It will be observed that there is a great similarity bet produced on this coast. There is probably, however, or table. The Nanaimo coal is here shown to have a very la compared with the California and Oregon coals. It is not analysis may have been based on a poorer specimen than Professor Whitney assures me that it looked like a fair sa

The subjoined table exhibits the amount of coal receiv since the year 1860. It does not, however, give the full y inasmuch as small quantities of our domestic coals are ship and used in the vicinity of the mines. It will be seen, ho the figures are, the demand is steadily increasing, and the supplying this demand for many years to come:

Imports of coal into San Francisco since 1

T

9

5

8

1

39

49

In consequence of the present high price of fuel and la of the iron resources of the Pacific coast has not received their magnitude and importance demand. There are num posits of all descriptions of iron ores in all the States a coast. Thus far there has been but one furnace erected

this ore to metal. This establishment is located near St. Helens, within a short distance of the Columbia river, in Oregon, where there is an exceedingly fine body of ore, conveniently located with reference to fuel and water transportation. Arrangements are in progress for the erection of similar works in other places. One is in course of construction in Sierra county, California, about fifteen miles above Downieville, where there is a very large body of ore, which assays from 60 to 75 per cent. There is some talk of erecting a smelting works in the, vicinity of San Francisco for the purpose of reducing the grains of specular iron ore found in great abundance among the sand on the shores of the bay.

The consumption of pig-iron in California is rapidly increasing, as the demands for machinery multiply.

In 1859 the foundries at San Francisco consumed

5,000 tons.
6,500 do.

..do.. ..do...

6, 500 do.

5,000 do.

10,000 do.

14,000 do.

20,000 do.

20,000 do.

There is probably as much more used in the interior of that State, Nevada, and Oregon.

LIST OF THE ORES OF METALS FOUND ON THE PACIFIC COAST.

Copper, silver, antimony, manganese, iron, lead, arsenic, magnesium, tin, zinc, bismuth molybdenum, chromium, tellurium, mercury, nickel, cobalt.

NON-METALLIC MINERALS.

Marble, alabaster, sulphate of lime, carbonate of lime, kaolin, pipe-clay, fullers' earth, sulphur, borax, fire-clay, soapstones, asbestos, lithographers' stone, petroleum, asphaltum, salt, alum, emery, coal, blacklead.

BUILDING MATERIALS.

Granites, sandstones, limestones and marbles, slates, brick clays, &c.

GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES.

Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, garnets, beryl, topaz, agates, jaspers, cornelians, opals, sapphires, egmarin, &c.

SECTION 8.

MINING REGION, POPULATION, ALTITUDE, ETC.

1. Mining region and mining population.-2. Main divisions.-3. Altitudes.-4. Climate.5. Capacity to maintain a large population.-6. Number of miners.-7. Timber.

1. THE MINING REGION AND THE MINING POPULATION.

All that portion of our continent west of the Rocky mountains is, we may say in general terms, rich in minerals, and especially in gold, silver, and copper. The western slope of Mexico has produced more silver during the last three hundred years than all the rest of the world. Arizona has rich placers and valuable veins of silver and copper; Nevada has silver; California, gold, silver, and copper; Oregon, gold; Idaho, gold and silver; Montana and British Columbia, gold. The lower part of the basin of the Columbia and the upper H. Ex. Doc. 29-13

J

part of the basin of the Colorado are comparatively poor. the interior basin are of silver; the richest in the basins are of gold.

The American territory on the Pacific slope has an are miles, and is divided by well marked topographical feat divisions :

1. The coast, which includes a strip about 150 miles wid Nevada and Cascade mountains.

2. The basin of the Colorado, which includes all of Ari and southern parts of Utah.

3. The basin of the upper Columbia, which includes ne portions of Oregon, Washington Territory, Utah, and Mont 4. The interior basin, which includes most of Nevada a Oregon and Idaho.

These divisions, or basins, are separated from one anoth ranges, but the only divide which has been carefully trac the maps is that east of the coast basin. The ridges which basin from the Columbia on the north, and from the Co have not been precisely laid down. The interior basin number of independent minor basins, all of which are hig natural condition, desolate; although there are a few valley of man have been irrigated and cultivated. Along the coas tities of rain fall; the surface of the earth is, in the low deep mould, and there is a luxurious vegetation, especi Washington, where the forests on the mountains are so den hope for the discovery of minerals among them. But in t terior, the upper Columbia and the Colorado, there is little the mountains are steep, the rocks are bare, and mineral vei and traced.

The poverty of the country in agricultural resources is its great advantages for mining.

The American mining regions of the Pacific slope, like where, are mountainous. The gold mines of California a tions-from 500 to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. rises in many places to a height of 9,000 feet, or even comb of the ridge to the level land of the valley, the dist is from forty to fifty miles; and the descent of the streams, is more than a hundred feet to the mile. With the rapidi quent on such a descent, they have worn very deep channel high intermediate hills. It is on the side of the mountain cañons that most of the mining of California is done. T of the placers of the Sacramento basin may be estimated lowest mining towns never have snow or ice for more tha time, while in the highest the snow lies every year four ⚫ racing on snow-shoes is one of the common winter amusem the valley of Klamath river are at an elevation of about 2,5 mines of Kearsarge, in California, are 10,000 feet above t mines of Alpine county are 6,000 feet high. The mines on are from 5,500 to 6,500 feet high. The Reese River min of about 7,000 feet. The Idaho mines vary in height from The mines of Arizona are at various elevations-from 300 to

on the banks of the Colorado river are probably as near the level of the sea as any in the world. The quicksilver mine of New Almaden is 1,000 feet above ⚫the sea.

The following are the elevations in feet above the sea of some of the principal mining towns:

Herschel lays down the rule that the temperature sinks one degree of Fahrenheit for each 350 feet of elevation.*

In the coal mining districts of Monte Diablo, and at the quicksilver mine of New Almaden, the climate is very mild and equable. The sea breeze is felt nearly every summer day, and a temperature of 90° is rare. The heat of the sun's rays is broken by the cool winds and fogs from the ocean, and the evenings are invariably cool, so that though light cotton garments may be pleasant for wear at noon, woollen are in demand before sunset, and every night, even in July and August, good blankets are prized.

In winter ice is seldom formed, and not once in a year does it last through a day, and if snow falls it is only on high peaks. Skating, snow-balling, and sleigh-riding are amusements which cannot be enjoyed here. Fogs are not uncommon in the summer, but they always disappear after the sun has been up a few hours, and two-thirds of the days of the year are cloudless. There is no rain from May to November, and during the rainy season the amount of water that falls is twenty-two inches, or about half of the quantity that falls at New York or Philadelphia in a year. Thunder and lightning are very rare, and such violent electric storms as are frequent every summer in the Mississippi valley are unknown on the coast of California. It may safely be said that no climate in the world is more favorable to the health and activity of man, or more conducive to the comfort of the laborer.

As we leave the coast the moderating influences of the sea breezes are lost, and the winters are colder and the summers warmer. At the lowest mining camps east of Sacramento, although the winters are very mild, yet ice and snow in small bodies are often seen for two or three consecutive days, and the summers are intensely hot; and, indeed, in all the mining districts of California the summers are warm, even at high elevations, especially in the deep cañons,

*Physical Geography, by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, page 226.

where the breezes are not felt, and where the heat of the s rocks and reflected down upon the mining camps below.

In the valleys and lower part of the mountains the h May to October, the thermometer standing as high as 85° day for month after month. There is no rain usually in t the sky is almost cloudless; the bare earth appears to be the summer and fall; heats are therefore higher than in blessed with abundant vegetation and frequent showers the the same latitude. But the nights are always cool, espec and as we rise in latitude on the mountain sides, we find nei and the summers are shorter and cool days more frequent. altitude of two thousand five hundred feet, frosts come in the latitude of San Francisco, frosts occur every mon about five thousand feet, and snow lies on the ground for s of the year. In the higher mining camps of Sierra count five to ten feet deep, every winter, for months, and the mi from the roofs of their cabins to save them from being cru and cut tunnels under the snow from cabin to cabin, and p they can travel over the surface of the snow if necessa part of the year the country is arctic in its appearance, and in its temperature.

In the lower mining districts of the southern part of S heat is almost torrid. At Millerton, in the San Joaquin temperature for three summer months has been as high as 1 there are winds so hot that they blister the skin. The am fornia increases as we rise in altitude and latitude. Tha Thus, at San Diego, in latitude 32°, the annual rain-fall i Francisco, in latitude 37° 48', it is 22 inches; and at Hu tude 4° 46', it is 34 inches. Those places are all at the le the sea-coast; five additional inches of rain may be adde feet of altitude. So it may be said that in the latitude of at the height of 2,000 feet on the sierra have 32 inches places 4,000 feet high have 42 inches; those 6,000 have 5 $,000 feet 62 inches. These are general deductions from tions taken at different points; but they must not be rega invariable. The higher the altitude the greater the differe different years, and the stronger the influence of topograph termining the amount of fall within a limited area.

Much more water usually falls on that side of a mount storm comes than on the other. At an altitude of 3,000 fe quantities of snow fall; but in the estimate of the amount tains given above, a foot of snow is equivalent to a little m water. But north af California, or east of the Sierra Ne other climates. At Fort Yuma, 100 miles east of San Dieg much rain falls as at the latter place, and most of the rai winter, but in the summer. The rainy season of Arizona a ley is the dry season of the coast of California. All t climate is dry and the summers hot, but the winters are some of the higher mining districts.

Nevada and Utah are high, dry, arid, and desolate. The the rain-fall, and therefore no water can be spared for th swallowed up in sinks or lakes, in basins surrounded by mou If the fall exceeded the evaporation, the waters would rise u overflow, and at the outlet a channel would be worn thro until much of the inner lakes were drained, and at the botto bodies of sand, gravel, and loam would be deposited, suitabl