forma, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in almost every part of the country." The Californian gave practically the same amount of space to a local horse-race. The real news of the dis- covery of gold was made known through the columns of the papers published on the Atlantic Coast.
Among the newspapers which made a specialty of their special California editions were The Tribune and The Herald, of New York, The Journal and The Herald, of Boston, The Delta, of New Orleans, etc. These special editions, printed just before San Francisco boats sailed, were shipped to the Pacific Coast depots for the distribution of Atlantic papers where men, fre- quently in the employ of local express companies, relayed these papers in large baskets to the outlying mining camps. Miners were expected to throw a dollar into the basket in exchange for a newspaper, but if a man did not have "the dirt," he could still take a copy and pay for it later when he struck a " paying streak."
After gold had been discovered in California, many of the mining camps had what might be called a spoken newspaper. The man sent back for grub usually returned with an Eastern paper for which he had paid one to five dollars. Immediately upon his arrival he would mount a stump and then read the news to a group of miners and then the paper would be passed along to an adjoining camp, where it would again be read aloud: in this way did the California miner of the fifties get his news. Frequently these special California editions of the Atlantic papers were literally worn thumb-bare by frequent readings and handlings, for the greatest luxury in a mining camp was a late newspaper.
From the time that The Californian was founded at Monterey, on August 15, 1846, down to the completion of the transcon- tinental telegraph on October 24, 1861, three hundred and seventy-seven papers had been started in California. Many of these were printed at Marysville, Placerville, Sacramento, San Jose", Stockton, and Yerka, and the great majority, of course, at San Francisco. Of the daily papers located in San Francisco, mention may be made of The Daily Herald, started on June 1, 1850; The Evening Picayune, on Aug
