were ignorant of iron. They cast vessels of gold and silver, which were afterward delicately carved and chased. Few modern improvements have been made beyond the introduction of steam engines for pumping. The yield of silver is now larger than that of the United States, but that of gold comparatively insignificant. The export is generally shipped direct to England. Excellent iron is produced in, several of the states, and at Guanaguato is the richest and most extensively worked copper vein in the world. CANADA Contains valuable beds of iron and copper. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia abound in coal and iron, and Nova Scotia is beginning to yield gold. British Columbia has rich gold-fields, found chiefly on the Fraser river and its tributaries. Victoria, Vancouver Island, is the supply point for the region. Present annual gold yield of British America, about $3,000,000. THE UNITED STATES Contains mineral resources more extensive and more varied than any other country in the world. Gold has been found in greater or less quantities in half the States of the Union. Tennessee, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia formerly furnished our largest supplies. Now, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Dakota and Wyoming are by far the most extensive and productive gold-fields on the globe. Much of the immense tract is also rich in silver, copper, lead and other valuable minerals. Comparatively little of the field has been even "prospected," and important discoveries in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Pacific Coast Range may be looked for, for the next hundred years. Early Spanish, Portuguese and English explorers were all on the lookout for minerals. Huts and utensils, supposed to have belonged to De Soto's party in the 16th century, have been discovered among the mountain gold regions of Georgia, and the lead mines of Missouri. Previous to 1848, our annual gold product was estimated at about one million dollars, chiefly from Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. Some gold had been known to exist in California for nearly three hundred years, and when Humboldt visited that region, he had predicted that large quantities would yet be discovered. The first rich deposits were found in January, 1848, at Sutter's Mill near the present city of Sacramento, by James W. Marshall, of New Jersey. By the close of 1850, there were fifty thousand miners at work in the State. Quartz mining began in 1851. Silver exists in all deposits of lead ore. It is found in largest quantities in Nevada and Idaho, though some is procured in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Iron is found in every State and Territory, and in every form. The great deposits of lead are in Missouri and in half a dozen adjoining counties of Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. Lake Superior is the great copper region, though the metal is found in Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and in nearly all our new, gold-bearing States. Tin exists in Maine and California; zinc, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and many other States, and quicksilver in California. Vast beds of coal which are already worked, underlie many of the States east of the Rocky Mountains, and portions of Utah, California and Washington Territory. Gold is the first metal of which we find historical mention. One of the streams which flowed through Eden, compassed the land of Havilah “where there is gold." Abram was "rich in gold and silver," and his descendants on their exodus borrowed of the Egyptians so many "jewels of silver and jewels of gold" that the numerous sacred vessels of their Tabernacle and the golden calf made by Aaron, did not exhaust the supply. Solomon used gold lavishly in the decoration of the Great Temple; and silver "the king made to be in Jerusalem as stones for abundance." The California of that day was Ophir, situate according to some authorities on the east coast of Africa, where ancient mines have recently been found, and according to others, in India, that abounds in "apes, peacocks, ivory and precious stones," for all of which Ophir was famous. Gold, sometimes associated with silver and sometimes with base metals, is usually found in quartz rock. On the decomposition of the rock, it is washed down into beds of rivers, where it lies buried in grains among the sands. The Pactolus, which "ran itself in golden sands," is supposed to have witnessed some of the earliest mining. The Scythians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all obtained supplies of gold from mountain regions. Before the discovery of America, the supply of gold barely met the loss caused by wearing. The annual product of the world in 1847 was said to be only twenty millions of dollars; seven years later, California alone yielded sixty millions. The discovery of the rich deposits in California and Australia gave new impetus to the movements of population everywhere, stimulated all departments of industry, brought together into the same communities people from every quarter of the globe, settled vast territories, facilitated intercourse between far distant regions, and steadily changed values throughout the world. Since the discovery of California, the purchasing power of gold and silver has probably been reduced one-half, by their increased abundance. Hand washing was the earliest mode of collecting gold; and the pan and the rocker were the first implements used in California mining. Quicksilver was soon brought in to collect the fine particles often lost in hand washing. Hydraulic mining, now largely in use in California, is done by throwing currents of water from hose and pipes with enormous force against banks of earth, cutting away whole hills. Down the face of the hill, also, pour artificial streams. At the foot of it, the waters all pass away in long flumes or wooden troughs, carrying the earth and stones with them. Slats on the bottom of the flumes catch and retain the gold. Where gold is found not in decomposed rocks or earth, but in hard quartz, the stones must be ground or pounded to powder to release it. The arastra, a Mexican invention, consists of one or more flat, heavy stones, drawn round by mules, in water, over the pieces of quartz on a circular stone bed. This grinds the rock to powder, and the gold is then collected by quicksilver. The arastra is used more or less in all our mining regions, but it is a slow, laborious process. American miners usually reduce the quartz by stamp-mills. Iron weights or stamps, of from four hundred to seven hundred pounds each, and falling upon the quartz from four to six feet, sometimes as often as once a second, rapidly pound it to powder. It is then ground to extreme fineness under revolving stones, and quicksilver is put in to collect the gold. Silver seems to have been abundant among ancient nations, and was, probably, the first metal used as money. Hannibal obtained 300 pounds daily from a mine in Cordova, which penetrated a mile and a half into the mountain. The famous mines of Potosi were accidentally discovered in 1545, by a hunter, who found lumps of the metal under the roots of a bush. Silver is found in a variety of ores, usually associated with gold, copper or lead. Pure masses occasionally occur in the copper region of Lake Superior. Pieces almost pure and as large as a half dollar coin have frequently been obtained in Nevada, and sometimes in Idaho. Silver is never found like gold in grains among the sand, to be washed out by hand, but in ores or quartz, from which it must be reduced by stamping or grinding, and sometimes by smelting. It is difficult to obtain trustworthy recent estimates of the world's annual yield of the precious metals. The following from Phillips' Gold and Silver Mining, estimates the product for 1865. It places the yield of the United States several millions too low, probably making no estimate of the large quantity never reported to the mints : : California & neighboring States $42,000,000 GOLD. $13,900,000 28,000 5,000,000 British Columbia. 2,320,000 800,000 The report of Professor Wm. P. Blake upon Productions of the Precious Metals, based upon data obtained at the Paris Exposition, estimates the world's present annual yield of bullion as follows: United States. .$72,000,000 British America. 3,000,000 Mexico. 10,000,000 Central and South America. 10,000,000 Australia (including New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland). 33,000,000 6,000,000 Russia.. 15,000,000 France, Austria, Saxony, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Norway and Sweden. 10,600,000 10,000,000 Africa.. 1,000,000 Total......... $171,000,000 The Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States, in his report for 1867, estimates the aggregate annual product at $208,000,000; and some other writers place it still higher. There is no obvious reason for the relative value of gold and silver to remain the same; but it changes very little even when great changes occur in the relative product. The enormous gold yields of California and Australia have hardly affected it perceptibly. In 1344, an ounce of silver stood in value to an ounce of gold as 1 to 12 1-2; and in 1863, as 1 to 15. The whole tendency of our times is toward a uniform metallic currency all over the world, and one will probably be adopted before many years have passed. "Where do the precious metals go?" is a question frequently asked. The drain of them has always been toward the East, where they are used for hoarding and for ornaments, rather than for money. This is especially true of silver. During 14 years ending in 1864, England and the Mediterranean exported to Asia more than $650,000,000. The total amount of silver in the world is estimated at $10,000,000,000, or only enough to pay the debts of three or four leading nations. The total gold and silver product of the United States from 1848 to 1868 is estimated at $1,255,000,000. The largest product of Australia in any single year was $43,000,000, considerably below the largest product of California. The yield of the precious metals is much more than sufficient to supply the loss caused by wear and tear, and they must decrease steadily in value, unless Asia increases the demand by using them more generally for currency. The annual product of the United States has fallen off somewhat since 1863, owing to the giving out of placer mines and other causes; but as the steady progress of the Pacific Railway increases the facilities for quartz mining, our yield will be augmented from year to year. The yield of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico is nearly all silver, that of Idaho, one-third silver, that of Colorado one-eighth silver. All the rest is gold. The following is the estimated gold and silver product of the country for 1868: California. Nevada Oregon Total. CALIFORNIA. In California, some placer mines did well during 1868, as the season was wet and water plentiful; but in the southern countics, the water was so high as to destroy a great deal of property. In one county, it stopped mining for six months. The floods reduced the product of the year. The quartz yield was steady and quiet, and there were no failures among the quartz miners. Crushers are coming into extensive use to prepare quartz for the stamps. They break it up to the size of hazel nuts, but stamps do all the pulverizing. On the whole, the mineral product remains substantially unchanged. OREGON. The Oregon mines, principally in the southern counties, did well during the year. Of their entire yield, probably $75,000 came from quartz, the remainder from placer diggings. The yield seems likely to be much larger for 1869, as extensive gold-fields on the Malheur river, and Shasta and Willow creeks have recently been discovered. Several ditches are constructing which will supply water to about four thousand men. 1869.] NEVADA. The great Comstock Lode, discovered in 1859, has yielded in all, some ninety millions of dollars, and proved to be for the time the richest silver mine in the world; but during 1868, its product greatly diminished, and only a few of the mines upon it are now doing well. In general, those which are deepest find the metal poorest. The yield of the lode fell off from seventeen millions in 1867 to twelve or thirteen millions for 1868. Central and eastern Nevada, however, show an increase, and the new White Pine district, 120 miles east of Austin, proves exceedingly rich. One of its mines, it is claimed, turned out 200 tons of ore, which averaged to yield over $1,000 to the ton, and though the district is only newly opened, it yielded $1,000,000 during the last six months of 1868. With the opening summer of 1869, it is likely to contain a population of many thousands, and it bids fair to more than counterbalance the falling off in the yield of the Comstock Lode. IDAHO. The territory contains in all, some 380 stamps. Of these, about In other sections, the 150 are running, nearly all in the Owhyhee district. mills are idle, chiefly from inexperienced or incompetent management. Most of the capital which went in during 1868 was from England and our Western States. Western men seem to succeed better in quartz mining than eastern. The Flint district, adjoining the Owhyhee, promises richly, and a forty stamp mill, the largest in the Territory is nearly completed. Placer mining was less successful in 1868 than in 1867, as the season was exceedingly dry, and water scarce in the ditches. Three-fourths of the bullion produced is by quartz mining, one-fourth by placer. In the quartz the ratio of gold increases largely upon that of silver, as the mines are sunk deeper. The barren looking, sandy soil proves much more productive than was expected. Several flour mills are in operation, and grain, fruit, and vegetables are already produced in abundance. Supplies go in from the Central Pacific Railroad-only 120 miles from the Owhyhee district-a great improvement on the old mode of hauling them over the mountains from Oregon. The advance of the road has given a great impetus to industry and commerce in Idaho. Freights from San Francisco cost only five or six cents a pound. In MONTANA. Quartz mills in the territory, 50; number of stamps, 668; There have been the usual failures in mills, stamps in operation, about 400. from bad judgment, inefficient or dishonest management, and the attempt to substitute for stamps, new processes which have proved impracticable. the Hot Springs district, several promising veins have "run out," the only instances of the kind in the Territory. Of the bullion yield for 1868, 95 per cent. is gold against 5 per cent. of silver; and 80 per cent. of the gold product comes from quartz mills, against 20 per cent, from placer diggings. There are about twenty arastras in operation. All the quartz mills are the old fashioned stamps, except one heavy Chilian mill, which works well. extreme remoteness of the Territory and the high prices of transportation have kept the prices of unskilled labor at five or six dollars a day; but two or three thousand Chinese have already arrived, and the approach of the Union Pacific Railroad (which runs within about four hundred miles of Virginia City) insures steady and comparatively cheap supplies. The Hitherto |