JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

THE MINING DISTRICTS OF CALIFORNIA.

According to the Alta California, the great body of the gold mines now wrought in California lies at the eastern rim of the Sacramento basin, extending from the Mariposa to the Feather river, and embracing a district a degree and a half in width, commencing about twenty miles of the general course of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, and reaching high into the mountains. This tract of land, about 180 miles long from northwest to southeast, and 60 miles wide, contains, so far as is known, about four-fifths of the mining wealth of the State, and has produced at least four-fifths of the gold exported heretofore. It is one continuous field, intersected by the Merced, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mokelumne, Cosumnes, American, Bear, and Yuba rivers, which run nearly west in general course, and are on an average 20 miles apart.

The whole country in this district is impregnated with gold, and the miner may be almost certain of finding particles of gold in every square yard of ground where he will take the trouble to examine closely. The gravel bars, the sand and clay banks of the rivers, and the bottoms of the ravines, furnish the greater portions of the gold, but rich diggings are frequently found on the extensive flats, on the mountain sides, in the depths of the hills, and in quarry.

This whole district may be said to have been opened in 1848. The first gold was discovered in February, 1848, in the center of the district where Coloma now is; and before the end of the year, miners had sought and discovered the precious metal, from the Merced to the Yuba. All the quarry mines wrought in the State at the present time are in this district, and are principally in the vicinity of Mariposa, in Mariposa county; Sonoma, in Tuolumne county; Amador and Campo Seco, in Calaveras county; Ophir, in Placer county; and Nevada and Grass Valley, in Nevada county. These quartz mines are nearly in a line, about thirty miles east of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.

The gold field next in importance is in the Klamath Valley, on the Klamath, Shasta, Scott, and Trinity rivers. The first mining in this district was done on the Trinity in the spring of 1849; and the hext year gold was discovered on the Scott River and the Shasta. A great portion of the Klamath Valley is but little known, on account of the distance from the centers of trade, the mountainous character of the country, and the hostility of the Indians. The Klamath Valley will have produced probably one-tenth of the gold exported this year.

The third important mining district is that of the Upper Sacramento, including the diggings on Con Creek and Pitt River on the east, and Cottonwood and Clear creeks on the west of Sacramento, and yields about one-tenth of the entire gold produce of the State. The most productive diggings in this district are in the vicinity of Shasta City, One-horse Town, Olney's Creek, and French Gulch; and their vicinity contains the only profitable gold mines yet found on the western rim of the Sacramento basin, The diggings near Shasta City were opened in the Spring of 1848; those on Cottonwood and Clear creeks in 1850.

These three districts comprise all the profitable mines now wrought in California, except a small tract on Smith's River, near the Oregon line.

Diggings have been discovered and opened, but found unprofitable and deserted, on Russian River, in Sonoma county; on Eel River, in Mendocino county; on San Lorenzo Creek, in Santa Cruz county; at Santa Anita, in Los Angeles county; and on the beach at Gold Bluff, in Klamath county.

GOLD, AND OTHER MINERALS OF CANADA.

The Toronto Leader gives the following statement, based upon the report of Mr. Logan, the geologist, of mineral resources of Canada :

If Canada produces no coal, it has an abundance of the precious metals, and especially gold. Of this fact there is no sort of doubt. At the present moment perhaps no greater calamity could befal the Province than the visitation of the gold fever

Nevertheless, the infection is here; and however much the fever may disturb the labor market, already submitted to very violent action, there is no reason to fear that the passion for hunting gold upon the surface and within the bowels of the earth will become as great here as it is in California and Australia. Mr. Logan showed me some ten pounds weight of pure gold, picked from the surface on the River du Loup, some sixty-five miles southeast of Quebec. The only alloy it contains is from eleven to thirteen per cent of silver. It is therefore found in far too pure a state to be used in the arts, or coined without being alloyed with copper to make it of sufficient hardness. Of the gold in Mr. Logan's possession-which is not his property, however-eight pounds' weight was in a bottle. The pieces were of various sizes, some of them very small, and many of them as large as an English horse-bean. But in addition to this bottle of gold, there were several nuggets in a box, one of them weighing over half a pound. It is all surface gold that is in Mr. Logan's possession, having been picked up without the aid of any scientific process. Gold-bearing quartz, however, exists in abundance; but it is Mr. Logan's opinion, that, with unskilled labor, our gold fields cannot be rendered profitable. Mr Logan has already stated in one of his public reports, that the gold country of Lower Canada extends over three thousand square miles.

He has since discovered, and will state in his next annual report, that it extends over ten thousand square miles. It is proper to state that the ten pounds' weight of gold in the custody of Mr. Logan, cost as much if not more to obtain it than it is worth. Associated with the gold is found iridium, or white metal, nearly as hard as diamond, used for the points of gold pens. It exists, however, in very insignificant quantities. A rumor has been in circulation that Mr. Logan had some pecuniary interest in our gold regions. Discrediting the statement, I mentioned it to him, and was informed that he had not a farthing's interest in any metal or mine in the country.

In the geological collection are some excellent specimens of slate found in the Eastern Townships. A specimen of French slate, which has been a century in use on the roof of a building, is also in the collection. It is now as good as the day it was first dug out of the bowels of the earth. An analysis of the two kinds shows their composition to be nearly identical.

There are various kinds of Canadian marble in the collection; the handsomest of which is the serpentine. It is found in the Eastern Townships and is identical with the verde antique of Italy.

There are some specimens of soap-stone also found in the Eastern Townships. The soap-stone resists fire, and is for that reason used to line furnaces. It is soft, and can be cut as easily as wood. It possesses great economic value.

The lithographic stone of Canada, of which specimens are in the collection, is of a superior kind. An impression of the Crystal Palace, done in London, in this stone, is very fine.

MANUFACTURE OF FELT CLOTH.

The Journal of Commerce notices a public sale of felt cloths, a portion of which were made in the old style, with the wool laid but one way, and were of course liable to be torn lengthwise, besides being less serviceable in other respects, than those made under the recent patents. In connection with this explanation, a few words with regard to the method of manufacturing these goods may not be void of interest. Suppose a wool carder nine feet wide, delivering a thin layer of carded wool upon an endless sheet of cotton of the same width. It is made nine feet wide, that when filled up it may still measure a yard and a half, or the same as common broadcloth. As often as this cotton sheet, which runs upon a drum like an endless belt, returns its burden to the carder, it receives an additional layer of wool, until the proper thickness is reached, when the whole is matted together into cloth. This was the old process, but it was soon found that the wool being laid only lengthwise, there was nothing to bind it like the filling in woven fabrics, and also that when made into garments, wherever it was stretched, as at the elbow of a coat, it left the mark of the indentation, there being no mechanical cohesion in its parts, answering to the threads in ordinary fabrics, by which its original shape might be recovered. This was remedied by a new invention. While the carder is delivering the layer of wool upon the cotton sheet as above described two small carders, four feet wide, placed at right angles with the one first mentioned, spread a thin layer of wool across the sheet as it passes in its revolution, so that for every layer lengthwise, answering to the warp, there is a layer crosswise, answering to the filling of woven fabrics. This process is

repeated until a number, say fourteen, of these thin layers of wool have been spread upon one sheet. The whole is then taken off, and drawn over a table, part of which is covered with a perforated plate, lying on a steam box, through which, as it is two minutes in passing, the wool becomes thoroughly enlivened by the hot vapor. It then passes under an enormous weight, which by a peculiar motion as well as by its pressure, hardens or felts it into a fabric resembling a coarse flannel, only that no threads are visible. This is then thrown into a fulling mill, where, like any other flannel, it is greatly shrunk in length and breadth, the gain being in thickness. It is now passed over the gig, where cylinders covered with teazels, create a long nap on one surface. It is then colored and finished like an ordinary cloth. Our readers will remember the Petersham beavers, which instead of a smooth surface with the nap sheared close like a broadcloth, were covered with little knots, as if the surface had been sanded. Many of the felts are finished in this way, and the comparison we have given explains the method of operation. The cloth is passed under a press, the upper surface of which is covered with sand, fastened to the iron plate with glue. When the press, which is heavily weighted, is let down upon the cloth, it has a rotary motion given to it, which by means of its sanded surface, twists the nap into the little knots which make the peculiarity of the fabric. The new wave-like surface, recently exhibited, called, we believe, the tricot, is produced by the same process, except that the motion of the press is from side to side instead of twisting.

HOW THEY DIG ANTHRACITE COAL.

The Rochester Democrat has a letter from Scranton, Pennsylvania, descriptive of the manner in which the anthracite coal of that region is dug and conveyed to the surface:

The coal bed is entered by a horizontal digging through earth and sand upheld by timbers for a few rods, till the coal is reached in a bed perhaps six feet thick, lying in the midst of a floor of rock on the bottom and top. This bed lies at the bottom of a hill, sloping upward to the west some hundred feet, and containing other beds above, and separated from this and each other by strata of rock, 25 feet between some, to 70 or 80 feet between other beds. This bed extends through the hill probably, and covers some hundred acres. Here the entrance is nearly horizontal, but the coal strata often has an inclination to the horizon from 10 to 35 degrees, according to the variation in the upheaving power by which they and the whole rocks have been raised from under the ocean in times long gone by, doubtless long before the race of Adam was placed on earth.

The coal is broken out by blasting, and a great many men and boys are employed in this process, and in removing the coal into the open air and daylight. A path is cut (by blasting) into the bed, wide enough for the carts drawn by mules to enter. At the proper distances cuts are made at right angles to the main path. These are cut across by paths parallel to the main path, and the coal borne away, thus leaving solid blocks of anthracite, perhaps 20 feet square, to uphold the strong roof of the bed between which the coal is removed about 50 feet wide. Thus the bed is cut up into the figures of a chess-board, the blocks remaining for the support, and not being moved like chessmen. More than half a mile of these cuttings are already made in this bed. The air within is cool, and ventilation is secured by sinking shafts from the surface above down to the cavity formed. As yet, no inconvenience is felt from the combustion of the gunpowder or confinement of the air, so completely is the ventilation secured by the process adopted.

The excavation must of course be dark as the blackest midnight. The workmen use oil lamps to give them light. The boys who drive in the coal-carts and drive out the coal, have each a small oil-lamp fastened to his hat for his own illumination. Viewed from some distance within, the scene is wild and magical, and one thinks of pandemonium as the blackened Vulcans come along with their lighted lamps bobbing up and down. But the jokes, and songs, and pleasantry, and happy activity, soon convince you that this is another sort of pandemonium. The workmen and boys are said to be healthful, industrious, well paid, and prosperous, and find a competent support for a multitude of contented families, whose small and comfortable dwellings are scattered at various distances from the bed. The Lackawanna rolls on at a little distance, and has the power of whitening the coal-bearing faces and bodies of the laborers, especially if employed in adequate quantity.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS RELATING TO CERTIFICATES OF STOCK. We cheerfully give place to the following communication, containing some wellconsidered suggestions in regard to the form and method of issuing certificates of Bank, Insurance, Railroad, and other stocks. The fact that it comes from a merchant and capitalist of unblemished integrity and large experience in mercantile and financial affairs would, were we at liberty to publish the author's name, give more than ordinary weight to his valuable suggestions.

We can see no very important objection to the plan proposed, and we therefore hope that our correspondent's suggestions will meet with the consideration they deserve. Every avenue to fraud should be carefully guarded, and the most effectual way to secure trustworthiness, is by placing, if possible, the facilities of fraud beyond the reach of the agents and officers of corporate institutions:

TO FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine:

DEAR SIR: Now that the excitement, consequent on the "Schuyler" and other frauds whose development followed so rapidly on the New Haven Railroad expose, has partially subsided, it seems a fitting time to be warned by the past, and seek for safety for the future.

With your permission then, I shall lay before the public a plan for transferring stock, which from its simplicity and ease will, when thoroughly understood, be gener ally adopted.

My plan is as follows:

On the organization of any new company for banking or other purposes, let it issue its stock in certificates of $1,000, or parts of $1,000, as subscribers may require, and then make a rule that no new certificates shall be issued, unless to take the place of such as may be lost or destroyed; and then only after advertisement has been fully made for the missing certificate, as in case of a lost note or bond.

As a further guaranty against fraud by such lost certificates, I propose that such new made certificate be marked as a substitute for the first issued, and bear the like number and be under the same date.

This is the form I would suggest for the certificates:—

"This certifies that John Jones is entitled to forty shares of one hundred dollars each in the capital stock of the N- Bank, of New York, transferable on the books of this bank, and by the assignment of this certificate.

CHARLES CAUTIOUS, Cashier.

What are the advantages of this plan

SAMUEL SAFE, President.

1st. It guards against all fraud by new made certificates, as any one can determine whether the stock is true, and certificate genuine, by examining the transfers on the back of such certificate, or by going to the books of the company and seeing if it has been there assigned.

2d. It is convenient for the holders, as such certificates must needs be acknowledged as good and original.

3d. It makes it impossible for any president or cashier to create new and spurious stock, as has been done by Schuyler, his imitators and predecessors, in similar frauds.

4th. It will serve those who may want to raise money on their stock, because no one who loans money can doubt the security of a good bank or railroad company, when he can see so easily that the certificates niust be genuine, and hence there is no possibility of its value being lowered by the false issuing of spurious stock.

I trust that some men of influence and standing among our financiers will make exertions to have a law passed by the Legislature, obliging every new company that may go into operation, hereafter, to issue such certificates.

Any old bank or other stock company, that will call in its old certificates and issue new ones on this plan, will add materially to the value of their stock.

I heard a gentleman of large property say, that if he could have all his stock in old companies reissued under such certificates, he would cheerfully pay one hundred dollars for every ten thousand dollars worth of stock he holds, and that such a rule for issuing stock being adopted would save much to those who may be stockholders hereafter, and give a greater feeling of security.

In fact it seems to me the only kind of certificate that any one not a banker or broker can receive with safety.

Any objection made against this plan as taking up more time in the transfer than the present mode, is imaginary and unfounded.

I hope, Sir, you will give the influence of your Magazine, which I know is great, to the furtherance of this plan, by which the holders of stocks can feel assured of their security and worth, whereas as things are now, there is no real worth, as there is no undoubted security to stocks.

C.

"WHAT IS THE PROPER EDUCATION OF MERCHANTS?" NEWBERRY is a district in the north-west central part of South Carolina. Its surface is diversified by hill and dale, and its soil is fertile and well watered; and it is moreover quite an agricultural region, producing cotton, Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, and grass as the leading staples. It has grist mills, saw mills, &c. The district of Newberry has an area of some 600 square miles. The post village in this district, bearing the same name, (Newberry,) contains a court-house, a bank, a number of stores and a newspaper, "the Newberry Sentinel," a cleverly (we use the word with its genuine English meaning) conducted sheet. This Journal (the Sentinel) visits the office of the Merchants' Magazine in exchange for our monthly, calling regularly every week. In glancing over its columns in one of its recent visits, our eye fell upon the words-" Newberry agricultural report on the proper education of Merchants." Interrested in every topic connected with mercantile affairs, and the welfare of “our parish," (and it is a pretty large one, as every one is in some sense a merchant or trader, having something to buy or something to exchange,) we read the report; and although not a very elaborate answer to the question submitted to the Committee of the Agricultural Society of Newberry, it speaks volumes in favor of the good sense and sound judgment of that society. It is in the right direction. It convinced us that the committee took a correct view of the intimate relationship of Agriculture and Commerce. That the former, the basis of the latter, felt a deep interest in the education of those who were to be intrusted with the sale and distribution of its products.

We were almost inclined to surmise that the chairman of the society's committee who made the report, had "read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested," the teachings scattered over the pages of the Merchants' Magazine. And now after having said thus much of the report-more than we intended when we took up our pen-we feel in duty bound to its author and our readers, to give it in extenso. It is short, but suggestive. Here it is :