The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-07-03

lion coming to the market. A compare
lively small proportion of dust and
nuggets now received, as most of the
country banks convert their receipts into
bars. Gold was formerly sent along
IN its original state by nearly all these
banks, but it is seldom done now, as
there is an assay Office in nearly all the
mining towns, where it is melted into
bars. The average silver bars weigh
from 2, 400 to 5000 ounces, and the
gold bars are worth from $50 to S., 900.
A few months ago the Anglo Californian
bank received one of the latter value.
The bars range in fneness from 500 to
900, the average being about $50. A
great proportion of the fine bars come
from Victoria, British Columbia. Sill
yer comes In bars of all sizes. The
bank of California has had one bar of
l, 801 ounces, or 124 pounds, sent to it.
The gold and silver from the bank are
sent to the refinery to be refined. Fer
merly good deal of silver used to ac-
cumulate at the banks, but now it is
shipped quickly by the railroad. What
remains over night in the banks is, be-
ing in the shape of bars, placed on
trucks and run into the vault, till it is
sent away the next day. The silver is
shipped principally to China, Japan and
England. It is interesting to detail
how they are shipped.
At the country banks it is received in
all conceivable shapes-in plain bars,
packed in buckskin bags, in tin boxes,
and even in old tin cans. Silver coin
for export is always put in square,
dovetailed boxes. Silver bullion comes
in plain bars. When sent from the
bank it is put into a large bag. from
which it is taken when brought to the
railroad cars and placed on the floor of
the car. In this way it is brought to
the city. Most of the gold and silver
is coined here and shipped away by the
firm of Wells, Fargo & Co., which has
agents at every principal point on the
railroads, whose duty it is to receive
and check it. On this car are a number
of men armed with small arsenal shot
guns and navy revolvers. They accom-
pany the treasure. When shipped east
it is put up in little boxes of pine wood
with screwed lids, each containing
about $4,000. Wells, Fargo & Co.
have about 600 offices on the coast, and
employ 1850 men. The offices extend
from here to the Missouri river, and
they have regular agents in Liverpool,
Hamburg, Bremen, etc. It takes fifteen
men to run treasure car through from
here to Ogden, and there are from two
to six and eight on all save some of the
smaller lines, while on days when there
is any considerable amount of treasure
they have an armed guard. In sending
to Mexico a treasure-room is engaged
on the steamer, in which the treasure is
packed in boxes or bags. They are put
in a square safe, which will hold $780,
600. Silver is almost always shipped
in bars. For the carriage of gold from
Fort Shaw in Montana, near the bound
airy of British Columbia, to this city
the charge is l As per cent; for carry
ing silver it is 81 per cent. on the value.
For shorter distances there is, of course,
a reduced scale of charges. No what
becomes of all the gold and silver?
In the first place, 81, 034, 537, 245 has
been sent away from San Francisco
through regular mercantile channels
during the last quarter of century.
Nearl y all this went by sea, though the
amount exported in that way has been
growing smaller, being now only small
proportion of what it was a few years
ago, before the overland railroad was
completed. OF the balance, about $40,-
100000 worth exists in the shape of
coin, jewelry, etc., on the Pacific coast
$50, 900, 900 has gone east by express,
post-office and drafts, while the balance
has been shipped from Utah, Nevada,
Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico,
Arizona, Wyoming, Oregon, Washing
ton and British Columbia on the rail
road since its completion, or by other
means of conveyance previously, and
io1 lOx-YN 70 ho
whole amount, more than 81, 100, 900, 900
worth have reached England, chiefly by
way of New York. Of that exported
by sea, more than half has gone direct
to New York, about 5000, 100000 direct
to England. nearly $4,000, 900 to
China and Japan, and the balance to
various other countries.
One noticeable change, occurring of
late years, is in the character of our
bullion product. Formerly it was all
gold or nearly so. In 1859 we began to
obtain silver, when the yield of the ar
gentiferOus lodes of Nevada aston
ished the world more than did the
placers of California, and ever since,
year by year, the quantity of silver has
been increasing, while that of gold has
nearly all the time steadily decreased.
Last year the yield of silver on the Pa
cifc coast slightly exceeded that of
gold. We have furnished the world
with gold; we shall furn sh it with sill
yer. That the silver is needed may be
well unde. stood, WHEN it is known that
India alone requires I'VE hundred mill
lion dollars worth of Asilver to supply
her wants in this respect. As to the
future prospects, the silver yield of Ne
vada, Utah and Colorado is continually
increasing, and the gold yield of the
coast will increase as soon as the vast
unworked and almost unknown re-
sources of this state are developed. l.,
in fact, may be considered that the re-
sources, auriferous and argentiferous,
of this coast have as yet only been
tested, and that the development has
yet to come. The Rocky mountains,
the backbone of the continent, the
Sierra Nevada, and the connecting
ranges, have, as yet, but been partially
prospected and may be considered the
inexhaustible storehouse of the pre-
cious metals.