The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-01-31

| run, he visited another locality, where coarser
pieces of gold were found. All the gold was found
in the beds, on the immediate banks of the water
courses, in gravelly soil. Such deposites had
been found TO yield gold wherever examined IN
the numerous gues or ravines that occur In that
mountain region" 1t was invariably "mixed with
the washed gravel or lodged in the creviees of other
rocks" None had been found in its matrx in fixed
rocks. The country is much broken and ntersected
in every direction by small streams or ravnes, in
all of which, so far explored, gold had been
found. The circle of the discoveries was every
day enlarg 1t had then extended North of the
Rio de los Americanos to the Bear river, the 1erba
and the los Plumas or Feather river, from the beds
and ravines of which gold was brought by the In
dams and by others. 1t had also extended South
to the Costumes, tributary to the San Joaquin.
Such is the description of officer who person
ally visited the principal theatre of mining opera
tons, who conversed with the persons of chief note
concerned in these extemporaneous and precarious
searches, and with the operative diggers of every
sort, and who has transmitted, as the result OF his
VISIT the several specimens of gold and other miner
ais herein noticed. About seventy miles from South
to North, and fifty miles from West to East, these
having been the directions of discovery, were en-
braced within its extreme points, There Is too little
known, however, of the geological character origin
and extent of this Deposit to determine the prlncl-
pal points upon which its ultimate value and per-
manency may turn.
Are we to consider the hill alluvion as the source
whence the deposits of gold in the ravnes and val
legs have been washed by the spontaneous action
of the rivers and floods of centuries If so, it is
certain that these rich deposits will be exhausted in
a comparatively short period and the undsturbed
elevated tracts of pebble drift must be relied on to
sustain the supply. The proportion of gold this
elder stratum may yield, will doubtless be less than
the valley and gully deposits yield, and may but
moderately reward the laborer for his search if it
reward him at all. IL, the contrary, the gorges
and valleys have had their outflow from the disin-
tegrated crystalline and granular rock formations
which probably lie at the foot ofthe Sierra Nevada
an elevation which, agreeably to facts above no.
ticed is al least two thousand feet above the lower
and central waters of the Sacramento--then the
search must De extended up the valleys, in order
that it may terminate in fixed mines. In any view,
careful and scientific examinations are necessary
to arrive at just conclusions.
Very respectfully, sir, your obedent servant
HENRY r. ScHooLCRAFT.
Hon. ISAAC E. HOLMES,
House of Representatives, u. 8.
ca Analysis at the United States Mint has determined
the value Of the gold mems & sent BY the Of
ns an pn
(b) Plana has been found only two places in South
America at Choco in New Granada and at Bar.
bacoas between 50 and So north latitude and this metal
It IS associated with palladium and Iridium It occurs in
these localities in dluvsl soils along with grains of gold
Zrcon splnel quartz and magnetic Tonstone We mayex
pect all these associations to be verified in the deposits of
CalfOrnla.
(c) The most important mines of Cinnabar now known
are at Amadn in Spain which have been worked upwards
of two thousand years. at Ida in Fnau the Palanae;
and at Deux Points in Spanish America The specific grav
ity OF the Amadin is 1856. The word cinnabGr
ancienty applied to the drug called Dragons blood
90 This mineral is distributed widely the rocks and soils
of the United States 1t constitutes element in all the
rich aIuvon of the Mississippi valley and abundant
the shores of the upper lakes where driven up by the
but beng heavier than the scous sands sinks
the waters edge; while the former wnnowed out by
winds and form banks at higher attitudes Tons of it to-
gelher lie this pure form the banks of Lake Superior
(O This term vaguely applied at the to two dis
tinct classes of phenomena.