EXAMINATION OF CALIF ORNIAN CINNABAR. 
51 
may take possession of it by the mere act of apprehension, having 
afterwards to sell it to the National Bank at the stipulated prices. 
Lon. Phar ?n. Jour. Nov. 1851. 
Sucre, Oct. 29, 1850. 
EXAMINATION OF AN ORE OF CINNABAR, FROM NEW 
ALMADEN, CALIFORNIA. 
By Adam Bealet, Esq., M. A. 
[Extracted from a paper in the Pharmaceutical Journal for November, 1851, 
taken from the Annual Report of Liebig and Kopp. — Ed.] 
This ore has long been known to mineralogists as abundant and 
very accessible, but it had not attracted much notice until the re- 
cent development of the mineral wealth of California led to more 
extended inquiry into the actual extent of its distribution, and 
rendered improved methods of reducing it of great interest and 
value. 
The mine or principal deposit of this mineral, is thus described 
by Lyman in 1848 : 
" New Almauen lies between San Francisco and Monterey, 
near the coast. It is 1200 feet above the plain, and is situated 
upon a ridge of the Sierra Azul, which consists of a greenish talc- 
rock. 
" The cinnabar is found in nests, in a stratum of a yellowish 
earth, which is 42 feet in thickness. The occurrence of this mine- 
ral has been known to the natives from time immemorial, as 
the cave of red earth, which they employed for painting their 
bodies. 
" During Lyman's stay, the daily produce from 1,600 lbs. of 
cinnabar, distilled in a rudely constructed apparatus, was from 200 
to 300 lbs. of mercury, and in the last three weeks of his residence 
the total amount of mercury obtained was about 10,000 lbs. 
" Cinnabar had likewise been found in fifteen or twenty other 
places, within a circumference of a few miles." 
A more recent account of this mine was politely communicated 
by Dr. Forbes, and accompanied a specimen of the ore sent to Pro- 
