GEORGE W. WRIGHT.
Among the successful adventurers into California, Mr. Wright holds a prominent place. He was born in Massachusetts in 1816, where he received a business education, and commenced life with no capital beyond his own enterprise and sagacity. Through these he won his way to a partnership in a large commercial house, extensively engaged in the whaling service and its correlative branches of trade. Without disturbing these relations, he determined to push his adventures into California, where he arrived soon after the discovery of the placers, and engaged in the commerce of the country. Success and a rapid accumulation of capital attended his efforts. A large banking-house at San Francisco was proposed, and he became the leading partner. This house has withstood all the shocks which have carried ruin to many others, and maintained its credit unshaken. At the adoption of the constitution, two members of Congress were to be chosen, and Mr. Wright was elected to this honorable position. This token of confidence and regard was the more to be appreciated, as it resulted from no constrained party organization, but the decided preference of the citizens, expressed at the ballot-box.
Mr. Wright was the first to collect specimens of the gold-bearing quartz. He traversed the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada for this purpose, and underwent many hardships and perils. He was often for days on the very shortest allowance, and obliged to share even this with his famished mule. The quartz frequently seam the loftiest ridges, and can be reached only through the most exhausting fatigue. None but those of iron muscles can scale the soaring steep, or dislodge, with steady hand and head, the treasured vein in the giddy verge. Against these obstacles Mr. Wright persevered, and gathered a great variety of specimens, curious in themselves and often rich, but valued mainly as indications of the wealth of the quartz, and as leading-clues to their localities. They will serve to stimulate the exertions and guide the footsteps of the subsequent miner. They are not stowed away as secrets for the exclusive benefit of the discoverer: the information they impart is free to all. The only danger lies in conclusions too glowing for the reality, and those hasty adventures in which anticipation overleaps the laborious process. The specimens are genuine, and have been pronounced at the mint the richest that have been tested. The extent to which the gold-bearing quartz prevails can be thoroughly known only in the results of mining operations. It has been found in different localities between Feather river and the Mariposa; and if it approaches in value the most ordinary specimens gathered by Mr. Wright and myself, will munificently reward the labors of the miner, and will upset all geological deductions connected with gold-bearing quartz in other countries.