316 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Tho findinf^ of gold in California having awakened public attention to 

 the subject, led to its discovery soon after in Australia, and finall}- in 

 Oregon, British Columbia, and elsewhere, until there is not at present a 

 State, Territory, or perhaps even a province west of the Eocky Moun- 

 tains in which it has failed to be found in remunerative quantities. The 

 potency of this new agent in tending to revolutionize the financial and 

 industi'ial affairs of the world, may be inferred from the fact that the 

 product of the precious metals during these eighteen j'ears, upon this 

 coast alone, has added nearly one thousand millions of dollars to the 

 stock previously in existence; the contribution from this source being at 

 the rate of more than fifty millions per annum. Australia and other new 

 sources of supply having meantime added nearly as much more, the 

 yearly aggregate increment of bullion was suddenly augmented many 

 hundred per cent. That this rapid enlargement of the standard measure 

 of values and medium of exchange should be attended by a correspond- 

 ing expansion of prices and an unwonted excitation in every department 

 of business, was not only natural, but inevitable. Hence the advance in 

 the prices of property and labor, the impetus given to evei-y branch of 

 industrj-, whether speculative or practical, and the general activity, men- 

 tal and material, seen the world over, together with that love of explo- 

 ration and adventure which this condition of things has tended to 

 nourish, and which has found its mostinarked development in our own 

 people; and however the business of mining may fluctuate or fail to 

 prove remunerative in certain cases, it must always continue, as it has 

 heretofore been, a leading pursuit, not only in this State, but upon the 

 entire coast of the Pacific. It is even now, much as former earnings 

 have declined, paying better average wages in several of its branches 

 than any other occupation requiring so little skill and capital to carry it 

 on. During the past year this business, though meeting with reverses 

 in some localities, and retarded in others, has been generally prosperous 

 and progressive; and notwithstanding the returns for the 3'ear may fall 

 somewhat short of public expectation, they wiU in the aggregate very 

 nearly equal those of any former season, wliile the prospect for a rapid 

 and stead}'' increase hereafter is extremely flattering. 



The receipts of uncoined gold and silver in the city through public 

 channels during the past year, amounted to nearly forty-nine million 

 dollars, as against forty-eight million dollars in eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-four. In eighteen hundred and sixty-three they were less than 

 forty-four million dollars; in eighteen hundred and sixty-two, not quite 

 forty-two million dollars; and in eighteen hundred and sixty-one, just 

 about forty million dollars. During the last twelve months the area of 

 our metalliferous territory has been considerably extended, while many 

 mills and reduction works of large capacity have been put up in various 

 parts of the country. The greater portion of these have not yet com- 

 menced operations, or been running sufficient!}' long to tell with much 

 effect upon the product of the year just closed. Another season they 

 will increase in the annual product materially. Besides this, the busi- 

 ness of mining promises to be carried on hereafter with more system 

 and ccononi}', not to say honesty, than has hitherto characterized it as 

 conducted in certain cases. 



The plan of working mines with a view to enhance or depress the 

 prices of stocks as might best servo the interests of those having con- 

 trol of them, is not likel}^ to be practised to the same extent as for- 

 merly, it threatening to prove nearly as dangerous to those engaged in 

 carrying it on as to their intended victims. That this business may 



