Year: 1874

1t would give us pleasure to treat
this subject as fully as its magnitude
deserves, but the limits assigned for
one article render this impossible, and
1t must be dismissed with q few gen.
eral remarks. Although the oldest
and richest mines ever discovered in
California lie within a range of one
hundred miles of Los Angeles city,
until very recently these deposits have
attracted very little attention. There
are two causes that have kept the
mining interest of this section in the
background. First-this is known to
be dry country, and without water
1t is impossible to make mining prof
liable; no matter how rich and extern
sive the deposits. Second-mankind,
and especially miners, are naturally
fond of adventure; and if these mines
were located in the deep gorges of the
Rocky Mountains, or in the midst of
the wild Apache nation; or if there
were hostile Indians between them
and civilization, and they could only
be reached by transporting provisions
and tools on pack mules, there would
be great rush of adventures to
them. But they are in the civil
ized settlements, only few
hny rrut ~ Ok frov,
the oldest city in the State and
therefore have not been considered
worthy of attention. The miners of
California will be surprised to learn
that we have silver mine within
twenty miels of. Los Angeles, that
bids fair to rival the celebrated Com
stock. Yet such is the case. DIR. WIN
STAN of this city has stuck to this
mine through thick and thin; spent a
fortune trying to develop it; friends
have advised, and enemies have
laughed at him, but in spite of all op-
position he remained with it, and has
by his own persistent energy got it so
far developed that he now sees a for
tune in sight. Mr.. TAYLOR of our
city, who has spent as much brains,
sweat, and money on the Comstock as
any man in California, has just re-
turned from DIR. WINsTAN's silver
mine on the San Gabriel. We were
surprised to hear him say that the
Comstock never showed half so favor
able on the surface, nor at the same
stage of development. But we were
more surprised when he exhibited the
ore from this mine. The metal-both
gold and silver seemed to compass
half the ore. And strange to say that
Its appearance was in all respects pre-
cisely like that of the Comstock lode.
Some five miles up the river from this
silver mine are large deposits of gold in
the placer diggings. These gravel-beds
are now being washed by different
companies. at least few of them.
There are placer beds enough on that
stream to occupy dozen large COM
panies, and there are but three at
work. They are now rapidly reim-
bursting themselves for their outlay.
That range of mountains appears to
be full of minerals. There is hardly
cafion in which you cannot pick up
rich float quartz, and several rich
ledges have recently been discovered.
The range Of mountains between the
San Gabriel and San Bernardino have
never been prospected to any extent,
and we doubt not that fine ledges will
be discovered in this range. From
San Bernardino to Holcomb valley
large and rich deposits have been dis
covered, which will soon become fam
Gus among miners. About sixty miles
from this city is the famous Temescal
tin mine, which is the largest known
deposit of tin on the American conti-
nent, and perhaps in the world. If
this deposit was in Europe, one mil
lion pounds sterling would not buy it.
But, unfortunately, for the interest of
our whole country, this mine now is
and has been in litigation for num-
Der of years. AS the mineral deposits
OF Southern California are of such
magnitude and of so varied nature
that we cannot give even an outline
of them in one article, we will only
remark here that those which we have
mentioned lay in the first range of
mountains and northeast of this city.
Those in the same range of mountains
northwest of this city are equally well
developed and generally conceded to be
more extensive and of greater value.
OF these we will speak in future.