GEOLOGY. 2 



257 



obtained, the locality appears to be valuable. One piece yielded, 

 when analyzed at the mint, at the rate of 744 grains per cwt. of ore, 

 or $610 per ton; a second specimen yielded 960 grains or $787.20 

 per ton, and a third 206 grains or $168.80 per ton. The whole give 

 an average of 636 grains per cwt. of ore, or $522 per ton. The 

 quartz, which forms the matrix of the gold, crops out amidst a decom- 

 posed talcose slate, so that quarrying is very easy. Ores of copper 

 and iron are also present. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 1849. 



GOLD DISCOVERIES IX AFRICA 



IF the St. Petersburgh papers may be trusted, it is not the West- 

 ern Continent alone that is to write on the immediate time its distinc- 

 tive name, the Age of Gold. According to them, Col. Kavelovski, 

 director of the mines of Siberia, at present engaged in a mineralogi- 

 cal exploration of the interior of Africa, has found on the right bank 

 of the Somat, a day's journey from Cassen, several large hills of 

 auriferous sand. The washing of these sands yields much more gold 

 than does that of the Siberian sands. Stimulated by this discovery, 

 the Colonel extended his examination ; and on the banks of the Ramla, 

 the Goucka, and several other rivers, he found traces of auriferous 

 sand. The Colonel was about, it is added, to transport miners and 

 gold-washers from Russia to experiment in the field of his discovery 

 on a large scale. London Athen&um. 



THE GOLD MINES OF SIBERIA. 



THE discovery of the California gold mines has given rise to many 

 notices of the gold regions of the world, but we have seen none more 

 interesting than the following account of the Siberian mines, which 

 have hitherto been by far the most productive of any known. " The 

 mines of Siberia, from their number and richness, are one of its most 

 distinguishing features. They yield gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, 

 zinc, and quicksilver, and an inexhaustible abundance of that most 

 useful metal, iron. The iron mines are in the far east, that is, the 

 nearest approaching our far west; they are at Nertchinsk, on the 

 head waters of the Amour, a noble river emptying into the Pacific by 

 a mouth nine miles wide, and, for a large part of its course, full fifteen 

 hundred miles, navigable by steamboats. Our accounts of the Siberian 

 gold mines are fragmentary, still enough is known to show their high 

 importance. In 1847, the produce was $25,000,000. In 1848, it 

 was a fraction short of $20,000,000. These mines are wrought by 

 private enterprise, and a single family, the Demidoff, is said to have 

 long received every year the enormous sum of $2,000,000, in gold and 

 other metals. In Siberia, the same as in California, every one is 

 allowed to dig, except on private lands, and the very poorest often be- 

 come the richest. There is a lump of gold in one of the cabinets of 

 St. Petersburg weighing 78 pounds, the largest in the world, worth, at 

 $16 the ounce, full $15,000. The government receives fifteen per 

 cent, for transporting the metal, coining it, and delivering the coin. At 



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