1S41.1 OTHER MINERALS. 435 



In addition to the gold mines, other important discoveries 

 have been made in Upper California. A rich vein of quick- 

 silver has been opened at New Almadin, near Santa Clara, 

 which, with imperfect machinery, — the. heat by which the 

 metal is made to exude from the rook being applied by a very 

 rude process, — yields over thirty per cent. This mine — one 

 of the principal advantages to be derived from which will be, 

 that the working of the silver mines scattered through the 

 territory must now become profitable — is superior to those of 

 Almadin, in Old Spain, and second only to those of Id ria, near 

 Trieste, the richest in the world.* It is more than probable, 

 also, that other veins will be opened, as the soil, for miles 

 around, is highly impregnated with mercury. 



Lead mines have likewise been discovered in the neighbor- 

 hood of Sonoma, and vast beds of iron ore near the American 

 fork, yielding from eighty-five to ninety per cent. Copper, 

 platina, tin, sulphur, zinc, and cobalt, everywhere abound ; 

 coal exists in large quantities in the Cascade Range of Oregon, 

 of which the Sierra Nevada is a continuation ; and in the 

 vicinity of all this mineral wealth, there are immense quarries 

 of marble and granite, for building purposes. 



Colonel Mason expresses the opinion, in his official dispatch, 

 that "there is more gold in the country drained by the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, than will pay the cost 

 of the [late] war with Mexico a hundred times over."t Should 

 this even prove to be an exaggeration, there can be little 

 reason to doubt, when we take into consideration all the 

 mineral resources of the country, that the territory of Cali- 

 fornia is by far the richest acquisition made by this govern- 

 ment since its organization. All that is needed, to render 

 these resources of incalculable benefit to our people, is to dis- 



the level of the ocean; the Carpathian mountains, seven thousand five hundred 

 feet; and the Ural mountains, between four and five thousand feet. 



* The mines of Almadin yield only ten per cent ; and those at Idria range 

 as high as eighty per cent., although ore j containing only one per cent are worked. 

 Specimens of cinnabar from California have been examined at the Philadelphia 

 mint : the red ore yielded over thirty-three per cent, and the yellow ore over fifteen. 



f Letter to the Secretary of War, dated August 17. 1848. 



