AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 45 



linked together by intervening ridges, connecting the whole 

 system by five principal ranges, dividing the country into 

 an equal number of basins, each being nearly surrounded 

 by mountains and watered by mountain streams and snows, 

 thereby interspersing this immense territory with bodies of 

 agricultural lands equal to the support not only of miners, 

 but of a dense population. 



&quot; * These mountains, he continues, 4 are literally stocked 

 with minerals ; gold and silver being interspersed in pro 

 fusion over this immense surface, and daily brought to light 

 by new discoveries. In addition to the deposits of gold 

 and silver, various sections of the whole region are rich in 

 precious stones, marble, gypsum, salt, tin, quicksilver, as- 

 phaltum, coal, iron, copper, lead, mineral and medicinal, 

 thermal and cold springs and streams. 



&quot; The yield of the precious metals alone of this region 

 will not fall below one hundred millions of dollars the pres 

 ent year, and it will augment with the increase of popula 

 tion for centuries to ^corne. Within ten years the annual 

 product of these mines will reach two hundred millions of 

 dollars in the precious metals, and in coal, iron, tin, lead, 

 quicksilver, and copper, half that sum. He proposes to 

 subject these minerals to a government tax of eight per cent., 

 and counts upon a revenue from this source of $25,000,000 

 per annum almost immediately, and upon a proportionate 

 increase in the future. He adds, that i with an amount of 

 labor relatively equal to that expended in California applied 

 to the gold fields already known to exist outside of that 

 State, the production of this year, including that of Cali 

 fornia, would exceed four hundred millions. In a word, 

 says he, the value of these mines is absolutely incalcu 

 lable. &quot; 



The foregoing facts and deductions set forth not 



