In this island, called California, there were a great many griffins, the like, on account of the ruggedness of the land and the very many wild beasts therein contained, were not found in any other part of the world; and when they had little ones, these women would go covered with thick skins to catch them by tricks, and they would bring them to their caves and there rear them; and when they were accustomed to them, they would feed them with those men and with the male children they bore, so often and with such cunning that they very well learned to know them, and never did them any harm. Any man who landed on the island was at once killed and eaten by them; and though they might be glutted, they would not the less take them and lift them up, flying through the air, and when tired of carrying them, they would let them fall, where they would be killed at once. Well, at the time when those great men of the pagans departed with those large fleets, as history has already told you, there reigned in said Island California a Queen very tall of stature, very handsome for one of them, of blooming age, desiring in her thoughts to do great deeds, valiant in spirit, and in cunning of her fearless heart, more so than any of the others that before her reigned in that seigniory. And having heard how the greatest part of the world was moving in that expedition against the Christians, she, not knowing what beings were the Christians, nor having any knowledge of other countries except those which were next to hers, wishing to see the world and its different races, thinking that with her great valor and that of her adherents all that would be gained she would have, by force or by cunning, the largest share of, she spoke with all those that were skillful in war, telling them that it would be well that, going in their great fleets, they should follow the same road that those great princes and eminent men were taking, inciting and encouraging them by laying before them the very great honor and gain that might result to them from that undertaking; above all, the great fame that would resound in the whole world about them; that remaining in the island as they were, doing nothing but what their ancestors had done, would be only to be buried in life, like living dead, passing their days without fame and without glory, like wild animals.

So many things said to them by that very valiant Queen Calafia, that she not only moved her people to consent to the undertaking, but they, with their great desire that their fame should be published in many parts, hurried her to put to sea at once, so as to happen to be in the danger jointly with those great men. The Queen, who saw the determination of her people, ordered her great fleet to be supplied with provisions, and with arms all of gold and with all other necessaries; and she ordered the repairing of her largest vessel, made like a grate of thick timbers, and she had put into her up to five hundred griffins, which, as you have been told, she had raised from tender age and fed with the flesh of men, and having therein also put the animals on which they rode, and which were of different kinds; also, the best chosen and best armed women which were in the fleet, and, leaving such garrison in the island as to be secure, she put to sea with the others, and she hurried so much that she joined the fleets of the pagans the night of the combat, of which you have been told, which caused them all very great pleasure, and then she was visited by those great lords, who showed her great reverence. She wanted to know in what state was their enterprise, begging them to relate it to her minutely; and having heard the report from them, she said: "You have fought this city with your many people and could not take it; well, I with mine, if it is agreeable to you, will, on the following day, try the reach of my power, if you will accept my advice." All those great lords answered her, that whatever was by her indicated, they would order it executed. "Then notify at once all the other commanders that to-morrow, on no account, they nor theirs leave their quarters, until it is so ordered by me, and you shall see a fight the most strange never seen before this day, and of which you never have heard spoken." This was then made known to the great Sultan of Liquia and the Sultan of Halapa, who had charge of all the armies which were on land, and who thus ordered their people, wondering much what could be the thought and deed of that Queen.

GENERAL CONDITION OF MINING IN CALIFORNIA.

California is just emerging from a condition of things that will be remembered for many years to come with regret and astonishment, and which will pass to history as one of those periodic manias which come over mankind like a calamity and shake the very foundations of society.

If the majority of the people of the Pacific Coast should be informed that instead of having been engaged in mining, they have simply been gambling, and have in the most foolish manner possible, given up their money to a comparatively few unscrupulous and dishonest sharpers, they would be slow to admit the fact, yet perhaps in the annals of history, there has never been such a wholesale transfer of money from a multitude of pockets to a few, without consideration, under the deceptive but fascinating name of mining.

Stock gambling is in no sense mining. It is a favorite excuse by those who have lost their savings in this way, to say sadly, "I invested all my

money in mines and lost it," which most of them did not, but bought worthless stocks instead. To recount the most successful deceptions that have been practiced to induce those who had money to invest it in stocks, would fill many pages and leave much more to be said. Still honest gold and silver mining presents the best field for the investment of capital of any business in California, for the following reasons:

Gold is becoming scarce, and consequently its purchasing power is greater than it has been for many years. The market for gold is in no way dependent on the population of the Pacific Coast; while a large population is essential to render manufacturing successful. We can produce gold with perfect confidence that the market of the world will gladly take all we are willing to spare, and in return will manufacture for us cheaper than we can hope or desire to do for ourselves.

Mines can now be worked in California at a much less cost than during the delirium of the first gold excitement, for the reason that transportation, provisions, labor, and fuel are cheaper; and every ounce of gold obtained is practically of double value. These facts are well known to intelligent miners in the State, and our mines are being better worked than ever before. New quartz veins are being taken up wherever they can be found; and there are indications of a new era in mining, which, it is to be hoped, will cause renewed prosperity in the State, even if we cannot utilize our vast deposits of placer gold.

MINING ECONOMIES.

Within a few years railroad lines have been extended and settlements advanced. Ores that could only be worked if they would yield from twenty-five to fifty dollars per ton are now found to be rich, as they can be mined and milled at a very reduced expense. Dump piles, formerly considered worthless, are now valued at many thousands of dollars. Tailings, allowed to go to waste in former years, are now being prospected and assayed. The concentration of these tailings will furnish employment for many men in the near future.

When on a large scale gold quartz has been crushed in quartz mills, a sandy powder passes through the screens and over the amalgamating copper plates. Theoretically the gold contained in the quartz remains attached to the mercury; what flows away (which is nearly all that passes the screens) is known among miners as tailings. If the operation of milling was as perfect in practice as in theory, the tailings would be worthless, but this is not the case; not only does a considerable quantity of gold escape, but mercury also. The sulphurets, which are nearly always auriferous, are not decomposed in the operation, and carry their precious contents with them to the beds of the streams below the mills, or to the reservoirs, which the most prudent of superintendents or managers provide for the reception of the tailings. The ordinary quartz mill saves only free gold, and even a portion of that escapes, owing to defective milling, and the sometimes peculiar condition of the gold, which has been before referred to in these reports. Mercury is used in the batteries, and on the plates, but, notwithstanding the skill acquired by the amalgamators, and the experience of many years in California, a considerable portion escapes, taking gold with it that had already become amalgamated. To prevent this well known loss many ingenious inventors have spent years of their lives and much money in the construction of machines and in the planning of processes, many of which have been patented, until the art of concentration has reached a point approaching perfection. But there is still

room for improvement. There is a great future in California for the concentration of tailings and low grade ores which were wasted during the time of excitement, when it was found to be more profitable to extract gold and silver from the pockets of the credulous than from the mines. In this connection it is interesting to note that companies are now engaged, with large capital, in working the lead slags of Laurium in Greece, and other ancient mines in Spain, and with great profit.

The following newspaper extracts have a special bearing on this subject:

In cleaning up in quartz mills a lot of scraps of iron are always found, consisting of fragments from shoes, dies, shovels, picks, hammers, and drills; and these lumps are knocked about in the mortar until numerous particles of gold are driven into their interstices. A lot of such scraps collected in the Jefferson Mill, in Yuba County, supposed to weigh half a ton, after being broken up with sledges, were digested in warm sulphuric acid until the surface had been eaten away and the gold liberated, and the yield thus obtained was $3,000. The shoes and dies, being too large to be broken up or digested in acid, were boiled half an hour in water, and then when the iron was repeatedly struck with a hammer, the particles of gold dropped out.

The Pennsylvania Company have run a lot of tailings, formerly considered worthless, through one of Wheeler & Randall's grinding pans, and cleaned up eighty-four ounces of amalgam, worth $5 per oz.

In some comments yesterday on the new drift of mining industries, the more extreme instances of the working of low grade ores were not cited. In Calaveras County during the last two years more than eighty thousand tons of quartz rock have been worked by one mill, the yield of which rock was less than two dollars a ton. And yet this mine was worked at a profit-the yield per ton ranging from one dollar and eighty cents up to about one dollar and ninety-five cents. The assays show that the rock carried more gold. But this is all that could be saved by any process now known. Of course, when the yield per ton is so small, there must be many advantages of working. The quartz must be abundant, and there must be no long land transportation. It would appear from these and other facts that low grade gold quartz can be worked with as much advantage now in California as in Australia, or in any other part of the world. These facts are of special importance just now, while fresh attention has been turned to gold quartz mining in Californía. Gold bearing ledges will not hereafter be neglected because of low grade ores. Nothing comes amiss now in that way from two-dollar ore in good situations up to twenty-dollar quartz in more remote and less accessible districts.

The value of the gold in the tailings not only of the quartz mines, but the hydraulic mines, is something enormous. It is considered by the most practical miners in California that at least one half the gold in placer mining is lost-or, rather, not saved. The loss of mercury may be reckoned by hundreds, if not thousands, of tons. This can to a great extent be recovered by reworking and concentration. This subject is well worthy the attention of laborers and capitalists.

IMPORTANCE OF GOLD AND GOLD MINING.

It cannot be denied that the love of gold is widespread, intense, and universal. It is vain to argue that gold is not an absolute necessity-to say that we cannot eat or wear it; that it is heavy and cumbersome-for we learn both in ancient and modern history that from the earliest ages mankind would sacrifice almost everything else for gold, and would even risk their lives to obtain it. The producers of all other staples, and the manufacturers of all articles of use and luxury, will gladly transport them from the ends of the earth and lay them at the feet of the miner in exchange for his yellow gold.

During a golden age, such as that through which we have just passed, real and personal property increase enormously. Without gold it would be impossible that there should be so many men possessing great wealth,

known as millionaires. The country that produces, holds, or utilizes the most gold, makes the greatest progress, and advances most rapidly in civilization and power. The discovery of gold in California stimulated commerce and manufactures and general progress more than any event in modern history, and its effect was felt over the whole civilized world. Without it the Pacific railroads would not so soon have been built, nor would the advancement of the Pacific Coast have been so rapid.

There has never perhaps been a period when labor has been so well paid and the world progressed as during the recent golden age, for in all former gold excitements the precious metal was extracted by slave or convict labor, and enriched kings instead of the people. While it is true that the thirst. for gold brings in its train many evils, it must also be admitted that it is productive of much good. It begins to be realized by the world generally what a powerful lever or motor gold is to commerce, manufactures, and trade; that on the product of distant gold fields depends the rise and fall of prices, including salaries, in countries not producing gold, and whether trade and manufactures shall thrive or languish. In the United States the importance of our gold production is too often wholly disregarded, or but slightly considered.

Gold is true wealth. It cannot be destroyed by fire or by the action of ordinary chemical agents, and will always command its bullion value in whatever state or condition it may be. It is not only wealth in itself, but is the accepted measure of all other values. There is no other description of real property that can be so readily turned to account as gold. It seeks no market; on the contrary, all branches of trade and commerce seek it.

In digging for gold, the most desired of all products, natural or artificial, the miner becomes a consumer of all other products, and has at the same time the power to purchase them, conditions which render trade or barter most active. In the exchange of commodities-the business of the merchant-nothing is produced; the world is accommodated, but actual wealth is not increased. So with the manufacturer. He adds to the value of the crude material, but adds nothing to the actual wealth of the world. The agriculturist also produces what is consumed as food, and must be reproduced from the same source. But the real wealth of the world is derived from its crude products, generally dependent upon mining. The checking of gold mining, then, in our State, becomes a very serious matter, and affects not only California, but the United States and the world. Since it can be shown that our great and exceptional prosperity for many years was owing to the advantage we derived from our prolific gold fields, is it not more than possible that we have made a great mistake in crippling the most important producers, the gold miners?

The failure of any legitimate harvest is felt far beyond the area of its production. Thus the sudden cessation of the cotton crop in the Southern States, during the civil war, was the cause of great and widespread destitution among the mill operatives of Great Britain. In the same way the decrease of the gold crop of California not only places the people of our State at great disadvantage, but is felt in the general depression of business and the stringency of the money market in the country at large.

When the supply of gold diminishes suddenly, there follows a series of financial crises, so calamitous and far reaching that the most distant lands suffer in common with us. It can be shown that the present shrinkage in values, which is distressing the laboring classes at home and abroad, is the direct result of this decrease of gold, and is only a repetition of what has occurred many times in history under similar conditions.

If you ask ten men of average intelligence the cause of the present

general stringency of the times, the uneasiness of capital, the clashing between laborer and employer, the uprising of the many against the few, the stagnation of trade the world over, the apparent overproduction of manufactures and crude material, each would give a different answer, and probably none of them would be the full solution of the question. The primary and immediate cause is the scarcity of gold. Other minor influences are generally local, and nearly all of them hinge on the former.

The best thinkers and financiers of Europe assume that the production of gold is less than the requirements, and gold coinage is nearly suspended. Assuming, therefore, the fall of prices to be caused by the diminished gold production, we must admit that if this were gradual, it would occasion no serious distress. It is the sudden diminution that causes the disturbance. Our people have the same elements of prosperity, but cannot divert the property they possess, or exchange to mutual advantage as when gold was plentiful. It is claimed that gold is hoarded in bank and Government treasuries. If this was so, the very necessity of the case would cause it to be brought out and used. The real truth is that it is scarce, and becoming more so, and unless new and prolific gold fields are discovered, the present depressed condition of trade will continue until prices adjust themselves to the increased value of gold.

Because the management of our gold and silver mines has too often been unwise and extravagant, and because in the days of our plenty we have disregarded small things, it should not be charged that the business itself is defective. On the contrary, its excellence is proved by its frequent success, even under admitted mismanagement.

Gold mining is a legitimate, honorable, and interesting occupation, and, when properly conducted, as safe as any that can be mentioned. The Government of Victoria, in Australia, already realizes how important to the Colonies and the mother country is the continued production of gold, and has enacted laws to assist the prospectors in discovering and working new gold fields; while California, with less wisdom and foresight, discourages mining. It should be the policy of our State, as of other countries, to turn her vast mineral resources to the best account. Instead of crippling the gold miner, he should be encouraged and afforded special facilities for his work. Instead of treating him as a public enemy, he should be regarded as a useful and important agent in maintaining the wealth of the country. Instead of stopping the work of those who injure without malice a small portion of the agricultural lands of the State, we should rather consider the vast importance of the gold yield, and seek some remedy or formulate some plan, whereby the miner may continue his work and the farmer at the same time be protected.

BIMETALISM.

While it cannot be denied that gold is the king of metals, and that all values are measured directly or indirectly by it, silver and other inferior metals should not be scorned. From present indications California will become a large silver-producing State. Having had a period of gold production, a new era of silver begins to dawn upon us. It is known that at various times in the world's history, after an unusual output of gold, when that metal became scarce some inferior metal was substituted for it. Silver was at first taken for this purpose, but copper, and even iron, were also used for money. To this extent bimetalism is admissible and possible, but any attempt to establish and to long maintain a fixed relative value between any two or more metals, must result in failure.

The idea of sustaining a double standard is an absurdity. The word