The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-09 00:00:00

THE GOLD MOUNTAIN.

We have seen a gentleman just returned from
California who has personally visited the so-called
" Gold Mountain," which has been quite commonly
considered fabulous. It lies in about lat. 33 deg.
north, two hundred and fifty miles east of Los
Angelos in southern California, and per-
haps one hundred west of the Colorado.
The region is as forbidding as can be, with-
out inhabitants, even aboriginal, though there is
a spare population of savages on the Mahave River,
say 50 miles east. To approach it, you pass over the
Sierra Nevada, near Mount San Bernardino, across two
sand deserts of 60 or 80 miles, and thence to a region of
deep canons and rugged mountains, sterile, almost des-
titute of grass, and with no timber except the musquit,
(something like our alder), which rarely grows to the
size of a man's arm. The region is infested with
rattlesnakes in incredible numbers, and the earth
so full of minerals (especially sal mratus) that
the water is absolutely poisonous. There is no
water fit to drink within sixteen miles of the " Gold
Mountain," so called, which rises about 450 feet
rather steeply from a canon, which has an eleva-
tion of some 150 feet on the other side of it. The
canon is about one-fourth of a mile long, and the two
hills are surrounded by sand deserts. The hills are
composed of a dark hornblende rock, with perhaps a
tenth of white feldspar intermixed with it; and the gold
is found in both, generally running in streaks or strings,
though sometimes showing bulbs or lumps like a button.
It has been found by analysis to yield an average of
about 21 dollars per pound of the rock. Eight
miles north -of this mountain, our informant tried
his luck at digging in the usual California fashion
—scraping off the surface earth and washing that
which lies immediately above the rock. lie
dug thus with two Indians for four hours, obtained
about ten ounces of pure gold, taking only the
" lumps," having nothing to wash the earth with.
Probably as much was thus left as taken. He did
not try in any other spot, • but has no doubt
that the golf extends all the way from Sonora,
in northern Mexico, to the Upper Sacramento
arid Oregon—a distance of full 800 miles. The re-
gion here described is about 500 miles from the
nearest diggings in California, but cannot be ap-
proached by less than a thousand miles of actual
travel. It is very near the boundary line just estab-
lished by Congress between California and Utah.—
New York Tribune.

PORTLAND HARBOUR of REFUGE
Surely it were a project worthy the honour of our
warlike and commercial island, the empress of the
seas, to establish an asylum not only for her own
navies, but for those of the whole world, friends or
foes, when occasional distress might drive them
undesignedly upon her coasts. It will also most
effectually counteract the formidable port of Cher-
bourg, and altogether present a noble specimen of
the riches, the strength, the commerce, a►nd the
beauty of everything connected with British sea-
manship most worthy the renown of England,
creditable to her Majesty's Government, and very
beneficial to the country at large. 'The Government
works exhibit an interesting scene of activity, and
attract numbers of visiters daily. Some of the break-
water i❑ an unfinished state is now seen projecting
from the shore, and the deposition of stone from the
quarries is regularly and rapidly carried forward by
railway. A number of additional tram waggons have
lately been received at the works, with a view to the
employment of a still larger number of convicts on the
arrival of whom this great national enterprise will be
carried on with increased rapidity. Amongst the re-
markable machinery to be observed on these works
may be mentioned a gigantic crane on a moveable
platform, intended for the raising of stones from the
recesses of the quarries, and which is capable of sus-
taining with ease the immense weight of 60 tons. An
engine has also been recently erected for the chemical
impregnation of the driving piles for their preserva-
tion, by a new and ingenious process, by which they
are rendered impervious to the action of water. The
interest which attaches itself to Portland from its rare
and abundant fossils, its striking geological stratifi-
cation, and antiquarian remains is sufficiently notori•
ous. These attractions are now varied and enhanced
by the grand exhibition of the fertile resources, the
all-conquering ingenuity, and profound achievements
of the skilful engineer bending to his uses the most
stubborn obstacles, and circumbscribing the power
and sway of the mighty ocean.— Vide "Book of Re-
marks on the subject of an Asylum Harbour, for
Portland Roads," as projected by the late Mr. John
Harvey, price ls., Post-office, Weymouth.

LONDON SIGNS.
Few casual observers are perhaps aware of the curious
origin of many of the shop and public-house signs, and
a still smaller number remember when most shopkeepers
displayed signs, which projected far into the street, with
iron supports, and upon which large sums were expended.
It is stated in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1770, that the
signs exhibited upon Ludgate-hill cost several hundred
pounds. In a paper (No. 28) of the Spectator, written by
Addison, and in alluding to this ancient custom, he
mentions the sign of a goat before the door of a per-
fumer, and the French king's head, at a sword cutler's.
In the sixth plate of Hogarth's " Industry and Idle-
ness," the sign of West and Goodchild, who are silk-
weavers, is a rampant lion with a cornucopia on either
side. In the same artist's plate of " Noon," the cook's
shop has a Baptist's head; and in the plate of " Night,"
in the same series, the sign of the barber's shop is,
besides his pole, a hand drawing a tooth, the head being
in exquisite pain, having written underneath, " shaving,
bleeding, and teeth drawn with a touch—Ecce Signs.m."
The well-known sign of the " Good Woman," which is a
woman without a head, was a common emblem at oil
shops, and it is supposed to have been originally started
from a large oil jar, fancifully painted, so as to
resemble
a headless woman; and at the present day it is very
frequently seen over the door, by way of sign. At
ironmongers' shops, a dog licking a porridge-pot was the
usual sigu : an instance might, a short time ago, be seen
at a large ironmonger's in the Blackfriars-road. The
barber's pole, likewise, is one of the few remaining shop
signs, and one which has caused much antiquarian dis-
cussion: it is supposed to represent (when barbers were
surgeons also) the bleeding-stick, the black stripes being
the. tape wound round it. As recently as seventy years
since, and perhaps even later, the shops in London dis-
played signs swinging across the streets, bat from their
impeding the free circulation of air they were taken
down and placed against the houses, and were, after a
time, superseded by the present fashion, of the name
and business being painted on the front.—Budder.

The line of railway formerly projected between
Windermere and Furness via Newby Bridge, has within the
last few days been re-surveyed on the part of the Kendal and
Windermere Company, with a view to the extension of their
line to I.llyerSton, Scc.—,Cumberland racquet.