GEOLOGT. 259 



QUICKSILVER IN CALIFORNIA. 



" THE deposit of quicksilver, known to exist in California, is a sulphu- 

 ret of mercury, or native cinnabar. The stratum of mineral, several feet 

 in thickness, has been traced for a considerable distance along its line of 

 strike. The specimens assayed at the mint range from 15.5 to 33.35 per 

 cent, of metal ; it is easy of access, and is mined and reduced without 

 difficulty. So much of the mine as has been traced is situated on a 

 ranch to which the title is properly valid ; and, since the United States 

 took possession of the country, an attempt has been made to acquire 

 title to the mine by denouncement. This proceeding is invalid. It 

 therefore remains for Congress to determine whether they will relinquish 

 or assert the title of the United States in this mine." Report of the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior. 



We extract the following additional notice of the quicksilver deposits 

 of California from a letter, published in the Merchants' Magazine, by 

 Dr. Feuchtwanger. " The mercury mines of Upper California, next to 

 the gold diggings, promise to be of great importance to the emigrant to 

 that country ; rocks and mountains, to the height of several thousand 

 feet, have already been found to consist of nothing but cinnabar, and 

 many more will undoubtedly be developed by the pursuit of the 

 mineralogists and geologists flocking there. It is well known that 

 the operation of distilling the metallic mercury from the cinnabar does 

 not require much skill, and but very simple apparatus; they are the 

 same, nearly, as were used eighteen hundred years ago. To extract a 

 considerable quantity at very little expense, with a common lime-kiln or 

 blast-furnace, properly constructed, large quantities of the mercurial 

 ores, intermixed with slacked lime or blacksmith's iron scales, may be 

 calcined, or exposed to a red heat for twenty-four hours, proper precau- 

 tions being used to prevent the rising mercurial vapors from escaping 

 through any other place than the orifices constructed in the chimneys, so 

 that it may be precipitated therein in the cold water running through 

 to the reservoir at their bottoms, whereby not less than 2,000 pounds 

 can be manufactured daily. If we consider the inexhaustible supply 

 of the material, and the high specific gravity of cinnabar, which is eight 

 times heavier than water, we can form some idea what a quantity of 

 quicksilver may be produced out of a hill of 1,000 square feet. Admit- 

 ting 100 pounds of cinnabar to consist of 86 of mercury and 14 of sul- 

 phur, nearly half a million pounds of pure quicksilver may be extracted 

 out of such a single mountain. How many pounds of pure quicksilver 

 can be produced from a whole range of such mountains, when their 

 bowels contain nothing but cinnabar ? It is obvious that California will 

 be able to produce more quicksilver than the home consumption will 

 warrant, and it will necessarily be wrought into other useful applications, 

 such as vermilion, which has hitherto been imported from China, and 

 several European cities, as Cadiz, Idria, &c. Four thousand quintals 

 are annually exported from the latter city, and nearly ten thousand quin- 

 tals from China." 



