47 pp., with an additional 10 pages extracted by Ms. Rice from a diary kept from 1816-1818, apparently by a relative; plus blank leaves. 12.5x8 cm (5x3¼"), wallet-style leather.
Interesting account by a woman (apparently, judging by people she met and letters she records being received) who spent two years in California, along the Calaveras River and adjacent areas. She makes many observations about the weather, agriculture, fear of drought, and her life in general. It begins "Arrived in California June 28, 1868 - at Douglass Ranche, 25th do." "Dec. 18th... Rain began at 10 AM and continued 12 hours, sufficient to raise the Calaveras River some 18 or 20 inches... Previous to Dec. 18th Californians began to be frightened, for the want of rain, fearing a drought and consequent scarcity of food for man & beast, as in the year 64, when thousands of cattle died for lack of grass and water and food for men was at famine prices..." In May, 1869, "Went to Sonora, Tuolumne Co. on the 24th, returned on the 26th. Extensive mining grounds about Sonora, Shaw's Flat, Columbia, Springfield, Nettletown, &c., at Copperopolis, mines of copper..." On Feb. 23, 1870, "rained all afternoon & some in the night, so that the entire valley of the Calaveras was overflowed; said to be higher than ever before. Broke through the levee, at the same place as last year, & flooded yard and garden." In May 1870 Ms. Rice writes of "the finest private house in Sacramento, built and occupied by Mr. Crocker, with 'Uncle Sam's' money, he being one of the proprietors of the Central P.R.R., the house and grounds said to have cost $150,000, then went to the new State Capitol, not yet finished but already costing 1,500,000 dollars and will probably require $500,000 more to complete it..." A brief but well-written and revealing record of two years in California.