or one third its cost, for paper making, while hempen and manilla junk is scarcely worth its transportation. Cotton, unlike hemp and manilla, has no affinity for mois ture or water; it does not readily absorb it, and when strongly impregnated with its natural oil, resists the action of moisture for a long time. A rope made by the newly invented machine is so compactly laid that wet does not penetrate beyond its surface, and a large rope may remain a long time in the water, without its interior portions being wet, and therefore it can be used a long time without the body of the rope being injured by water. This is one reason of its durability. For the same reason it does not shrink and swell like hempen and other rope, is more pliable, lighter, and easier handled. Made by the new process it stretches no more, if as much, as other rope, and it requires no paint or tar to protect it from the weather; a mildew may cover its surface and blacken it, but it does not penetrate the body of the rope. Not. long since, we saw a cotton rope that had sustained a heavy platform in the open weather for two years, which, when cut, showed the body of the rope to be as bright in color and as strong as when first put together.

The power of cotton, compared with hemp, to resist the action of wet, is illustrated by putting water into a bale of each article. In cotton it will not diffuse itself, except by very slow degrees, and it generates no heat, and very slow decomposition. In hemp it diffuses itself rapidly, and soon produces spontaneous heat and rapid decomposition. These qualities of cotton render it, as experience proves, the most valuable material for cordage. A large manufacturer of cordage in New York, writing on the subject, says “the days of manilla rope will be numbered as soon as qualities of cotton cordage are known." He estimates the durability of cotton cordage to be twice that of other cordage.

On our western rivers where the sandy and muddy waters wear and rot hemp and manilla cordage so rapidly, and especially in our southern river navigation where the muddy and tepid waters of the streams destroy in a few weeks the best hempen lines, cotton rope will be peculiarly adapted. Its resistance of the effect of wet, and the atmosphere, and its close texture, which prevent the mud and sand penetrating it, will preserve it longer from decay than any other rope. Its lightness and flexibility will give it a decided preference among steamboatmen and flatboatmen, for the long check lines with which their boats are landed, and which constitute the principal cordage they use. A large cotton line will float on the surface, and may be easily run from a floating boat to the shore without difficulty, while a heavy hemp or manilla rope sinks, is swept by the force of the current from the control of the men running it from the boat, at any distance, to the shore. This is one of the chief dangers of flatboatmen, and this fact alone will commend cotton cordage to their favor.

As it is peculiarly fitted for our river navigation, New Orleans must become a large market for the sale of cotton cordage. And as we have vast quantities of loose cotton, gathered from the presses, pickeries and from factor's samples, and as a great deal arrives here wet, stained, and in a condition unfit for shipment, which would do for immediate use, but which is sold at low prices compared with the same staples in shipping order, the stock out of which to make the rope could be obtained here cheaper than at any other point in the world. The machinery requires no great intelligence or skill in its management; it does its own work complete without much aid from human bands or minds. Twenty-five girls, thirty boys, and ten men--who can be taught their duties in a week-constitutes all the manual labor required for a factory that will produce five tons of heavy cordage per day. All these facts seem to adapt it peculiarly as a business for this locality. The plan and objects of the machinery we have referred to, is altogether different from those recently set in operation in Lafayette, and now unfortunately destroyed, and their patent rights and products would in no way, we are told, conflict with each other. If any gentleman feels sufficient interest in this matter to desire further information in relation to it, by writing a note to the editors of this paper, he can have further details.

It is a matter of deep interest to cotton planters-for if the predictions of those who have tried the thing, be fulfilled, the extent of our present marine and navy would consume 800,000 bales of cotton annually, it is estimated, to supply it with cordage. An increased demand and consumption of cotton to that extent, would preserve and increase the price of cotton land, and its products to an incalculable amount. To aid and hasten its introduction, it would be policy for the South to furnish a full supply, even if she did it at prime cost, or at loss in manufacturing. But this is unnecessary, for if cotton does not rise above ten cents a pound for middlings, cotton cordage can undersell all other cordage in the market, and yield a large profit to the manufacturer.

COTTON MANUFACTORY IN THE SOUTH AND WEST.

The Louisville papers state that the success of the extensive cotton manufacturing establishment of H. D. Newcomb & Brother, of Louisville, at Cannelton, Ky., during the last year, has been unprecedented in the history of modern manufactures. Their mammoth mill now in operation at that place, turns off a daily production of goods, such as the very best domestic fabrics in market, equal to 15,252 yards.

The Columbus (Geo.) Inquirer, in noticing the first shipment of cotton yarn to New York by the "Southern Rights Manufacturing Company," of Monticello, says:

"Some of our Columbus Factories have been in the habit of sending pretty large orders to New York and Philadelphia for more than twelve months past, which goes to prove that we are no ways behind the rest of the world, either in the facility for furnishing goods of superior quality, or at rates as favorable to the large purchaser as those at which he can buy the same goods nearer his own door. And the cream of the circumstance does not stop here, judging from a single transaction that occurred during the summer of 1853. A bale of goods manufactured in this city was sent to Philadelphia and sold. The next steamer from that city brought back the identical bale, which had been purchased by a merchant from the interior of Georgia, and who, on being told the cloth was made in Columbus, remarked, he thought it was the cheapest and best piece of goods of the kind that he had purchased for many years." Up to the 1st September last, there had been shipped from Wakulla, Florida, 801 bales cotton yarn, valued at $9,050, all of which was manufactured at the Madison Factory, owned by Capt. N. P. Willard. Since then there has been shipped 534 bales, valued at $16,020. Of these 456 bales were manufactured at the Madison Factory, and 78 bales at the Monticello Factory. A small lot, manufactured at Madison, has been shipped from Cedar Keys. The yarns from these mills are now sold in most of the stores of Middle Florida, and the adjoining counties of Georgia.

The Monticello Factory (says the Wakulla Times) has been for some weeks manufacturing cotton cloth of a good quality.

STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

The following table from the last published report of the Patent Office, exhibits the progress of that establishment for the twelve years commencing in 1841 and ending in 1842 inclusive:

TABLE EXHIBITING THE BUSINESS OF THE PATENT OFFICE FOR TWELVE YEARS ENDING

In the concluding lecture of Prof. Smith at the Smithsonian Institution, the lecturer dwelt upon the tendency of iron to undergo a change from a fibrous to a granular condition, thus causing the abstraction of an indefinite amount of its tenacity and strength. Fibrous iron, by being for a considerable time subjected to concussion, will become granular, and therefore weak. A knowledge of this principle has induced the French government to disallow the use of iron axles on their public diligences beyond a certain time-they must then be removed. Iron cannon, originally very strong, become weaker and weaker by use, from the loosening of the texture of their substance.

A HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

BY GEORGE M. EVANS.

1st. In a volume of a work published in Spain in 1690, by one Lyola Cavello or Cabello, (a Padre of the Church of Rome, officiating at the time at the Mission of San Jose, Bay of San Francisco, which was built in 1672,) and called "Recordado en Historia el California Alta," he states that on some streams to the north gold was seen, but it was only in small quantities on the "Placeros."

2d. In the year 1842, James D. Dana, A. M., in his system of minerology, page 552, (first edition,) says:—“The gold rocks and veins of quartz were observed by the author in 1842, near the Umpqua River in Southern Oregon, and pebbles from similar rocks were met with along the shores of the Sacramento, in California, and the resemblance to other gold districts was remarked, but there was no opportunity of exploring the country at the time." Again, on pages 251-2, describing the localities in which gold has been found, he says:-" In the Rocky Mountains near Salt Lake, in California between the Sierra Nevada and Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers." He also says:"The California mines are mostly alluvial; the gold is found in the gravel and sands of the valleys and beds of streams leading from the Sierra Nevada into the adjoining valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin."

3d. During the month of October or November, 1845, in a house or groggery on Pacific street, San Francisco, (as it is now called,) a Mexican who was called "Salvador" was shot because he had a bag of gold dust, described as about 1,000 to 1,200 dollars, and would not tell where he got it. At last, when dying, he pointed in the direction of San Jose Mountains and said, "lejos, lejos," (beyond, beyond.)

4th. On the 16th of September, 1846, a party, mostly Mormons, went up the San Joaquin, partly to join Lieut. Gillespie's party of U. S. marines and volunteers, in search of warlike Indians, and principally to form a settlement at the junction of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers. On returning this party stopped to cook dinner on the sand point (S. E. by E. point) of the small island opposite to what is called the entrance to Stockton, then called Lindsey's Lake. After dinner, one George M. Evans and John Sirrene, now in New York city, commenced to pick yellow specks out of the bank, done them up in paper, took them to San Francisco, (then Yerba Buena,) tested them with acids, and found that it was gold, but not having any idea of the gold being in such quantity as was afterwards proved, put the specimens by, and afterwards part, with other minerals, was sent to Peale's Museum as a present. The reason of my looking for minerals was in consequence of Salvador's death.

5th. The following August (1847,) Major Reading and T. W. Perkins and myself went South from San Francisco, and being in search of Asbestos, we explored the mountains near San Diego and near the river Gila, where we found gold more abundantly than has since been found on the North Fork of the American. This is the same place from whence the present excitement of " New Discoveries of Gold in California" has arisen. We could do nothing in consequence of the Indians being hostile in the neighborhood. The Major lost the chief use of his left arm-while I have yet the marks on my right arm of arrow wounds received at the time. To prove the truth of this assertion, persons in this town can prove that 14 months since, April, 1853, I told of that same place.

6th. When the Mormon battalion was disbanded in 1847, a number of the Mormons came to San Francisco, and amongst them was one Henderson Cox and one Beardsley, who boarded in the same house with me. They having worked in the Georgia mines, told me, in conversation on the subject, that as they were about prospecting for a road (since called the Mormon Pass) for the Mormons to return to Salt Lake, and in so doing, would prospect the streams in their route, (this was in the end of August or first of September, 1847.) I then described the death of Salvador and where I found the gold, and gave them a chart of the country from memory. In the following January I returned to San Francisco from the journey above referred to, when I received an invitation to go to Mormon Island, so named afterwards by Henderson Cox. On the 19th January, 1848, I went there, and with the bounty they gave me, and what I worked out myself, I had $19,000 on the 8th February, 1848. 7tb. On the 9th of February, I, with Henderson Cox, Beardsley, Beers, two Shepards, and a number more were in the lower end of the mill-race, when Marshall, the overseer, and his little girl came in, and the child picked up a pretty stone as she called it, and showed it to her father, who pronounced it gold. He was so excited about it that he saddled his horse and that day rode to Sutter's Fort to tell Captain

Sutter-but he did not believe it worth notice, and for a while the idea died away. The Mormons wishing to keep their discoveries a secret from people not Mormons, worked out the gold and said nothing more.

8th. On the 1st April, 1848, the first mail from San Francisco to Salt Lake was started, and a number of the "California Star" was printed purposely for that mail, containing a special article written by Dr. Fourgend and myself, concerning the minerals and metals of California, and among other mentioned metals was gold-but as the printer and publishers were Mormons, the full facts were not stated.

It was not until the 12th of May, 1848, that the existence of gold in quantity in California was publicly made known in San Francisco by Samuel Brannan, High Bishop of the Mormons, and of Vigilance Committee notoriety.

Beardsley and Henderson Cox were killed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in September, 1848.

Marshall died either four days before he arrived home in the Eastern States with a barrel of gold, or four days from the coast.

To enable persons to test quartz rock who are not mineralogists, I subjoin the rule laid down by James D. Dana, in his "System of Mineralogy." He says: "It is a simple process. The rock is first pounded up fine, and sifting a quantity of the sand so obtained, is washed in a shallow iron or tin pan, and as the gold sinks the material above is allowed to pass off into some receptacle. The gold is thus left in the angle of the pan by a repetition of the process; a further portion is obtained, and when all the gold has sunk and the sand reduced to a manageable quantity, the gold is amalgamated with clean mercury, (quicksilver) the amalgam is next strained to separate any excess of mercury, and finally is heated and the mercury expelled, leaving the gold."

MANUFACTURE OF MINERAL CANDLES.

There is a quarry of white sandstone about twelve miles to the west of Edinburgh, upon which rests a thick bed of dark-colored shale, over which the hot trap must have once flowed, and thereby was subjected to a sort of natural distillation. This found its way into the crevices of the white stone below where it is now found. It is a light waxy substance, varying from the color of gamboge to that of dark amber, melts at the same temperature as beeswax, which it equals in hardness, and burns with a bright flame. This substance was molded into candles, which, though rather smoky, answered well enough for cottagers for a long time, and would have rested there had not some one, without taking any hint from this natural phenomenon, however, thought of distilling shale. Some of the shales of the oolite are very rich in inflammable matter, and yield in the retort, oils, napthas, and a waxy substance known as parafine. Of this candles are made equal to wax, and extensive works have been recently erected in England and Scotland for their manufacture. What is more wonderful is, these snow-white candles can be made of dark Irish turf, and works are in progress to convert the black bogs of Kildare into parafine candles.

THE COAL-FIELDS OF THE WORLD.

From an interesting selected article, published in the Practical Mechanics' Journal, we condense a brief account of the coal fields of the world. Great Britain occupies the first rank both in the quantity and quality of her coal production. The amount which she yearly produces is 32,000,000 tons; Belgium comes next with 5,000,000 tons; the United Stats produces nearly the same quantity; France 4,200,000; Prussia 3,500,000; and Austria about 700,000 tons.

Belgium, the second coal producing country on the globe, is traversed in an E. N. E. direction by a large zone of bituminous coal formation, from which she derives her supply. This zone occupies an extent of 331,392 acres, or about one twenty-second part of her whole area. France produces coal from fifty-six of her eighty-six departments. This yield is divided among eighty-eight coal basins, and comprises both the bituminous and non-bituminous varieties. Her production, which is now 4,200,000 tons, was at the commencment of the French Revolution but 240,000 tons, the greater part of which came from two coal fields. The general quality of her coal is inferior to that of the British. Coal is daily getting into greater favor with the French, and it may reasonably be expected that with increased demand and the growing facilities of railway transport, it will be reduced so much in price that it may be employed in gas

establishments without the necessity of receiving aid from abroad. The national steam marine of France even now derives its coal from Great Britain.

Many of the provinces of Prussia are rich in coal basins similar to those in England. Peat, however, is in extensive use in Prussia, Bavaria, and Wirtemberg. At Berlin and its environs it is employed in almost all the workshops, and on account of its application to the production of gas, its consumption is regularly increasing. Austria possesses extensive coal beds, but the working of them has not yet been carried on to any great extent, there being a plentiful supply of wood, and at low prices.

The United States yield bituminous and anthracite coal in abundance. She is young and vigorous. She possesses railways and ships to aid in developing her mineral resources, and doubtless in a few years more her coal production will be only exceeded by that of England. The following is a list of her principal coal fields :—

The above table gives an aggregate area in 12 States of nearly 565,283 square miles, of which 133,132 miles, or nearly one-fourth, is composed of coal beds. After making all due allowances for such coal beds as would never be reached by the miner, we have left an enormous yielding area.

Canada contains no workable beds of coal, but Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland are said to be rich in the article.

Most of the minor countries in Europe yield coal. In Russia, on the northern shore of the Black Sea, bituminous coal (brown) has been found in abundance. The richest Russian coal field is on the shores of the Sea of Azof, between the Dnieper and Donetz Rivers; it is said to be equal in quality to the best English, and may be delivered at a port on the Dnieper or Don Rivers for about 4s. or 5s. per ton. Little is known of the carboniferous system of Northern Russia. St. Petersburg is lighted with gas produced from English coal.

Coal beds are found in Egypt and various parts of Africa and Asia. China will doubtless become, ere long, a coal producing country.

THE FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA GOLD MINES.

Dr. John B. Trask has completed his geological examination of the Sierra Nevada and coast mountains, carried on under the authority of the California Legislature. He reports very favorably on the agricultural and mineral resources of that State. Dr. Trask comments with some severity on the opinions of scientific men, both at home and abroad, who have been haranguing popular assemblies on the utter impossibility of the auriferous veins of this country proving to be more than a mere ephemeral show, and unworthy the confidence of reflecting minds. These unfavorable opinions, the Doctor asserts, are now proved to be unfounded, from subsequent explorations conducted on these veins, and notwithstanding the disadvantages of manufactured public opinion against which this branch of industry has been obliged to contend, it has now become one of the permanent employments of the State, and will obtain a position second to none within the next two years. He says: "The permanency of the character of these mines would scarcely have been demonstrated in so short a period of time in any other country or State except California, and is in true keeping with the firmness of purpose manifested in every great undertaking by the citizens of that State, and is but another mark of that indomitable perseverance in overcoming difficulties, for which they have become peculiarly characterized and proverbial."