The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-06-03 00:00:00

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minute.

EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES IN

CALIFORNIA

(From the Times' San Francisco Correspondent.)
A curious discovery has lately been made in one of the
inland chains of mountains in Nappa, a place about 70
miles from San Francisco, which is thus described :—A
party started from Benicia ten days ago upon an ex-
pedition, which they were induced to undertake by the
wonderful accounts of some hunters from the mountains.
When arrived within a short distance of a mountain
towards which they had been travelling a whole day, they
heard a tremendous roaring and hissing, which they found
to proceed from steam issuing from a number of aper-
tures in the mountain's sides, and sounding like a great
number of steamboats " blowing off." The geological
formation of the country was extraordinary. In one
spot was a spring bubbligg up water so hot as to scald the
hand, while not far off another discharged an ice-cold
stream. Mineral springs of all kinds abounded—sul-
phur, alum, carbonated and chalybeate. A piece of
wood placed in one of the springs was soon petrified. A
quantity of lignite was also found. Minerals of many
kinds were picked up in the vicinity ; the whole face of
the country was covered with sulphur, and the party could
see the process of the formation of limestone going on in
the mountain before their eyes. They also found a
mountain of salt at a little distance. I myself saw a
lump of rock salt picked up some months ago in the
same region of country. A gentleman who was one of
the exploring party has addressed a letter to one of the
Sacramento papers on the subject of the discovery. He
says :—" The fountains lay open at one view the extra-
ordinary operations of subterranean heat caused by
chymical action instead of volcanic fire. The action now
going on has evidently affected the neighbouring moun-
tain chains very extensively, and at no distant period.
In one place, about 40 miles from the mountain first above
mentioned, one of the party broke open a hard rock of
shell limestone, and found in it a perfect shark's tooth
with serrated edges, precisely like the living species in
our own waters. In another place he broke open lime-
stone more recently formed, in which were enclosed land
snails or helices with perfect shells, together with frag-
ments of charcoal. In other places were found carbonized
wood, petrified trees, &c. A green tree which was cut
and put into one of the steam fountains was so altered in
less than 48 hours that it could not be distinguished from
oak, ash, or alder. There are hills which appear not to.
have been formed by volcanic fire, but by the action of
the geysers (fountains), and re-cemented into belts of
conglomerate. In one of the caverns were found groups
of silken fibrous crystals, white as snow, resembling the
finest amianthus, which appeared more like vegetable
growth than a mineral formation. In other places
mounds of mineral salts are thrown up embodying many
thousand tons. The surrounding country abounds in
bear, deer, elk, hares, ducks, quail, &c. In fact, all the
uninhabited portions of California abound in wild animals
to an extraordinary extent. The market of San Francis-
co displays a variety and profusion of game that is not
equalled in any country."
There is no doubt of the correctness of the account
above given. It has been verified by good authority.

SMITH O'BRIEN.—A letter from Van Diemen's Land
states that Mr. Smith O'Brien has become tutor to a gen-
tleman's family in the colony, and that Mr. Meagher is
about to vary the monotony of convict life by taking unto
himself a wife, in the shape of a Miss Bennett, a farmer's
daughter. The Nation discredits these statements.

CLAIRVOYANCE EXTRAORDINARY.—On_ Tuesday, in
the Epsom race week, a clairvoyante, named Miss Eagle,
while performing at the Town-hall, Chippenham, in the
presence of 300 persons, in answer to some questions put
to her, stated that she could see about 30 horses all racing,
some a great way behind, but there was one about a length
in front of the other, and its name was Teddington. This
caused some little speculation amongst believers and
sceptics in clairvoyance ; and on the following evening
some scores were down to meet the seven o'clock train.
As it approached, it was heard on all sides—" Now for
clairvoyance; two to one she's wrong," &c., and nume-
rous bets were made. The result is known ; and many
had to dip their hands in their pockets pretty deep.—
Devizes Gazette.

THE REV. MR. KENNEDY'S OPINION ON NATIONAL
EDUCATION.-Mr. Fox relied much on the reports of the
government inspectors of schools, to prove the necessity
of a national system of education. He omitted to state
the important fact that these gentlemen, after an ex-
perience to which no other man can lay claim, advocate
the extension of the present system of schools. The Rev.
Mr. Kennedy explicitly says—" If I were to sum up in
one sentence the result of my experience during the last
twelve years, which I have chiefly devoted to education,
as a parochial clergyman, as secretary of the National
Society, and one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools,
I should say that the problem which statesmen have to
solve in England is, how to continue to have schools
managed and supported pretty nearly as they now are."