SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MAGNESIA. 151 



distinct veins, having a general strike northeast and southwest, and 

 there are spurs running in several instances at nearly right angles with 

 the primary veins. On the surface the veins are fom 2 inches to 10 

 feet wide. They cover an area of over 500 acres. In Pope and Chiles 

 valleys, Napa County, there are somewhat extensive deposits which 

 were formerly worked, but hauling by team to railroad made them 

 more expensive to operate than the mines at Porterville. In Placer 

 County there is a more extensive deposit than elsewhere in California, 

 but it is in an almost inaccessible mountain region where a very costly 

 road would be necessary to get the product out, and the deposit has 

 therefore not been utilized. Near Sanger, Fresno County, 7 miles from 

 Centerville, another deposit is now being opened. A deposit has been 

 discovered also near Walkers Pass, Kern County, but it has never been, 

 opened. There are also unutilized deposits near Morgan Hill, Santa 

 Clara County. 



"The extensive deposits of magnesite on Red Mountain, at a point 

 where Stanislaus, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties join, are now 

 being opened by the American Magnesite Company, of Chicago, which 

 has obtained control of the numerous claims heretofore owned by 

 individuals. None of them have been at all thoroughly prospected 

 as yet, though there are numerous boulders or large croppings, some 

 from 30 to 150 feet wide, supposed to cover extensive beds beneath. 

 The parent company is the American Magnesite Company, organized 

 under the laws of the State of Maine, with Mr. G. Watson French, of 

 Chicago, as president and Mr. H. C. Stillwell, of Fruitvale, Alameda 

 County, Cal., as vice-president and Pacific coast agent; Mr. Charles 

 H. Spinks, of Berkeley, Cal., is to manage the mines. One of the sub- 

 sidiary companies is the Rose Brick Company, which is to manufac- 

 ture magnesite brick, at Oakland, Cal.; the American Carbonic Acid 

 Gas Company is another, of which Mr. John Deere is president and 

 Mr. George A. Wayman, manager. The third corporation is the Plastic 

 Construction Company, of which Mr. Edwin D. Weary, of Chicago, 

 is president. This company controls the American rights for making 

 a fire-proof construction material as well as a patent brick. This factory 

 will also be in Oakland. 



"The mines of this company are nearly all in Santa Clara County, 

 with a few in Stanislaus, near the Alameda County line. The Ala- 

 meda County supervisors are building a wagon-road from the mines to 

 Livermore, where the railroad is met. There are twenty-seven mining 

 claims in the group, and several are at present being opened. Only 

 a few car-loads for sample purposes have been shipped since the com 



