The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-04-13
Great Discoveries of Gold aud silver
Oregon, California, Utah and Pixies
Peak.
TUE SILVER MINES,

Inc latest dates from CallIOrnla arc "
March l6. The news from the Carson val
ley silver mines is but a repetition of former
accounts. People were focking thither in
large numbers. New towns were being laid
out, new mines discovered, and claims selling
at enormous prices. The excitement through
out California concerning these mines is
on the increase.
The first discovery of the Washoe mines
was made last fall, and at that time, from a
superficial geological survey, the discoveries
were led to the belief that untold wealth
lay beneath the surface; but the statement
was qualified in this language 1.-THE mines
are not of such character as to afford i'm
mediate support to large population Of
adventures, without capital and experience;
and we advise all who lack the indispensa>
bic requisites of money, courage, strength
and determination, to stay at home" Sub
sequent information confirms the opinion
and deepens the conviction that poor men
should stay at home. Organized companies,
with excellent machinery, can only compete
for the hidden treasure, as it is imbedded in
cliffs or deep-laying seams of rock, accessi-
BILE only after costly outlay Of labor and
money.
The Nevada National, abiding to the
newspaper assertion that certain residents of
the county seat had received $4,000 on a
partial sale of interests in the Wash0e mines,
which cost them only $4,000 altogether.
remarks that, according to recent reports,
the citizens of Grass Valley, on an invest
ment of less than $4,000, have received
$4,000, and can sell out the balance at
any time for more than five times that
amount-or 100000.
Mr. w. s. Taylor, reliable merchant,
has just returned from visit to the Washoe
mines. He informs the Alta California
that he found 1000 people at Virginia City,
eating what they could get, sleeping on floors
and in tents, and living generally in 1549
style. He went down one hundred feet into
the Mexican claim in the Comstock lead.
Three men were engaged in digging the ore,
two in carrying it up to the surface, and
three in separating the rich ore from the
poor. The vein is about ten feet wide. The
ore pays $4,000 to the ton, and grows richer
as they 60 deeper. Tunnels are being dug
to reach other points of this lead. A tunnel
is to be run 800 feet between the present
mining places, and will 90 under Virginia
City. This account is considered by the
Alta California as entirely reliable.
The silver lodes, constituting what are
known as the Washoe mines, lie on the
western verge of Utah Territory, about
twenty miles distant from the California
line, 800 miles from San Francisco, and,
centrally considered, due east from Marys.
vile. This Territory, formerly portion of
the Mexican province of Alta California,
acquired by the United States under the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, lies between
the thirty seventh and forty-second degrees
of north latitude, and the thirty>eighth and
forty second degeees of longitude west from
Washington.
Across this Territory, running from north
to south, are two chains of mountains, divid
ing it into three nearly equal parts. The
most eastern of these ranges, called the
Wasasch, separates the basin of Great Salt
Lake from that of the Fremont or Great
American desert the most western, the
Humboldt range.
OREGON GOLD MINES.
From information received from Jackson.
vile, southern Oregon, under date of Feb.
IA, it appears some five weeks previous,
while party of men were prospecting at
the head of Posey Gulch, on the south fork
of jackson creek, some two miles back of
that town, they found a gold quartz lead,
which prospected very well, and was the
basis of a quartz, even in that section of the
country. At the last accounts FIVE hundred
ounces were dug in one day from one arras-
ira by two men, the value OF which was
$4,000. The quartz is worth $40 per
pound. 1t is thought there is a possibility
Of washing out gold enough from the quartz
lodges to construct bitches sufficiently exten.
sive to set several thousand men at work,
sluicing out the hills, gulches, fats, &c.,
during this spring.
The Alta Californian speaks of the arr.
val from these mines of Mr.. PHILLIP MEA-
GER, who had with him number of speci-
mems of gold quartz, which were the subject
of admiration. Says the Alta:
"One of these weighed between two and
three pounds and was broken of ad hbitum
by Mr.. Meager, from the Maury mine. It
is perfectly filled with gold, so that it may
as appropriately be called quartz gold as
gold quartz. In fact, the gold is apparent
all over and through it. This splendid piece
is to be sent to the Washington Monument,
and will be splendid exemplar of the i'm.
mense richness of our Pacific slope of the
continent. There were also half dozen
smaller pieces, which, with the larger one,
will be exhibited in this city. Our infor-
mant is a reliable man, we'll known in this
city. He says that the story of two men
having taken out $4,000 is quite true. He
went into the excavations of both of the
mines-the Ish and the Maryland saw
for himself the wonderful richness of the
placers. 1t was more like q scene of en-
chantment-Aladdin's wonderful lamp. or
some other fanciful creation of the Arabian