GEOLOGY. 299 



tion. These furnaces resemble in appearance a long steam boiler, set 

 in brick, with fires underneath. The ore does not require to be crushed 

 except to a convenient size for the boilers. The mine is worked by 

 Mexicans and Chilians, who carry the ore in raw hide sacks, upon 

 their shoulders, from the bottom of the vein to the opening above, a 

 distance of between three and four hundred feet. The mine is proba- 

 bly the richest in the world, and with the same facilities and ma- 

 chinery used elsewhere would yield most enormously, far beyond even 

 what is now produced. At one time during the past season there 

 were 8,000 car gas, or mule loads, of the ore, lying at the mouth of the 

 mine, each cargo, being 300 pounds, or an aggregate of 2,400,000 

 pounds. At an average yield of fifty per cent., the product would be 

 1,200,000 pounds of pure quicksilver, which, at a market value of $1 

 per pound, would yield the enormous sum of $1,200,000. This finds 

 its way to market in one direction and another, but its value is en- 

 hanced by the fact that California itself affords a good market, large 

 quantities being used in separating fine particles of gold from the sand 

 and dirt, and which cannot be procured by the ordinary process of 

 washing. 



In addition to the quicksilver mine to which we have particularly 

 referred, there are three or four others in the same valley, though not 

 worked to the same extent, yet are reported to be equally as rich in 

 yield of ore. It is said, by a correspondent of an eastern paper, that 

 the aborigines had known and resorted to these deposits of cinnabar 

 for centuries, for the purpose of procuring coloring materials ; and it 

 was by following their trail that a knowledge of the existence of this 

 valuable mineral was obtained. Pacific News. 



SCARCITY OP PLATINUM. 



AT a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, July, 1851 , 

 Mr. Teschemacher alluded to the fact that a very important article to 

 chemists and manufacturers, platina, was becoming scarce, from the 

 exhaustion of the localities from which it has hitherto been procured. 

 It was a well known fact that most of the gold from California had 

 more or less of this mineral in combination with it. Mr. Tesche- 

 macher had estimated that as much as 5,300 ounces of it must have 

 been brought in this way to the Atlantic States. This would be a 

 very important amount for scientific purposes. Its value in the market 

 is now about $15 the ounce. 



Platina has been found at only two places in South America ; namely, 

 at Choso, in New Grenada, and at Barbacoas, between 2 and 6 north 

 latitude. Previous to its discovery in California,* this metal had never 

 been found north of the Straits of Panama. It occurs in South Amer- 

 ica, associated with palladium and iridium, in diluvial soils. Editor. 



* See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1851, p. 298. 



