Year: 1875

We make the following extracts from the

 Trinity county, California Journal in rela-

 ton to the cinnabar interests:

 Within couple of years, developments

 have been made which show that our coun-

 ty has an element of wealth which has thus

 far lain dormant, but the production of

 which will soon take its place among the

 leading and permanent industries of tue

 county. We alude to the cinnabar discov-

 cries, first made three years ago, but only

 lately tested to an extent to justify us

 in believing that within our Territorial lim-

 its some of the richest mines of that ore

 which the world can boast of are 10 be found

 Within few years quicksilver has so ad-

 yanced in price that it may almost be reck-

 oned as one of the precious metals.

 The constantly increasing demand for

 quicksilver, combined with the high price

 it commanded, stimulating prospecting to a great degree, and has resulted in the dIscov- cry of a number of mines of more or less value. But the new discoveries have had little or no effect upon the market price oi quicksilver, and that article of commerce is held at figure twice as great as the ruling value live years ago. The western slope of the Sierra Nevadas contained gold in abun- dance; on their eastern slope and through the mountains of the deserts of Nevada, mines Of silver abound, and it was reserved for the Coast range to furnish the deposits of quicksilver so necessary to the successful and remunerative working of the more pre- cious minerals. Napa, Lake, Colusa, Sonoma aud Mendocino counties have each in turn furnished the field of enterprise for the en- ergetic prospectors, and their lahors, to a | certain extent, have been repaid. Their dis | coverie' created quite an eXritement not so | great one, indeed, as followed the rich sil- | yer discoveries, but, for a time, the counties | we have named were throngei with pros pectors eager in the search for indications | for that ore which has of late years assumed | such prominence. Our own county was last among those in which prospecting to any extent was undertaken, but the present indications are that it will soon take rank as the leading quicksilver producing country of the State.

 The existence of rich deposits of cinnabar in this county has long been suspected From almost the earliest days of mining in the Trinity river, the presence of small par ticles of the mineral was noticed, though il was to great extent unknown. The small particles were difficult to separate from the fine river dust and nearly every ounce of dust washed out by the old fashioned meth ods of the rocker and sluice contained more or less cinnabar. When found on the low river bars the particles were small and solid those found in the higher bars and bench cs were larger in size and more easily pull verized. In heating the gold to dry it, it would be observed in the dark that the par ticles burned with blue flame; and it was also noticed that the cinnahar was thicker in | the gold washed out of "top" gravel than in that taken from strata near the bedrock 1 Still, in the search for the more valuable metal the constant presence of cinnabar was overlooked, or dismissed with passing com meat; and 1t was not until three years ago that prospecting for the source of this sup ply was inaugurated, with what now prom ses Co be the most happy results. It was ound in part of the country remote and 1ifficult Of access, and this fact, together with the high altitude at which they are sit lated, making the working season very short, ,as materially retarded their development We have no disposition to magnify or over I ate the extent or value of our cinnahar de- ,osits, hut the accounts which have come o us from reliable sources, warrant us in F he belief that the mining and manufacture f quicksilver will, ere long, become per b aanent and leading industry of the country.