512 SACRAMENTO up from the Sacramento river, and distributed through the streets in pipes. The climate is semi-tropical, and a luxuriant growth of flow- ers and shrubs may be seen in the open air at all times of the year. The only important public building is the state capitol, one of the finest structures of the kind in the United States. It is situated almost in the heart of the city, and the grounds cover 18 blocks, beauti- fully laid out with trees, shrubs, and flowers. The Oregon division of the Central Pacific rail- road, which runs to Redding, 170 m. N., con- necting by stage coaches with the Oregon and California railroad for Portland, Or., brings to Sacramento a vast, amount of trade from N. California, embracing the best grain-growing section of the state. The Placerville and Sac- ramento Valley railroad, extending to Shingle Springs, El Dorado co., 48 m., brings immense quantities of bowlders and granite for the San Francisco market, and also of marble from the Indian Diggings quarries. This is the only marble of any consequence yet discovered on the Pacific coast; it is of fine quality, and is extensively used in San Francisco and Sacra- mento. Steamers run to San Francisco, Marys- ville, and various points on the Sacramento river. The chief manufactories are one of agricultural implements, one of carriages, one of brandy, one of beet sugar, two of chiccory, one of furniture, one of pails, tubs, and wash boards, several box factories and planing mills, smelting and refining works for the reduction of ores, a woollen mill, and three flouring mills. The machine, repair, and car shops, rolling mills, &c., of the Central Pacific railroad em- ploy from 1,000 to 1,500 hands. There are three banks incorporated under state law, com- bining a savings and commercial business, and a national gold bank. There are 19 public schools (1 high, 1 grammar, 5 intermediate, and 12 primary), a female college, and a normal school; a Roman Catholic college, under the charge of the Christian brothers ; a conventual school, under the charge of the sisters of mercy ; and a number of private schools. The state library in the capitol has more than 35,000 volumes, and the Sacramento library, in a fine building belonging to the association, about 7,000. The state agricultural society has ample accommodations for the exhibition of stock and one of the finest race courses in the world. It holds a fair annually about the middle of Sep- tember. Three daily, two semi-weekly (one German), and two weekly newspapers and a monthly periodical are published. There are 14 churches, viz. : Bap- tist (3), Christian, Con- gregational, Episcopal, German Lutheran, Lat- ter Day Saints', Metho- dist (8), Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Spiritualist. The first white settlement on the site of Sacramento was made in 1839 by J. A. Butter, a Swiss by birth, but a natu- ralized American citi- zen, who obtained a grant of 11 square leagues of land, in 1841 built a fort which he called New Helvetia, took the neighboring Indians into his ser- vice, collected a few white men, and, by vir- tue of his remote posi- tion and the number of his adherents, secured influence and impor- This fort was the first point in California reached by immigrants crossing the continent. In 1848 nearly all persons going to the mines went up the Sac- ramento river in boats to New Helvetia, and thence proceeded by land. With the increase of the mining population and the gold yield the trade and importance of New Helvetia kept pace, and in October, 1848, there was an auction sale of lots in the town of " Sac- ramento," which was first named in the ad- vertisement of the sale. In January, 1849, the first frame house on the bank of the Sacra- mento was commenced. The site of the city was originally only about 15 ft. above low- water mark, and as the river frequently rises 20 ft. it was subjected to overflow. In Janu- ary, 1850, in March, 1852, and in January, 1853, the city was flooded so that boats were used in tance in the territory.
