It is of course impossible for us to give a correct estimate of the losses sustained, but we have heard it variously estimated as from $150,000 to $200,000.
Other destructive fires occurred at Marysville, Sonora, Stockton, San Diego and in the agricultural districts, an immense amount of property being destroyed. In the cities, the damage was repaired, with an astonishing rapidity, but some individuals were utterly ruined--the results of years of labor being swept away in a single night. The cities of California are now generally supplied with fire engines and hook and ladder companies. But these machines are not always available.
The mining news contained in California papers of November, 1852, is very interesting.
A letter dated Nevada, Oct. 24, says that the continued dry weather has given unusual opportunities and facilities to miners now working in the river channels. At the best these operations are very precarious in their nature--necessarily attended with a vast outlay, and frequently, where the most sanguine hopes were entertained, the results have been most unfortunate. The time for working in the rivers is usually confined to a very limited period, the water being seldom or never sufficiently low to work to advantage earlier than September; it follows, therefore, that every additional week of dry weather is of the utmost value to such as are thus engaged. Luckily for them, the present dry season has been unusually protracted, consequent upon which, the rivers are at an exceedingly low stage, and the success of the miner proportionate to this advantage. On the other hand, those interested in ravine and hill mining (by far the greater proportion of the miners,) are anxiously awaiting the wet season for a supply of water--without which, all their labor is fruitless.
The Bear River and Auburn Water Company's canal is so far completed as to be available to the miners by the first rains, notwithstanding the great expense and time attending its construction, arising from a want of experience, and so far beyond the calculations of its projectors. This work traverses an extensive and rich mining country, totally dependent upon the canal for water, which cannot be exhausted for many years.