316 METALS 



250,000 pounds. These mines occur in eastern and south, 

 eastern Australia, about the mountains called the Australian 

 Alps, and their continuation north beyond the Blue Mountains. 

 They were first made known to the world in 1851. The 

 localities discovered were on Summer Hill Creek and the 

 Lewis Pond River, (near lat. 33° N., long. 149° — 150° E.,) 

 streams which run from the northern flank of the Corio- 

 boias down to the river Macquarie, a river flowing west- 

 ward and northward. It was afterwards found on the Turon 

 river, which rises in the Blue Mountains ; and finally a re- 

 gion of country 1000 miles in length, north and south, was 

 proved to be auriferous. The country is a region of meta- 

 morphic rocks, granite and slates, and in some parts abounds 

 in quartz veins. The gold has been obtained mainly from 

 alluvial washings. 



Van Diemen's Land or Tasmania, and New Zealand, also 

 afford the precious metal. 



The mines of California yield per year about 200,000 

 pounds troy, or $50,000,000. The first discovery was made 

 ^^ early in the spring of 1848, on the American Fork, a tribu- 

 tary to the Sacramento, near the mouth of which Sutter's 

 establishment was situated. Soon Feather river, another 

 affluent, 18 or 20 miles north, was also proved to abound in 

 gold about its upper portions ; and it was not long after before 

 each stream in succession, north and south, along the western 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada was found to flow over auriferous 

 sands. The gold as now developed extends along that chain, 

 through the whole length of the great north and south valley 

 which holds the rivers and plains of the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin. It continues south nearly to the Tejon pass, in 

 latitude 35 ? , and njrth beyond the Shasty mountains to the 

 Umpqua, and less productively into Oregon and Washington 

 territories. Gold also occurs in some places in the coast 

 range of mountains. Even the very site of San Francisco 

 has been found to contain traces. Beyond the Shasty moun- 

 tains there are important mines on the Klamath and the 

 Umpqua, and some of the best on the sea-shore between 

 Gold Bluff, in 41° 30' south of the Klamath (30 miles south 

 of Crescent City) to the Umpqua. What once was Rogue 

 river is now called Gold river. 



The gold of the Sierra Nevada occurs mainly about tne 

 upper parts of the tributaries to the Sacramento and other 



