ANALYSIS OF THE MIXED METALS OF PORT ORFORD-SILVER. 
301 
Palladium. 0.49 
Gold .... 1.32 
Silver............. 0.13 
Copper..... 0.32 
Lead. 0.03 
Iron .. 4.52 
100.00 
The Platinum separated by the analysis is found to he almost pure, containing hut little 
Iridium. 
SILVER. 
Silver is not yet obtained by mining in California, except in combination with the gold. Its 
ores have been found, however, at several points, and it is probable that when the attention of the 
mining population is to some extent diverted from the development of the riches of the placers 
and auriferous veins, veins of silver will he discovered. The ores, however, are not generally 
known, and may frequently he passed over in ignorance. 
During my residence in San Francisco the attention of the public was frequently excited by 
glowing reports of the discovery of immense deposits of silver ore in Monterey county. Some 
specimens of this ore were sent to San Francisco, and being handed to me for examination, 
proved to he an excellent article of chrome-iron ore. The specimens had the green crusts and 
coatings which are so common in the fissures of the massive chrome ore of Wood’s Pit, Mary¬ 
land, and which are the oxide and carbonate of nickel—Emerald nickel of the mineralogists. 
Numerous reports were also in circulation concerning a great vein of silver ore in the mountains 
north and west of the Mission of San Fernando. This ore was no other than the sulphuret of 
antimony in the San Amedio Mountain, already described. 
At the Alisal Rancho, in Monterey county, veins of silver, hearing galena and sulphuret of 
iron, are found traversing a white granitic rock, composed, near the vein, of quartz and feldspar 
in nearly equal parts. These veins are about twenty-five miles distant from the Mission of San 
Carlos, and are on the east side of the Salinas Valley, in the foot-hills. Three veins are reported 
to exist there, one having been recently discovered. The locality is said to have been known 
for a long time, and to have been resorted to by Indians before the settlement of the country. 
It is also stated that the vein was worked in 1831 by a Mexican miner. It was again worked 
in 1852 by Germans, hut without success. I have not visited this locality, hut have recently 
received several specimens from three veins, including the one hut recently discovered, (in 1855.) 
One of the specimens from the old vein has a rusty-brown appearance like the surface specimens 
of a ferruginous vein of lead ores ; the cleavage surface of galena was distinct, and a small cavity 
was lined with small, translucent crystals, which appeared to be cerusite, (carbonate of lead.) 
This specimen has the appearance of an argentiferous galena, and doubtless will yield a fair 
amount of silver on cupellation. 
Another specimen consisted of compact quartz, with traces of sulphuret of iron and copper # 
It is stained with the blue and green carbonates of copper—azurite and malachite. A third 
specimen contained, in addition to sulphuret of iron, a dark, brittle mineral, in small quantity* 
which proved to he metallic arsenic. 
According to De Mofras, silver ores occur about two leagues northwest of Cohuenga Rancho, 
and were not worked for want of mercury and knowledge of processes. He further observes 
that the Indians often bring in from the mountains* grains of copper, fragments of opal, and 
