It was late in the year before people in the East learned of the
discovery, for news still travelled slowly. But when it arrived, men of
every class--farmers, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, and even
ministers--started West.
The journey might be made in three ways. One was by sailing-vessels around
Cape Horn. This route took from five to seven months. Another way was to
sail from some Eastern port to the Isthmus of Panama, and crossing this,
to take ship to San Francisco. The third route was overland, from what is
now St. Joseph, Missouri, and required three or four months. This could
not be taken until spring, and some who were unwilling to wait started at
once by the water-routes.
Men were so eager to go that often several joined together to buy an
outfit of oxen, mules, wagons, and provisions. They made the journey in
covered wagons called "prairie-schooners," while their goods followed in
peddlers' carts. It often happened that out on the plains they missed
their way, for there was no travelled road, and a compass was as necessary
as if they had been on the ocean.
[Illustration: Placer-Mining in the days of the California Gold Rush.]
Journeying thus by day, and camping by night, they suffered many hardships
while on the way.
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