264 
GEOLOGY. 
like great furrows in a vast slope or plateau. -Before reaching Sarahville we stopped at Baker’s 
Kancho, a house beautifully located among the tall pines. There is a fine spring of pure cold 
water a short distance above, and a pipe from it delivers a constant stream into a large trough 
at the foot of a towering pine. This trough is a giant of its kind, being twenty feet long, three 
wide, and two deep. It is cut from a single log, and the bottom is strewn with quartz crystals 
and pebbles, which show distinctly through the transparent water. 
Among the pines which grow so luxuriantly upon the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, the sugar 
pine ( Pinus lambertiana) is one of the most interesting. Its common name is derived from the 
fact that a sweet, sugar-like substance exudes from the wood of the trunk where it has been cut 
or burnt. This is found in considerable quantities, and is well known in the mining region. 
In its properties it is much like manna, which I at first supposed it to be. It proves, however, 
to be a new substance, to which the name Finite has been given. 1 
Michigan City. —This thriving mining town is on the north side of the Middle Fork, and 
about 2,000 feet above the stream. The surface was originally covered with a pine forest; but 
most of the trees have been cut away, and those that remain near the town are trimmed up to 
the very top, so that they more resemble liberty poles than trees. In June, 1852, the site was 
marked by but one little log cabin, and to-day it is one of the largest towns in the country. 
There is here a deep and widely-extended deposit of auriferous drift, covering the underlying 
slate from view. Whole acres of this drift have been swept away by the miners to a depth of 
from ten to sixty feet, or down to the “bed-rock” of slate. The edges of the slate are thus 
exposed, and trend N. 5° E. ; they are nearly vertical, but incline slightly to the east. The 
surface is very uneven ; and in some places the projecting layers reach nearly to the surface of 
the ground, thus making the thickness of the layer of drift very unequal. 
1 After my return from California I submitted a sample of the “ pine sugar” to Professor S. W. Johnson, of the Yale Scientific 
School, who gave it a chemical examination, with the following result: 
“ The pine sugar had the form of rounded rough nodules, half an inch and more in diameter ; some were nearly white, others 
were of a brown color. They were almost completely soluble in water and in boiling alcohol, yielding a reddish-brown liquid. 
The alcoholic solution was partly decolorized by bone-black, and a quantity of ether added to it, which caused a dense milkiness. 
After some hours, globular or stellate deposits of white and mostly opaque crystals were formed on the sides and bottom of the 
vessel, while the liquid became clear. If too much ether was added, a small quantity of syrup of uncrystallizable (?) sugar 
gathered in globules at the bottom of the liquid. The crystals thus obtained were further purified by recrystallization ; they 
possess a pure and intense sweet taste, are very hard, brittle, and, unless pulverized, dissolve but slowly in boiling alcohol. A 
substance of bitter taste accumulated in the mother-liquors.” 
After having procured these crystals in a state of purity, and remarked their non-identity with mannite, &c., Berthelot’s 
paper on several new sugars, (Compt. Rend, 1855, No. 12, p. 452, t. xli,) came to hand. This chemist describes the 
body in question under the name of pinite. He relates that it is yielded by the Pinus lambertiana of California, and exudes 
from cavities made by the aid of fire near the roots of the tree. According to Berthelot, “ it possesses right polarization, and 
is incapable of fermentation, even after treatment with sulphuric acid. Its analysis led to the formula C 12 , Hia, O 10 . 
Acetate of lead-oxide ammonia precipitates from its solutions the compound Cia, His, 0to, 4 P b O. It is isomeric with 
quercite, but differs from that body in crystalline form, and has a greater solubility and sweetness.” 
“The quantity at my disposal was so sTiall that I only attempted to make an ultimate analysis ; my results were slightly 
vitiated by the fracture of the combustion tube after the burning was complete, but before the carbonic acid had been fully 
carried into the potash bulbs. Below are the obtained numbers compared with those required by Berthelot’s formula. 
Calculated. Found. 
Cia = 72 . 43.90 42.75 
Hi 2 = 12 . 7.32 7.40 
O 10 80 . 48.78 49.85 
164 100.00 100.00 
In another paper Berthelot describes a large number of compounds of sugars with acids. Among these are the acid and neutral 
stearates and benzoates of pinite. He has further found that when these compounds are saponified there is obtained the original 
acid, and not pinite, but a substance which gradually passes into pinite. The name pinite is very objectionable, as identical in 
orthography with, one appellation of a mineral which is overloaded with synonyms .”—American Journal of Science and Arts, 
2d series, vol. xxii., p. 8 ; July, 1856. 
