The Gazette Davenport, Scott, Iowa Sep 12, 1850 Alfred Sanders, Editor LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA A friend has furnished us with a letter from Dr. C.C. Parry, of this place, dated in July at San Diego, California, from which we make the following extract:- My dear Friend: - A quiet Saturday evening, how could I spend it better than writing to you? You see according to my last I have brought up again in the old place, the same dry brown hills I saw when first landed; the same delightful climate; the same dull society. By the way San Diego has got antiquated since I left, two "new San Diegos" have sprung up within 3 miles of "old San Diego," as it is now called. Speculation has been here with her transforming wand and found out that the town has been put in the wrong place. But all towns old and new in this region are pretty much alike to me who care more for the weeds that grow about their streets, than town lots!! Finding on my return every thing in the vegetable line done brown, and longing to see something green besides human verdancy, I persuaded Maj. Emory to send me on a trip to the mountains, from which I returned some weeks since having had a most interesting time-being boss of the expedition which numbered two persons, armed only with the necessaries of bed and board. I struck directly into the heart of the mountains, two days brought me to the divide, here I stumbled upon the ranch of an old deserted sailor, well acquainted with the mountain passes, and under his guidance I searched many an old nook and vale, culling unnamed flowers, eating strange fruits, and sleeping with strange bedfellows. The Indians were quite friendly, and even hospitable, they fed us with pounded acorn bread and grass seed mush. We cracked pine nuts around their social hearths, and puffed the true Virginia under their bush wigwams. I found many strange trees, the pines were the most interesting.; imagine a stately tree with burrs more than a foot long hanging like overgrown caterpillars from the extremities of their spreading branches; or others with fruit like a large pineapple stock on their upper trunks; others covered with sparkling yellow lichen and all waiving their broad arms to the deep surges of the western breeze. One of the most singular things I noticed was to see trunks of trees stuck full of fresh acorns the work of industrious woodpeckers. They are driven in so tight that they are picked out with difficulty with the point of a knife-this looks like a new instinct of birds, but a wise provision where snows cover the ground-the Indians frequently avail themselves of the work of these little creatures to replenish their own larder. Having pretty well explored the ridge, we descended on its eastern slope to the edge of the desert, here I was fortunate enough to fall in with several vegetable curiosities- one a new Cactus, with deliciously flavored fruit. A species of the Century plant grows about the desert hills, at this time in full flower, its root furnishes a staple article of diet to the Indians of that inhospitable region, by a process of cooking, under the name of Mezcal, it affords quite a dainty dish. I can compare it to nothing but molasses candy without its stickiness. Some of the lone canons present a scene of strange desolation. I should not know how to picture them, bristling with huge Cacti and scattered with dislocated rocks, run over by dusty lizards, they present a scene that belongs more properly to the pencil than to the pen, so I forbear. We washed for gold in the dried up stream beds, and scraped over the gravel for precious gems, but without finding enough of either to make a finger ring or a nose jewel, and so forbore; content to say that the country ought to afford both gems and gold, for what else can it? Returning home I explored a new and more direct route than I have yet travelled, leading in two days short journey to the vicinity of San Diego. We here found a ranch (as the Californian farms are termed) enlivened by the presence of some ladies and were easily persuaded to partake of their hospitality for a day. Our Spanish was called into serious request and before the flashing eyes of the Senoritas we had to extemporize some strange sounding compliments no doubt. A description of an old fashioned ranch in California might interest you, so here goes. A mud house with a rush roof must be your dwelling in this a few rooms partitioned off with muslin or calico, the corners occupied with stick bed steads, and rude benches make up the furniture. The kitchen part is distinct, and under the auspices of Indian women, black as their own pots. You see conspicuous the stone corn grinder and tortilla baker-earthen pots and in strange contrast genuine China ware deck the rough table and you sit down to 5 or 6 courses in which you will find assistance to your appetite in a liberal allowance of red pepper seasoning. But in the out door operations- you see ragged and nearly naked Indians under the true title of peons performing all the menial work about the premises. The overseer superintends on horseback. Is there a field of grain to be cut, some 40 Indians armed with knife and basket cut a wide swath proceeding onward to the music of a grunting chant; the grain is deposited in ox hid carts and conveyed to the threshing ground, this is a circular enclosure, the ground cleanly swept and when strewed with the grained ears a drove of wild mares are driven in and by shout and hallos, a great scamper is kept up till the grain is pretty well beat out, it is then winnowed in baskets by hand, and this is harvesting in California. A very important part of farming is in the distribution of the irrigating water and occupies many hands-then the cattle must be seen to and this is generally entrusted to a distinct class called vaqueros, you see them galloping over the fields trailing their long lassos, their monstrous spurs and streaming blankets making quite a figure-but I am using up my paper and must speak of other things. MORTALITY IN CHICAGO According to an official report, the deaths by cholera in Chicago, from the 23d of June, when the epidemic first commenced, to the 1st of September, amounted to 441. The total mortality for the same period was 625, a fraction over 9 a day. Cathy Joynt Labath Scott Co, IA USGenWeb Project http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm