The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-18 00:00:00

Miscellaneous American News.

The following letter has been forwarded to us
for publication by the Hon. Win. W. Murphy,
U.S. Consul-General, Frankfort-on-Maine :
" WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 1867.

" Sir,--I have the honour to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 4th ultimo, enclosing
a letter from one of your bankers in Frankfort on
the subject of stolen bonds.
" The subject of stolen bonds is one which
occasions the department no little trouble,
and everything is being done that properly
can be to secure holders of bonds against
loss. If, however, a coupon bond, payable
to bearer, is lost or stolen and reappears in the
hands of a bona
.fide holder for value, the original
owner has irrevocably lost his title. The same is
the case with 7-30 Notes as long as they remain in
blank. After a name is written upon the face, they
then become securities payable to the order of the
party whose name is thus inscribed, and he cannot
lose his title, although his name may be subse-
quently erased, any more than he would, under
similar circumstances, lose title to a bill of exchange
payable to his order. The enclosed slip, marked A,
indicates to you correctly the rules governing the
redemption of securities at this department.
" It does not occur to me that the advantages to
be realised from publishing the list of lost bonds, as
you suggest, in the Frankfort papers would justify
the same. With reference to the suggestions of
the Frankfort banker about Texas Indemnity
Bonds the Department is now for the first time
informed of the lawsuit relative to such bonds pend-
ing between two banking-houses of Frankfort, and
I would like to be informed of the particulars
of Fuch litigation. There has been no de-
lay or refusal on the part of this Government
to pay the small number of outstanding securities
known as Texas Indemnity Bonds, except what has
been regarded as absolutely necessary to protect
the Government against the claims of disloyal men,
or of those who have received the bonds through
disloyal channels without a proper consideration.—
Very respectfully,
APO ULLOCII,
Secretary of the Treasury.

The President's Message was telegraphed from
Washington to California and appeared in the even-
ing papers of San Francisco on the same day with
its delivery to Congress.
THE SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC RAILROAD.—Governor
Fletcher of Missouri, in his recent message, says of
this road :—" I have not hesitated to approve the
action of the Commissioners appointed under the
act of the last Session of the Legislature for the sale
of certain railroads. By such action the South-west
Pacific Railroad was sold for $1,300,000, of which
amount the purchaser has paid into the Treasury,
according to the terms of the sale and the require-
ments of the law the sum of $325,000. Since the
sale of the road by the Commissioners, it has be-
come a part of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.
There is no reason to doubt that it will be com-
pleted to Springfield within a period of time less
than that required by the terms of the contract.
It is largely to the interest of the owners to do so
as early as possible, and it is fair to presume that
they will do what their interests require. This
I esteem the most important road in Missouri. It
developes one of the best portions of the State, rich
in agricultural land, in minerals, and in water-
power ; a large district of country which only wants
means of communication with our great market-
places to make it one of the most populous portions
of the State. This road will certainly, by exten-
sion and connections, within a few years, carry the
largest portion of the commerce west of the Mis-
sissippi."
The great bridge across the Ohio river at Cin-
cinnati is said to be nearly completed. It is two
thousand feet long, and one of the spans, measur-
ing over one thousand feet, is said to be the largest
in the world.

The track of the Jamestown and Franklin Rail-
road is nearly completed to French Creek, or within
five miles of Franklin borough. The grading is
completed along the whole route.
The tunnel on the Albany and Susquehanah Rail-
road will be finished on the Ist of June next. It
will be 2,200 feet long, the longest tunnel in the
State, and 1,500 feet are already finished, having
only 700 feet to dispose of. This is the most ex-
pensive bit of work on the road.
STEEL RAILS.—Steel is now being substituted for
wrought iron in almost every department of rail-
way construction, and very heavy orders have re-
cently been given out by railway companies for
Bessemer metal in various forms. During the last
six months a single firm, Messrs. John Brown and
Co., Sheffield, England, have undertaken to supply
about 10,000 tons of Bessemer steel rails to various
railroads, among others to the Pennsylvania, the
Erie, New York, and most of the other prominent
roads in the United States.

The Pittsburgh Mining Journal says :—" To see
the importance of encouraging the manufacture of
iron, take the case of the Pacific Railroad. In the
construction of its line from Denver to Salt Lake
E,ll the iron used must be transported two or three
thousand miles from Eastern ports or manufactures,
while right along the way Lre to be found an abun-
dance of magnetic iron and bituminous coal. Hard
by Salt Lake City mines of both kinds are now
being worked to supply the home or Mormon de-
mand, and all the iron, such as ties, spikes, &c.,
needed for the last four or five hundred miles of
both the eastern and the western branches of the
Pacific Railroad, could be supplied from that
source."

A valuable quarry of building stone was dis-
covered in llancock county, Illinois, on the east
bank of the Mississippi, while reducing the
Keokuk rapids. It is thus described by the Mis-
souri Democrat—" The stone is a fine-grained,
durable limestone marble, susceptible of a high
polish, of a beam iful grey colour, eaaily worked and
free from all blemishes of petrified substances,
which mar so much of the building-stone offered to
the public.
The yield and profit of surface mining in Mis-
souri may be judged from the fact that it has, in
the
eli tst4oyears, produced over one hundred
million pounds of pig lead, and has averaged nearly
twenty thousand pounds of ore to the mine, per
annum. _ _

On the Ist September last there was produced
mostly from flowing wells at " Burning Springs,,, in
the State of West Virginia, from 1,500 to 2,000
barrels of oil per day. Now the yield is about 500
barrels. Some of the heavy oils of West Virginia
sold during the second week of January at $2B per
barrel.

The Chicago Journal says :—" The extent of our
dependence upon England, and of our contribu-
tions to its wealth, is. truly astonishing. Among
the many illustrations of this is the smelting of our
silver ore. Until quite recently a great proportion
of the silver ore of the Pacific slope has been ship-
ped to England. There is in it always more or less
tin and copper. The necessary " retorts" and
reducing apparatus have just been erected in Norwich,.
Massachusetts, and the San Francisco shipments of
silver ore are now beginning to be made to that
point, instead of Swansea, England. This is of
itself an item of no very great importance, but it
shows progress in the right direction. If it pays
to send this ore across the ocean in order to pre-
serve the tin and copper in it, then the cost of
transportation is a dead loss to the miner and the
country. The proper husbanding of resources is
the dictate of sound judgment."
The authorities of Nova Scotia have purchased a
farm of three hundred and fifty acres, which is to
be placed under the supervision of the Board of
Agriculture for the special purpose of rearing pure
stock.

Large quantities of native hemp grow in the valley