CALCULATIONS AS TO THE YIELD OF THE MINES. 389 



avoirdupois ; and afterwards, by the fine process, produced eighty- 

 cents to the pound additional ; making one dollar and twenty cents 

 per pound as the average. Other assays exhibit results from ores 

 in various sections of California, ranging from twenty-five cents to 

 five dollars per pound, and that, too, in specimens where no gold 

 is visible to the naked eye. Rocks examined even w T ithin two 

 miles of San Francisco, have yielded gold to the amount of ten 

 cents per pound. The result at the Mariposa mine has been at the 

 rate of two thousand five hundred dollars for every ton! 



These facts, stated upon grave authority, may be regarded as 

 positive information applicable to the whole extent of the gold pro- 

 ducing quartz, If we apply the results of the working of a British 

 mining company,- — The San Juan del Rey, — in Brazil, to these 

 assays and conclusions, we may estimate the consequences upon 

 the destiny of California and of the world. The work of this Brit- 

 ish company has increased annually for twenty years, and its last 

 report dates on the 1st of March, 1850. In this it is stated that 

 69,000 tons of ore w r ere crushed and the gold extracted therefrom; — 

 applying this to the average yield of the mines in California, the 

 result would be over one hundred and seventy millions of dollars ! 1 



Various speculations have been made as to the gross numerical 

 summary of all these discoveries and labors in a broiling sun, in 

 icy streams and under all kinds of privations ; yet no definite accu- 

 racy can be attained. During the earlier enterprises, California was 

 a country without law or restraint, for, all men, bent upon the sin- 

 gle selfish task of greedily gathering gold, resolved society com- 

 pletely into its original elements. Out of the municipalities and 

 villages there were no associations except in small bodies for mu- 

 tual labor and protection. Severe and certain punishment secured 

 the latter; but it may be reasonably supposed that the collection of 

 statistics was not a duty willingly undertaken by such absorbed in- 

 dividuals. Accordingly, we are not enabled to present more than 

 proximate calculations of the wealth given and promised by Cali- 

 fornia to the human race. 



Mr. King supposes, in his report, that during the first season 

 there were not more than 5,000 employed in collecting gold, and 

 that their average gain was one Ihousand dollars each, or an aggre- 

 gate of five millions. But, in the season of 1849, the number of 

 explorers increased by the vast influx from every quarter of the 



1 See Senator Fremont's speech. Debates in Senate of U. States on Friday, 20th 

 September, 1850. 



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