovery began to
reach New York; in October they attracted attention; in November people
looked with interest for new reports; in December the news gained
general credence and a great excitement arose. Preparations were made
for a migration to California by somebody in nearly every town in the
United States. The great body of the emigrants went either across the
plains with ox or mule teams or round Cape Horn in sailing-vessels. A
few took passage in the steamer by way of Panama.
Not fewer than one hundred thousand men, representing in their nativity
every State in the Union, went to California that year.
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