46 ON THE CINNABAR MINES OF UPPER CALIFORNIA. 
with this, the ores yield a vastly larger per-centage of metal. 
In the last three weeks about 10,000 lbs. of metal have been 
extracted with the same apparatus, being a yield of over 50 
per cent. Whether the ores were picked or not I cannot 
say, but presume they were. Between 15,000 and 20,000 
lbs. have been extracted in about two months, only six mi- 
ners have been employed in digging the ore, and the hands 
of the establishment, all told, miners, furnace-men, wood- 
choppers, &c. &c-., numbering only a score. The mine is 
probably yielding a net profit of 100,000 dollars a year with 
its present crude apparatus. With suitable furnaces and 
iron cylinders or retorts, the mine would easily yield 1,000,000 
dollars and upwards. Mr. Forbes sails to Europe shortly 
for the apparatus necessary. The bed has as yet been fol- 
lowed but a few hundred feet, but the ores grow more and 
more rich and abundant. 
The other mines opened in the vicinity have not yet been 
sufficiently developed to decide upon their character. Ore 
has been found in fifteen or twenty other places within a few 
miles around and within a few days in hills that do not seem 
to belong to the same range with that which contains the 
mine already described. 
Some ores of silver have also been recently discovered in this 
region ; but I have had no opportunity of procuring any 
genuine specimens as yet, and whether silver mines worth 
the working will be found is at least problematical. 
There are traces of coal in the country, but nothing of 
value has yet been discovered. 
Gold has been found recently on the Sacramento, near 
Sutter's Fort. It occurs in small massses in the sands of a 
new mill-race, and is said to promise well. — Silliman's«/bwr 
nal, September, 1848. 
