STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 177 



can possessions west of the Rocky Mountains. Within the limits of our 

 own State there is scarcely a metal or mineral known to science but 

 what is found in quantity sufficient to justify their being worked — if not 

 at present, at least when labor shall have become cheaper, and greater 

 perfection shall have been attained in their modes of treatment. Thus, 

 we have gold, both free and in combination with other substances ; silver 

 in all its varieties, of which there are twenty-six recognized by metal- 

 lurgists; copper, virgin, and with its usual associates, iron, mercury, 

 zinz, lead, tin, arsenic, bismuth, antimony, and platinum, with many 

 others of minor importance, all here in such abundance as render them 

 marked features in the mineralogy of the country, and warrant the 

 belief that they will very soon be extracted on a scale ample to meet 

 every home demand, with a large surplus for exportation. Besides 

 these metals, a great variety of useful minerals abound in all parts of 

 the State, chief among which are coal, salt, sulphur, nitre, alum, borax, 

 asphaltum, chalk, soda, magnesia, and gypsum, with limestone, and dif- 

 ferent kinds of marble and other building stone, in endless variety. 

 With a field so rich and boundless, it is easy to foresee that the business 

 of mining must grow rapidly on this coast, and hold forever a prom- 

 inent place among the vocations of our people. 



In an annual review of mines and mining operations, the field to be 

 gone over is too extensive to render a notice of individual claims and 

 enterprises expedient or practicable ; the most that can be done in 

 such an undertaking being the compilation of a summary of what has 

 been accomplished in the different departments of the business, with an 

 approximate estimate of general results. 



PLACER GOLD MINING. 



This branch of mining, during the year under review, has been gener- 

 ally prosperous, not only in California, but also in Idaho and Washing- 

 ton Territories, where it has formed the principal business of quite a 

 large population. In this State it has yielded better returns than had 

 been realized for several seasons prior to eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 two, which year, owing to an abundance of water, was one of general 

 success. The copious rains in the fall of eighteen hundred and sixty-one 

 and the spring of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, not only increased 

 the amount of water used in washing, but, by carrying off the immense 

 accumulations of tailings, laid bare new deposits of dust, and greatly 

 facilitated the operations of the miner — benefits that continued to be felt 

 to some extent throughout the year just closed. The low stage of water 

 late in the fall has given those engaged in turning the rivers a better 

 chance than usual for working in their beds. The commencement of 

 these operations has to be postponed until the subsidence of the summer 

 floods caused by the melting of the snow on the mountains. If the first 

 autumn rains raise the streams, as often happens, the time for working 

 is so short that but little can be done ; whereas, with low water until a 

 late period, as was the case the past fall, large sums are frequently taken 

 out of this class of claims. Their owners were not generally disturbed 

 this year uutil late in December, whereby the}' have been enabled to 

 secure a tolerably fair return for their outlay and labor. The rains that 

 fell about the middle of November, while they failed to interfere seriously 

 with operations in the river beds, afforded sufficient water for several 



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