CALIFORNIA AS I SAW IT: Pencillings by the Way of its Gold and Gold Diggers! and Incidents of Travel by Land and Water, With Five Letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox, Edited by Dale L. Morgan

Los Gatos, California: The Talisman Press, 1960. Hardcover. Near fine. Limited to 750 copies designed and printed by Robert Greenwood and Newton Baird. Signed by editor Dale L. Morgan on the half-title. "Dr. William M'Collum left Lockport, New York, as a member of a California company on January 28, 1849. In New York City, he boarded the steamer Crescent City on February 5 and headed for the Isthmus of Panama. After an adventurous crossing and stay in Panama City, M'Collum boarded the Niantic and arrived in San Francisco on July 5, 1849. From there, the physician traveled to Stockton and the Southern Mines. The good doctor soon discovered that mining for gold was too strenuous ... Thereafter, he went back to San Francisco and survived by practicing the healing arts. He journeyed to Sacramento and the Northern Mines and again tried mining. After a short stay in San Francisco, he headed home via the Isthmus of Panama. The doctor's adventure ended on February 15, 1850. In the final portion of the book, he expressed his negative feelings about California; offered advice to would-be miners; and reprinted the recollections of Lyman Bradley on San Francisco and Major E.W. Cook on the mineral region." Octavo: 219 p. with textual illustrations. Original printed paper-covered boards over a red cloth spine, with a printed paper spine label. The spine label is a touch tanned; else near fine, housed in the publisher's slipcase. Kurutz 417b.