State Agricultural Society. 401 



one hundred dollars a flask. To W. A. Stuart, an enterprising merchant 

 of San Francisco, the development of the mines in this section of the 

 county is mainly due. He has sound judgment, untiring energy, and, 

 above all, had confidence in the wealth of the district, risking time, 

 money, and labor when others were indifferent or skeptical. It is esti- 

 mated that there are a thousand people in the district. A network of 

 good roads run throughout, and the busy din of industry and life is 

 heard where two years ago the only trail was that of the grizzly, and 

 the only sound the report of the woodman's rifle. 



Further north there are other mines; one, the Cloverdale, is erecting 

 a furnace, with a hillside for a mine, through which mercury seems to 

 be evenly and thoroughly diffused. The hill has the appearance of an 

 extinct geyser. A few miles lower, on Big Sulphur Creek, the Liver- 

 more mine is erecting a furnace. 



THE GUERNEVILLE MINING DISTRICT. 



We have mentioned that Russian River broke the immediate Coast 

 Range, emptying into the sea. In this section there are a number of 

 valuable mines. The Mount Jackson and the Great Eastern are both 

 building furnaces. The indications of a large and lasting deposit are 

 very favorable. Many believe that they will equal, if not surpass, the 

 mines in the Pine Flat District. They were only discovered during the 

 past Spring. As far as work has been done the indications are favor- 

 able, both mines having rich ore on the dump waiting for the comple- 

 tion of reduction works. In the same seotion a rioh copper mine, the 

 Olive, is now being worked. 



In the vicinity of Cloverdale a chrome iron mine is worked, and regu- 

 lar shipments of ore are made. Of this valuable metal there is an inex- 

 haustible supply in Sonoma County. Quicksilver mines are also being 

 worked in the same vicinity. Our mineral wealth is in the infancy of 

 its development. The day may not be distant when Sonoma will rank 

 as a mining county as high as she now does for her varied agricultural 

 resources. 



REDWOODS OF SONOMA COUNTY. 



THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION — ESTIMATED SUPPLY — CAPACITY OP MILLS. 



The redwood is second only to the giant pines of the Sierra Nevada. 

 As a wood of commerce it has no equal on the coast. The largest trees 

 are fifty feet in circumference, growing to a great height with scarcely 

 a perceptable diminution in size, often two hundred and fifty feet with- 

 out branches, attaining a total height of from three hundred and fifty 

 to four hundred feet. They stand in a forest like wooden columns, so 

 densely shaded that no shrubbery, or small trees, grow between. In 

 this gloom of shade and stillness one may realize something of the feel- 

 ing which led the Druids of old to consecrate their groves. The great, 

 redwood timber belt of this State extends from Humboldt County; 

 through Mendocino into Sonoma, where it terminates on the edge of tie 

 open lands which we have described as the Sonoma Downs. Crossing 

 this gap we come to a detached forest in Marin County. There was, 



51_(agri) 



