10 



survey when, the preliminary reeonnoisance of the State being well 

 advanced, we can take up the mining districts, work up the details of 

 their geology, and investigate the quantity, quality, and mode of occur 

 rence of their ores. We need, however, a laboratory, where the neces 

 sary chemical work of this and other branches of the survey can be 

 done, under my immediate personal supervision. 



Mr. Ashburner's investigations of the quartz mines and mills of the 

 State were the commencement of work in this department, and, as far 

 as they go, they form an important contribution to an understanding of 

 the mining interests of California. The tabular statement, prepared by 

 him to exhibit the principal facts connected with the auriferous quartz 

 mills running in eighteen hundred and sixty-one, will always be valuable 

 for reference. It has been printed in the appendix to the volume of 

 geology, for convenient reference. 



The work of investigating in detail the geology of the mining regions 

 of the State has been began, but will require a long time for its comple 

 tion, so vast is the field and so important are the interests with which 

 this branch of our work is connected. We can do much for the benefit 

 of the people in this department if properly supported by the Legisla 

 ture; but hasty and superficial work will be of little use. Too large a 

 portion of the resources of California has already been thrown away in 

 foolish mining enterprises, and although the career of reckless specula 

 tion may seem to be checked at present, yet the same scenes of wild 

 excitement will be repeated again and again unless reliable information 

 becomes widely disseminated among the people. It is fully time that a 

 stop should be put to a course which has already materially retarded the 

 progress of the State, and which, if persisted in, 'will bring utter financial 

 ruin upon us. 



V. BOTANY. 



The botanical department of the survey has been and still continues 

 under the charge of Professor Brewer. From his investigations it ap 

 pears that about one thousand six hundred species of flowering plants, 

 (including the higher orders of the flowerless,) and over one hundred 

 species of mosses, have been found growing naturally within the limits 

 of the State or on its immediate borders. In the orders below the 

 mosses in the scale of organization the data are still too imperfect to 

 allow a proba/ble estimate to be made of the number of species. 



The collection made by the survey contain about seventy-four per 

 cent of all the species known to exist in this State, and about five per 

 cent of them are new to science, and eleven per cent new to the State 

 that is, not before found within its borders. 



Professor Brewer is now engaged in preparing a report which will be 

 in fact a "Manual of the Botany of California," containing as full 

 descriptions of all the plants of the State as can be given in one volume. 

 Of this the general plan and arrangement will be similar to those of the 

 " Colonial Floras," issued under the auspices of the British Government. 

 Full reference and synonyms will be given of all the species peculiar to 

 the Pacific States, and which occur in California; and a chapter will be 

 added on the general distribution of the plants of the State and their 

 economical value. This volume will form a suitable text book to be used 

 in the schools of the Pacific coast in connection with " Gray's Lessons in 

 Botany" or some other elementary 'work of a similar character; and it 

 may be added that this science cannot be taught in California until such 

 a manual as the one proposed has been prepared, since the descriptions 



