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Well-written and extremely legible letters from Stockton resident William C. Mosher to his cousins in the east. In the first letter, to his cousins Mr. & Mrs. D.F. Millard, Mosher, a clergyman, writes “…I have been located at Stockton since the 1st of April & preaching twice every Sabbath to the Presb. Congregation in this city… Stockton stands at the head of navigation in the San Joaquin river & steamers run every day from it to San Francisco. It contains about 5000 inhabitants & is destined to become the largest inland city in Cal. Its growth hitherto has been retarded by the penuriousness of one man, who has claimed eleven square leagues of land embracing the city… The atmosphere of Cala. Is the purest in the world, & the climate perfectly healthy for most constitutions… The plains become very parched & dry during the long summer, yet the dried grass, having no rain on it, makes excellent hay on which the cattle thrive & fatten… The soil is so very productive that enough could be raised on these plains to supply all the U.S. at a trifling cost… Most of the goods used in the southern mines are purchased in Stockton & carried on large wagons drawn by mules. From 6 to 10 mules are harnessed to each wagon. The mines continue to yield as richlyl as at any former period. Most of the miners are making from $4 to $12 per day. The Chinese continue to pour into the country by thousands, to the great disgust of the Americans. Several of the mining towns have driven them out by force of arms, & all the rest are threatening to do the same. The Chinese are composed of the lowest dregs of the Celestial Empire, & are sent out by speculators in China under the charge of overseers, who pay them about $8 per month. The overseers take charge of all the gold that is dug & send it to China. All the provisions & goods they consume are brought from China, so that while they drain Cala. of its treasure they leave nothing in return…” He continues with further descriptions of the bountiful nature of California. In the second letter, to his “good cousin Jennie,” Mosher provides further descriptions of Stockton (“The Sierra Nevada Mts. are seen on the East & the Coast Mts. on the west. A great many Mexicans live in Stockton. They make a livelihood by transporting provisions into those parts of the Mts. Where wagons cannot go. They pack them on the backs of mules…”), but most of the letter relates to the fabled Big Trees of California: “Three weeks ago, Rev. Wm. Speer, missionary to the Chinese in San Francisco made me a visit. He spent four years in China previous to coming & speaks the Chinese language fluently… Both of us being desirous of visiting the ‘Mammoth Trees’ in the Sierra Nevada Mts. 90 miles to the east of Stockton, we made a journey on horseback to visit them. The journey was accomplished in two days. We followed the stage road east passing through several mining towns such as San Andreas, Angels, Vallicita & Douglas Flats till we came to Murphy’s Camp… Our curiosity was...gratified with a sight of the ‘big trees.’ I will give you a short account of them. The whole number in the grove is 125, covering an area of about 50 acres. These trees belong to a species entirely new, no others of the same kind having been seen in the world. The leaf and shape of the limbs resemble the ‘arbor vitae’ but the bark is of a grey color. Names have been given to each individual tree, such as ‘Hercules,’ the ‘Beauty of the Forest,’ etc. The largest in the grove, called ‘Hercules’ is 340 feet height & 31 feet in diameter. One called the ‘Big Tree’ – though not the largest – has been cut down, & the bark sent to New York for exhibition. Its height was 307 feet & its diameter 26 feet across the stump. A round house has been built on the stump for parties who wish to dance. On the body of the tree a ten pin alley has been made. Five men were engaged 25 days in cutting the tree down, which was done with three inch augers by boring…” He tells of other trees, and then describes Sonora. This letter is unsigned but seems to be complete, concluding with “I was intending to give you an account of the Walley Indians whom we visited at one of their villages near Murphy’s Camp, but I will reserve that for another time.”