STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 103 



most of those who had anything to do with it. as our people had been 

 raised to totally different occupations from boyhood. The timid and 

 dubious should reflect that quartz mining- to-daj^ is quite a different 

 operation from the same kind of mining ten years since. Quartz mining 

 in California' never was a failure because there was not a remunerative 

 amount of the precious metals in the rock. It was, in many instances, 

 a failure, because the machinery and apparatus used for crushing and 

 extracting the bullion was incapable of saving the gold and silver con- 

 tained in (he ore. Wonderful improvements have been introduced in 

 quartz mining within the past three years, which effect so great a saving 

 of the gold and silver contained in the crushed rock, that ores which 

 before the introduction of the amalgamating pan process were consid- 

 ered valueless, now pay largely. Indeed, under the new process, most 

 of the ledges worked years since, and abandoned because they could not 

 be made to pay, are now being sought after, and are in most instances 

 found to be very profitable. These new improvements, called amalgam- 

 ating pans, which are used for amalgamating the quicksilver with the 

 minute particles of silver and gold which float in the water, have been 

 invented to meet the necessities of the silver discovery in Nevada Ter- 

 ritory; and if California had gained nothing more by the opening of 

 those rich mineral deposits, she has been enabled to avail of these inval- 

 uable inventions, which give value to her many otherwise worthless 

 quartz ledges. 



There are, doubtless, more than two hundred thousand well defined 

 gold and silver bearing quartz ledges already discovered within the 

 region of the Pacific tying east of Salt Lake, and between British Co- 

 lumbia and Mexico. Indeed, it is one of our greatest drawbacks that 

 so large a number of persons should continue to prospect for new ledges, 

 when there are already more in course of being prospected than can be 

 advantageously worked by any population which will be available on 

 this coast for centuries to come. A reference to the archives of the Sec- 

 retary of State will give a list of several thousand mining companies 

 which have filed certificates of incorporation with that officer. Should 

 it become the intention of each of these incorporations to open their 

 claims, and erect mills for working the ores, it may be readily seen what 

 an enormous capital would be required to put them in a complete work- 

 ing condition. 



The mere locating a mining claim, filing articles of incorporation, and 

 issuing certificates of stock, creates no wealth. Every mine is practi- 

 cally valueless until its ore is crushed, and the precious metals it con- 

 tains are in a condition to meet commercial exchanges. This obvious 

 fact seems to be lost sight of entirely too much by our eager, restless 

 population, who seem determined to look the entire continent over for 

 outcroppings before entering into the real labors of mining. 



In view of the growing importance of the mining interest on this 

 coast, the Secretary, with the concurrence of the Board, on the twenty- 

 ninth of July last, issued the following circular, and sent it to every 

 mining locality in the State and surrounding Territories, and the follow- 

 ing exhibit of minerals is the result: 



[Circular.] 



Roojrs of California State Agricultural Society, j 

 Sacramento, July 29th, 1863. J 



Dear Sir : — The unprecedented development of mineral wealth on the Pacific Coast within the 

 last year is one of the wonders of the age, and bids fair to revolutionize the material and commer- 



