The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-07 00:00:00

The British Consul at San Francisco reports that
the receipts of gold and silver at that city in 1864
from the interior of that State vnd from Nevada ter-
ritory amounted to £9,092,100, without reckoning
considerable amounts brought by private hands, and
not passing through channels affording means of
collecting correct statistical information. In conse-
quence of the unsettled state of affairs on the other
side of the Rocky Mountains a considerable quan-
tity of gold reached San Francisco from the eastern
part of Idaho that would otherwise have been sent
eastward. The exports of treasure from San Fran-
cisco in the year amounted to £11,141,450, a larger
amount than in any year since 1853. Of this quan-
tity £6,887,300 went to England. Gold mining
was-on- the whole very successful in California last
year. The scanty supply of water stopped all de-
scriptions of mining in many parts of the State,
but owing to the attention now given to quartz
mining the yield was beyond the average of
recent years. With the improved machinery
and rigid economy, rock yielding 28s. to 40s.
per ton can be worked to advantage where
there is a good average width of vein ; and
till class of ore is so abundant as to preclude
the idea of any diminution in the precious products
of the State for a very long time to come. Some of
the mines which have yielded comparatively poor
rock, but in large quantities, have given to the
owners enormous results ; and, contrary to the
theory of many scientific men, the greater depth the
mines have been worked, in many instances, the
richer has the ore proved. In some parts of the
country, where formerly mines were abandoned as
worked out when the green stone was reached at a
depth of 100 to 150 feet, the work has been resumed
and the hard green stone cut through at a vast ex-
pense of labour, to find underneath the vein to be
as rich, or richer, and more regular than near the
surface. In Amador county several mines are down
at 500 and 600, and one 900 feet. The Gould and
Curry mine paid monthly dividends throughout the
year, varying, indeed, in amount, but at present
(March, 1865) £l5 per foot. The gross product of
this mine has been £979,600, and the dividends
declared £280,000. The mania for the formation
of mining companies wont to such a rate in the
spring of last year that persons versed in the his-
tory of speculation perceived that a crisis must
soon arrive. Over 3,000 companies were incorpo-
rated. The enormous amount of the calls drained
the resources of the stockholders, and a slight cause
only was wanting to produce a reaction, which, in
fact, in May was brought on by a report that the
large body of ore in the leading mine of Nevada
territory was worked out. A panic soon arose.
The shares in the Gould and Curry mine, which
fetched £l,OOO per foot in January, had fallen to
£220 in September. But towards the close of the
year confidence was in some measure restored, and
the price of the leading shares was nearer to their
fair value. The receipt of gold and silver from the
interior, being nearly £1,000,000 in excess of any
previous year since 1850, shows that the money ex-
pended in developing mines was by no means wholly
thrown away, and its material benefits will be shown
in a continued increase of the precious metals. In
1864 the United States' branch mint in San Fran-
cisco coined gold and silver of the value of
$16,323,186. The arrivals of immigrants at San
Francisco in 1864 exceeded the departures by about
10,000. The value of merchandise that passed through
British hands is estimated at between £2,000,000
and £3,000,000.