292 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



in the last four months. As the explorations proceed, the results be- 

 come richer and richer ; from four to six thousand people probably have 

 been digging, and the average day's work for the whole would hardly 

 fall short of an ounce. Five, six and ten ounces are not uncommon 

 days' works, and some, individually, have taken out two, three, four, 

 and even ten or more pounds of gold in a single day. I design at my 

 earliest leisure to write a pretty full description of the placers, and its 

 geological associations. Suffice it to say that the rocks of the Sierra 

 Nevada range are primitive and metamorphic, and that the gold occurs 

 so far as I have observed, solely in one geological position, namely, the 

 stratum of drift or diluvium, which in places where the diggings have 

 been carried on, varies from half a foot to several feet in thickness. 

 The richest excavations have been in the bottoms of dry ravines, though 

 gold is found on the slopes, and even on the summits of the hills. Sin- 

 gle pieces have been reported as weighing fifteen and twenty pounds, 

 but the largest I have seen is one at present in my keeping. It weighs 



between six and seven pounds troy, being composed of a large pro 

 portion in bulk of quartz rock with metallic gold interspersed, — the 

 weight of the gold amounting probably to two and a half or three 

 pounds. — {From a letter dated November 17, 1848.) 



Another letter from Rev. C. S. Lyman, relating to the mines of 

 quicksilver in California, and giving one of the earliest announcements 

 of the discovery of gold, was published in volume vi, of this Journal, 

 p. 270, September, 1848. 



2. Analysis of Ashes; extract from a letter from Mr. Fleitmann 

 of Berlin to Prof. Horsford, (communicated for this Journal.) 

 44 Every one occupied with the analysis of ashes, knows the difficulties 

 which accompany the incineration of many substances. The escape 

 of alkaline chlorids during the process is known to be great. Other 

 salts are driven off or altered — especially the phosphates, which are re- 

 duced by charcoal at the high temperature necessary for combustion. 

 Starting with the supposition that the principal cause of the difficulty of 

 burning the charred masses arises from the envelope of fusible salts, 

 which exclude the free access of air, I tried to improve the process by 

 obstructing that influence. I succeed 



ded in this by charring the sub- 

 ichlorid of platinum, and igniting 



stance-, powdering, moistening with bichlorid of pi 

 the whole in the open air. In this manner the whole substance became 

 penetrated with a fine net work of platinum sponge. The well known 

 property of platinum sponge, of absorbing oxvgen in its pores and trans- 

 ferring it to combustible bodies, is here of great avail. This property 

 shows itself in so striking a manner that frequently the charcoal pre- 

 pared with platinum as indicated, when once lighted, continues in a 

 state of ignition for hours without the application of external heat. 

 The maximum quantity of platinum is half a gramme for ten grammes 

 of charred substance. The separation of the platinum from the ashes 

 is simple; one difficulty has to be opposed. In most cases where the 

 charred substance is incorporated with the solution of chlorid of plati- 

 num, a quantity of double salts of platinum is formed, which cannot be^ 

 perfectly decomposed by simple ignition. A reduction by means ot 

 hydrogen, is therefore unavoidable. 



