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Show 408 APPENDIX. about five parts in weight of gold to one of quartz, intimately blended, and both together bouldered, so as to form a handsome, rounded pebble, with a surface of about equal quartz and gold. A very large proportion of the gold, however, is obtained in small scales, by washing the earth which is dug upon the beds of the streams, or near their margin. A mass of the crude earth, as taken at random from a "placer,,, was tested by the director of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, and found to contain 264~ grains of gold, being in value a fraction over $10 to 10010. It cannot, however, be reasonably supposed that the average alluvial earth in the "placers,, is so highly auriferous. No existing law puts it in the power of the Executivp, to regulate these mines, or protect them from intrusion. I-I ence, in addition to our own citizens, thousands of all nations and languages flock in and gather gold, which they carry a"vay to enrich themselves, leaving the land so n1uch the le~s in value by what they have abstracted; and they render for it no remuneration, direct or indirect, to the Government or people of the United States. Our laws, so strict in the preservation of public property, that they punish our own citizens for cutting tin1ber on the 1)ublic lands, ought not to permit strangers who are not, and who never intend to become citizens, to enter at pleasure on these lands, and take from thern the gold which constitutes nearly all their value. Some legal provision is necessary for the protection and disposition of these mines; and it is a matter worthy of mucl1 consideration how they should be disposed of, so as best to promote the public interest, and encourage individual enterprise.'' In a mercantile point of view, the discoveries of quicksilver are scarcely less interesting than those of the precious metals. We are informed by this same authority, that- " The deposit of quicksilver known to exist in California is a sulphuret of mercury, or native cin- APPENDIX. 409 nabar. The stratutn of mineral, several feet in thickness, has been traced for a considerable distance along its line of strike. The specimens assayed at the Mint, range from 15·5 to 33·35 per cent. of metal; it is easy of access, and is mined and reduced without difficulty. So n1uch of the mine as has been traced is situated on a ranclW, to which the title is properly valid ; and since the United States took possession of the cour:try, an attempt has been m.ade to acquire title to the mine by denouncement. This.pro-ceedino · is for the reasons that I have already !tiven, in valid""-". 'I t therefore remains for Congress to ud eter-mine whether they will relinquish or assert the title of the United States to this mine.'' Frorn the news received up to the 31st of January, it appears that, owing to the interior. being flooded by the rnel tin o· of the snows of the Swrra Nevada and other m0u~tains, the numerous roads and ways of approach to the gold region had become nearly all impassable. The ~onsequence. was, that no gold came down · and what with the deficiency of supply, the continualj drai1~ of gold exported (chiefly to Chili, Sydney, and the Atlantic states), and the large sums e~pend~d in land speculations and in b~ilding, there e~Isted Ill San Francisco a general scarmty of money. wtthou~ a parallel in any commercial country. Tins scarcity was all but universal. There did not seem to be mo~e than sufficient money in the place to pay for the ordinary su1)plies of existence; and th~ fe~v who h~d money ~vere very na~uraJly, and' With JUSt r ~eason, reluctant to part with It. Great d1str~st prev~Iled. • The rates of interest were such as In England ap pears prepo.:::sterous. 'I,] 1e ol d r(l~l te o. f 10 per cent. a- uwntlt was beconu·n o- f:a s t ex1) I od ed '· 12.12 aud 15 p• er cont. per rnonth, on c-securz' t! I 0~I ' rea l es.t ate ' was oo ·ettm-g-. eomrnon; and 1 per cent. per day ~~~count on note~ ll d . thouo-h very few neo·ociatwns of the latter cwlaass sa woewree ta' lu.n g op lace, mone3r _] en ders requir. indg th - .security of real property of the most. ampl~ kin · VOL. II. |