170 



CALIFORNIA. 



haps the most beautiful to be observed among 

 all the alkali and earthy metals. Kirchhoif 

 and Bunsen, in the figure originally given by 

 them, had represented 11 lines : to these, which 

 they do not find altogether correct in position, 

 the authors add 7 more ; viz., 4 red lines, one 

 of which is as bright as any of that color in 

 this spectrum, a fine yellow line, and two un- 

 important green ones. 



Buiisen, in a later communication (Pogg. 

 Ann., cxix. 1), states that he found Allen's 

 method for preparing pure caesium inapplicable 

 in case of sources furnishing very minute quan- 

 tities of this element. He even avails himself 

 of the great deliquescence of the chloride of 

 caesium (in an atmosphere at once moist and 

 warm) for obtaining the metal entirely free 

 from rubidium. He now admits the correct- 

 ness of the chemical equivalent, 133, found by 

 Johnson and Allen. Ihese authors, in their 

 latest communication, agree with him in attrib- 

 uting the want of deliquescence of the ca3sium 

 chloride, in their earlier experiments, to the 

 influence of an atmosphere at the time rela- 

 tively cool and dry. Their views in reference 

 to the spectrum of caesium Bunsen does not sub- 

 stantially contradict ; and it appears that a part 

 of the disagreement between the two sets of re- 

 sults had arisen from differences in the spectro- 

 scopes employed in the respective experiments. 

 ("Amer. Jour, of Science," Jan. and Nov. 1863.) 



CALIFORNIA. One of the Pacific States 

 of the Union first settled in 1769, ceded to the 

 United States by Mexico, by the treaty of March 

 16th, 1848, and admitted into the Union as a 

 State in 1850. Its capital is Sacramento, popu- 

 lation in 1860, 13,788. The area of this State is 

 188,982 square miles, and its population hi 1860 

 was 379,994, of whom 23,848 were Chinese and 

 Mexican half-breeds, and 14,555 Indians. 



The governor of the State, from December 

 1863 to January 1868, is Frederick F. Low, 

 whose official residence is at Sacramento. His 

 salary is $7,000. The election for State officers, 

 except superintendent of public instruction, 

 was held September 3d, 1863. Gov. Low, 

 Union, received 63,165 votes ; the democratic 

 candidate, John G. Downey, receiving 43,229. 

 In October, an election was held for judges of 

 the supreme and district courts, and the Union 

 candidates, Oscar L. Shafter, Lorenzo Sawyer, 

 8. W. Sanderson, John Curry, and A. L. 

 Rhodes, were elected. The Union majority in 

 the State was about 20,000. The Legislative 

 elected at the same time stood as follows: 

 Senate, 35 Unionists to 5 Democrats; Assem- 

 bly, 72 Unionists to 8 Democrats Union ma- 

 jority on joint ballot, 94. 



Under the provisions of the amended Consti- 

 tution the sessions of the Legislature are to be 

 biennial, meeting on the 1st of December of 

 the odd years, 1863, 1865, etc. The time of 

 session is limited to 120 days; senators are 

 elected for four years, one half being elected 

 every second year ; the Assembly is elected 

 for two years. 



The population of California has probably 

 diminished somewhat during the year 1863, 

 from the great excitement among the mining 

 people in relation to the extraordinary pro- 

 ductiveness of the gold mines of Idaho and 

 of the Colorado river region in Arizona, and 

 the large yield of the Nevada and Colorado 

 Territory silver and gold mines. In California, 

 placer mining is almost wholly abandoned in 

 the oldest mining districts, though it pays 

 well in the more recently discovered deposits, 

 and in some sections, where the auriferous 

 earth is deep. The shallow placers, where the 

 gold was washed out in a cradle or torn, 

 are now only resorted to by the Chinese 

 miners who are contented with small gains. 

 Sluice and hydraulic mining are now the pro- 

 cesses most in use in placer diggings. The for- 

 mer requires a considerable stream of water, 

 in such a position that it will permit a fall of 

 from twenty to one hundred feet. This stream 

 is conducted through an artificial aqueduct 

 composed of sluice boxes (boxes of rough 

 boards twelve feet long and from five to twen- 

 ty feet wide, one end being four inches nar- 

 rower than the other, so that the ends of the box- 

 es may slide into each other) ; these boxes are 

 set upon trestles at different angles of depression, 

 according to the character of the dirt tough 

 clayey dirt requiring a steeper pitch than that 

 which is more sandy. An eight-inch pitch or 

 grade, that is, eight inches for each sluice box, 

 or length of twelve feet, is the lowest grade 

 generally used, and sixteen inches the highest. 

 The sluice boxes have riffle-bars or clusters of 

 slates with spaces between, wedged into them 

 either longitudinally or at different distances 

 across, to catch the gold and fine dirt, and to 

 give the quicksilver an opportunity to come in 

 contact with the fine particles and form an 

 amalgam with them. The quicksilver is usual- 

 ly put in near the head of the sluice, which 

 may be fifty or five hundred feet in length, ac- 

 cording to the circumstances, and the dirt 

 being thrown in by the miners, and the water 

 let on, the washing of the gold goes on with- 

 out cessation, usually from three to ten days, 

 when the miners " clean up " by taking out a 

 portion of the riffle-bars at a time, and collect- 

 ing the coarse gold and the amalgam, pressing 

 the gold from the mercury by straining it 

 through cloth or buckskin, and sometimes in- 

 crease the product by panning the fine sand, 

 which is usually rich in gold, which has collect- 

 ed in the rifts and corners of the sluice. Where 

 there are considerable quantities of boulders, 

 the sluice boxes wear out very rapidly, and 

 hence, where it is practicable, the miners often 

 make the bottom of the sluice of cobble stones 

 instead of wood. As water is not over-abun- 

 dant in most parts of California, and it is de- 

 sirable to use it as economically as possible, 

 the miners sometimes, where they find a hill 

 of auriferous earth situated near their sluice, 

 resort to blasting to bring down and loosen 

 large quantities of the earth so that it can be 



