MINES AND MINING 



BY H. FOSTER BAIN 



Editor, Mining and Scientific Press, 

 San Francisco 



GOLD was the magnet that drew population to 

 the Pacific Coast of North America and set 

 in operation the forces which transformed 

 a region of forests and half-tenanted ranches into 

 one of varied and important industries. But time 

 is bringing changes in mining along the Pacific 

 Coast. Only in Alaska and Oregon do the gold mines 

 now make the largest contribution to the annual 

 output. In California, petroleum now outranks it; 

 while in Washington coal takes first place, and 

 even in British Columbia, that province of marvel- 

 ously varied mineral wealth, coal outranks not only 

 gold, but copper, which there takes second place. 

 Using for convenience the more complete fig- 

 ures for 1913, and following the statistics compiled 

 by the United States Geological Survey, it appears 

 that the mineral output of the three Pacific Coast 

 States is now as follows: 



California . ....$100,791,369 



Washington 17,579,743 



Oregon 3,563,919 



$121,935,031 



To this may be added the production of Alaska 

 and British Columbia, $19,636,213 and $32,440,800 

 respectively, making a total of $184,012,044. The 

 present production is at an even larger rate. The 

 total is impressive even in these days of large 

 sums. What is still more significant, however, is 

 the large portion of the total which represents fuels 

 and structural materials; the former accounts for 

 $64,478,524, and the latter for $21,904,369. Of 

 these the expenditure on structural materials in- 

 cluding clay products, stone, cement, and lime 

 represents money spent at home largely in building 

 up permanent structures. In a sense, it stands for 

 savings of the present for the future. The fuel, 

 too, is largely consumed at home. Each barrel 

 of oil or ton of coal represents work done by un- 

 seen hands; labor that does not eat and does not 

 consume. The waterfalls, oil wells, and coal mines 

 make up in part for the small population in the 

 large area. 



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