The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-22 00:00:00

rain falls, and about six or eight months of dry
weather. Though there is a deficiency of water in
the State there are several extensive lakes, and
some deposits in the desert of pure salt, which is of
incalculable value to the miners in roasting the
silver ore. A canal has just been completed through
the Humbolt country to supply water to the mines,
and for the purposes of irrigation. The railway,
which is to connect San Francisco with the Salt
Lake City, passes through this State, and is being
pushed forward with the greatest vigour. The Great
Ocean line of steamers now plying between San
Francisco and China will make available the enor-
mous amount of surplus labour with which China
is stored. So rich are the deposits of silver on the
one side of the Sierras, and the deposits of gold on
the other side ; so extensive are the regions over
which this wealth of ore is spread ; so great are the
advantages in the proximity to the greatest labour
market in the world, and in the construction of a
railway which, passing through these mining dis-
tricts, will connect the Atlantic with the Pacific,
that the effects must soon be felt over the world.
All now required for the development of these won-
derful resources is capital. Bodies of hard-working
diggers combine to open mines and to penetrate
with great labour through masses of rock to the
veins they strive to reach. But their efforts are
marred at every turn, and their labour wasted, for
want of the necessary implements and machinery.
The process of extracting the metal is so rude that
not only is there much waste both in time and
material, but the advantages given by nature
are in a manner neutralised. This class, as a
whole, are opposed to capital, and desire above
all things to secure the opportunities for
themselves. But they are beaten by these cir-
cumstances, and compelled to appeal to San
Francisco, to New York, and to London, for the
means of developing their chief mining concessions.
V, here such companies have been formed, and the
necessary capital been forthcoming, the success that
has attended the operations is astonishing. We
have before us a list of the dividends divided by the
shareholders of these mining companies during the
past year. They count their returns by the month,
and the average of the whole number is 51 per cent.,
or at the rate of 66 per cent. per annum. The re-
sult of combined capital and labour, applied to such
astonishing natural productiveness and artificial
advantages, cannot fail to have an effect on our
metallic currency. If, in its present rude condition,
the returns of Nevada are so large,what are they
likely to be when some of the capital now lying idle
and unproductive sets in motion scientific machi-
nery and appliances, and the State is brought into
direct communication with Europe, by the comple-
tion of the Union Pacific Railway—the unfinished
link of the new highway of the world ? It is to be
hoped if the tide of speculation sets in this direction
that the lessons of the past will not be forgotten.
There are always those ready to foist on the public
concerns that have no intrinsic worth, or indeed
other existence than in fraudulent prospectuses and
reports, and there will never be wanting allies in
the commercial emporiums to aid in floating such
bubbles. It is the invariable habit of the Anglo-
Saxon race to run into the wildest extremes, and to
bring into discredit the Bonniest and most profitable
undertakings by the encouragement they give to
those who seize these opportunities, as means to
plunder.