470 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



sulphurets, and the products of the combustion passed into a cylinder 

 of cast-iron strongly heated and containing argillaceous sand, passing 

 into it at the same time excess of the vapour of water. The sul- 

 phuric acid will be received at the other end of the cylinder. The 

 author is of opinion that no doubt can be entertained of the supe- 

 riority of this plan to that which is at present adopted, and that by 

 employing an apparatus thus constructed, sulphuric acid will be 

 procured at a lower price than is at present the case. — Comptes 

 Rendus, Oct. 15, 1849. 



NOTES ON THE CALIFORNIA GOLD REGION. 

 BY THE REV. C. S. LYMAN*. 



From the western base to the summit of the range of the Sierra 

 Nevada, is a distance generally of a hundred miles, or more. The 

 western slope is broken and precipitous, and through the deep ra- 

 vines that abound, flow the numerous mountain streams that form 

 the tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The gold 

 region is a longitudinal strip or tract from ten to forty miles in width 

 lying about midway, or a little lower, between the base and summit 

 of the range, and extending in length a distance of many hundred 

 miles — active operations being already carried on through an extent 

 of four or five hundred miles at least. The gold mines near San 

 Fernando in a spur of the same range, and which have been known 

 and worked to some extent for many years, are doubtless a part of 

 the same great deposit. 



On approaching the gold region from the valley of the Sacramento 

 or San Joaquin, soon after leaving the plain, the attention is arrested 

 by immense quantities of quartz pebbles, slightly rounded, and of the 

 size of walnuts, scattered over the gentle elevations which form the 

 western base of the Snowy Mountains. There is here but little soil 

 ■ — the earth is of a yellowish red colour, and nearly destitute of ve- 

 getation. Nearer to the gold deposits the quartz pebbles become 

 larger, and not unfrequently boulders are noticed of considerable 

 size. The quartz is so uniformly associated with the gold, that even 

 the most unscientific explorer would not think of looking for the 

 metal where quartz did not abound. Passing up the mountains it is 

 easy to tell when you leave the region of gold from the sudden dis- 

 appearance of the quartz. In August of last year, in company with 

 Mr. Douglass and others, I ascended from the " dry diggings," 

 near the Rio de los Americanos, to within a few miles of the snow, 

 enjoying in the highest degree the sublime scenery presented by lofty 

 and precipitous mountains, separated from each other by dark, deep 

 ravines, and wooded with primaeval forests of towering firs and pines. 

 The backbone of this mountain range is granite, the several varieties 

 of which constituted almost the only rock visible in the last few 

 miles of our journey. In descending we passed successively several 

 forms of gneiss and other primitive and transition rocks, till we 



* In a Letter to B. Silliman, Esq., dated Puebla de San Jose, March 

 27, 1849. 



