ilattetus. 
Notes  on  the  Almaden  Mine,  California,  in  a  letter  from  T.  S.  Hart,  dated 
San  Jose,  Nov.  26th,  1852. — We  left  San  Jose  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning 
in  a  stage  which  plies  daily,  and  after  a  ride  of  an  hour  and  a  half  over  a 
most  excellent  road  and  through  as  beautiful  and  fertile  a  valley  as  the  eye 
ever  beheld,  we  arrived  at  the  beautiful  village  of  Almaden,  distant  twelve 
miles  from  San  Jose.  It  is  situated  on  the  bank  of  a  small  stream  of  the 
purest  water  I  have  seen  in  California. 
There  is  an  excellent  soda  spring  in  the  midst  of  the  village,  the  water  of 
which  is  considered  as  good  as  the  Congress  or  Saratoga  water.  There  is 
a  large  bakery  near  it,  and  they  use  the  water  in  mixing  up  their  bread, 
and  certainly  make  as  fine  bread  as  I  have  ever  eaten. 
The  works  are  much  more  extensive  than  I  expected  to  find  them.  We 
called  upon  the  superintendent,  Mr.  John  Young,  who  treated  us  very  cour- 
teously. The  buildings  are  nearly  all  new,  the  old  ones  having  been  mostly 
removed.  The  loads  of  ore  are  brought  down  by  the  road  to  a  level  with 
the  top  of  the  furnace  where  it  is  separated  into  coarser  and  finer  pieces. 
The  process  of  extracting  the  metal  from  the  ore  is  very  simple.  The  ore 
is  placed  in  the  furnaces,  where  a  gentle  and  regular  heat  is  applied.  As 
it  diffuses  itself  through  the  ore  the  quicksilver  contained  in  it  sublimes, 
and  is  afterwards  condensed  and  falls  by  its  own  weight,  trickles  down  and 
out  at  little  pipes  leading  from  the  bottom  of  the  chambers  of  the  furnace, 
and  empties  into  vessels  so  situated  as  to  receive  it.  From  these  pipes  we  saw 
the  quicksilver  falling  more  or  less  rapidly  in  large  drops.  In  one  vessel 
there  must  have  been  from  15  to  20  gallons  of  quicksilver.  Mr.  Young  in- 
forms me  that  they  manufacture  about  1000  flasks  per  month,  each  flask 
containing  75  pounds,  making  75,000  pounds  per  month.  The  flasks- are 
all  of  wrought  iron.  The  time  occupied  in  filling  the  furnace  and  extract- 
ing all  the  metal  from  a  furnace  full  of  ore  is  about  one  week.  When  this 
is  accomplished,  the  furnace  is  opened  that  the  mass  of  rock  may  be  re- 
moved to  make  way  for  another  batch  of  ore.  When  these  ovens  are  first 
broken  open  they  have  to  be  very  careful  not  to  approach  them  too  soon;  as 
the  air  is  charged  with  the  quicksilver  escaping  in  the  form  of  vapor,  and 
if  a  person  breathes  it  he  is  sure  to  be  salivated. 
After  examining  the  works  and  the  different  processes,  we  visited  the 
mines,  which  are  one  and  a  fourth  miles  from  the  works.  We  procured  an 
order  from  the  superintendent  for  that  purpose,  as  no  person  would  be  ad- 
mitted without  one.  We  started  up  a  beautiful  road  cut  in  the  side  of  the 
mountain,  the  road  being  about  25  feet  wide,  and  rising  on  an  angle  of 
about  20  (?)  degrees.  About  half  way  up  we  came  to  a  locality  of  sulphate 
of  lime,  from  which  some  fine  specimens  have  been  taken.  (I  also  found 
some  specimens  of  fluor  spar  and  chalcedony  near  the  soda  spring.)  After 
