10 
The President then made some remarks on the Metalli- 
ferous deposits of the West, stating it as his opinion, that the 
production of Gold had passed its chmax; giving his reasons 
for so believing. Gold is found disseminated over vast 
regions in the West; the accumulations in the placers having 
been worked for ages. He then entered into a description of 
the manner in which the accumulation of metal had taken 
place. There is still plenty of gold everywhere, but it is very 
difficult to separate it from the associated rock in which it is 
imbedded. Those deposits where it could be readily pro- 
cured, are beginning to be exhausted. The mountain system 
of the West, considered with respect to the mineral wealth 
_ of that portion of the country, he considered divisible into 
belts, the Westernmost or Coast Range producing Mercury, 
the next Eastward or Sierra Nevada Range, is very rich in 
Gold. In the Rocky Mountains, the Gold is associated with 
Copper and Iron Pyrites. In Montana, the Gold-bearing 
veins are extremely rich in that metal, but very difficult to 
work. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra ‘ 
Nevada, there occurs an Argentiferous belt stretching through 
Idaho, Nevada and Montana; it is in this region that the 
celebrated Comstock Lode is situated, which, up to ‘the 
present time, has yielded $75,000,000. The agricultural por- 
tions of California, and the region eastward of the mountains, 
is of little value except for its mineral wealth, and, if it ever 
becomes important, it will be by the development of these 
deposits. : 
April 25, 1870. 
The President in the chair. ‘T'wenty persons present. 
Mr. W. J. Hays presented, in behalf of Mrs. Say, a large 
collection of shells contained in a Mahogany case of twenty- 
four drawers. This collection is a very valuable one, consist- 
