80 



The limits of that district, containing gold upon the plains, I should estimate as 

 carrying a line parallel with the foothills and at a distance of four miles west of the 

 latter, and which should be considered mineral lands in the strictest sense in which 

 that term is applied, and they should be subjected to the same jurisdiction that now 

 obtains in the mountain sections. Such lands under our present system of laws 

 are not subject to entry, and the fact is thus mentioned that their position may be 

 better understood. 



From the best information obtainable from all parts of the State, it is believed 

 that the amount of ground in actual occupancy and under improvement for mining 

 purposes does not probably exceed four hundred square miles, one fourth of which 

 area may be included in what are known as old placers, and which are still produc 

 tive. During the year 1852 it was estimated that one hundred thousand men were 

 engaged in the extraction of gold, (this is probably a close figure) a much greater 

 number than has been employed since that time, and whose aggregate product for 

 that year amounted to the sum of forty-five millions of dollars. Taking as a basis 

 the returns of the last census from which we find that the total number of inhabit 

 ants in the mining counties for that year amounted to one hundred and forty-three 

 thousand (allowing thirty thousand for El Dorado not returned) of sixty per cent, 

 of which number were probably engaged in the actual process of mining or a total 

 of about eighty-six thousand thus employed for 1853. 



This is probably above the actual number employed during 1853 and 1854, as a 

 very large number of those formerly engaged in mining have employed their time, 

 since 1852, in agricultural pursuits. These estimates may be considered approxi 

 mations only, but taking the highest possible figure that can be given for those 

 employed for the years 1853 and 1854, (eighty thousand) the following propor 

 tional results for labor will be found ; the actual working time, in this branch of 

 employment, in this State, being about eight months of the year. The figures 

 below comprise those only which have appeared in manifests, with the exception of 

 those of 1854, in which the deposits at the Mint for coinage and bars during the 

 months of November and December are included with that known to have remained 

 on deposit in different parts of the State, and which was the product of the year 

 last past. The two latter sums make up an aggregate of little more than eleven 

 millions, which, with the exports of 1854, amounts to the sum of sixty-one millions 

 that is known as the product for that year : 



TABLE OF EXPORTS, PRODUCT, AND AVERAGE WAGES. 



Exports and Product. Miners. Average Per Annum. 



1852, - - - $45,000,000 100,000 $450 



1853, .... 56,000,000 86,000 670 . 



1854, - - 61,000,000 86,000 700 







The above is certainly a much better remuneration for labor than can be found 

 in any other State of the Union, and is fully corroborative of the fact long since 

 stated, that our mines are absolutely yielding a higher income at present, than at 

 any former period, with a less amount of work expended. There are no preten 

 sions to accuracy in the above figures, as no fractional amounts are included, which 

 would have swelled the amounts given, to a material degree. They are intended 

 to convey but a general idea of what labor will command in the mines of the State, 

 from one portion of the mining sections to any other extremes thus far known. 



From what has been said of the areas comprised within the lines of the different 

 ranges, as given in the preceding pages, it will be seen that we have still enough 



