28 pages written on, plus many additional unused pages. Primarily pencil, occasionally in ink. 5¼x3½, cloth-backed boards.

Diary from the landmark year of 1849, recording various business transactions and other details of life in the mining communities of the Gold Country. The entries, kept sporadically with most undated, begin about April 21, 1849, and continue through the end of July of the same year. The small accounting and appointment book was kept by a supplier engaged in the lumber trade and related activities in the San Francisco and Sutterville areas. He mentions dealings with a number of influential individuals who came to California prionr to the gold rush, including Robert King (arrived in Monterey around 1834); William Blackburn (came with the Swasey-Todd party); Thomas Kittleman; Wright & Owen, liquor dealers in San Francisco, etc. The favorite form of tender in these early days of the gold rush was gold dust, as indicated by several of the entries: "Recd. from McDavis for 1088 feet of lumber in dust, 375.00." The diary is kept in Leroux's English Almanack for 1848, published in Mexico City, which should have a map, not present.