Can someone interpret this statement?

Question

It's mountains and plains and meadows and fields are so beautiful and rich for planting and sawing and rearing cattle of all kinds and for building towns and villages. The harbors on the coast and the number and size and whole someness of the rivers, most of them bearing gold surpass anything that would be believed by one who had not seen them.

Answer 1

It sounds like the author is looking out at some undeveloped land near the water and is envisioning what it can become. The references to cattle, towns, villages, and gold make it seem like this happened a while ago, perhaps around the gold rush in the mid 1800s.