GOLD RUSH: The Journals, Drawings and Other Papers of J. Goldsborough Bruff

Five years ago Columbia University Press published Bruff's complete diaries and some other material in a two volume edition which we reported in January, 1944. Now, with the exclusion of some of the earlier diaries, with abbreviated critical notes and comments, with some new data on persons and routes, this California Centennial one-volume edition is being published. Probably the Bruff papers are as valuable first hand source material as there is on the traversing of the Continent, following the golden lure. Bruff was crowding 45; he hoped for gold, but had determined to keep a meticulous and scientific record, in line with his professional background as a topographer. He was leader of the group from St. Joseph to within 35 miles of the upper Sacramento, where he yielded the leadership and settled in to guard the Company property on Barclay Mountain through the grim winter of '49-50. ""This part contains some of the best narrative in the diaries. He sensed the drama and the sweep of the great migration, and his knowledge informs the journals throughout. For the grim, lively, tragic and amusing human stories, for the full flavor of the man himself, the reader must go to his own vigorous record. He was one of the great Forty Niners.