The miners still occasionally take upon themselves the punishment of offenders. Recently, a half-breed Mexican, named John Bathus, having stolen $800 in gold dust from S. B. Star, on the Klamath, was caught, tried by the miners of the district, convicted, sentenced to be shot, and executed accordingly. About the same time, a man named Morrison, having committed a theft among the miners on Humbug Creek, was caught, and received twelve lashes on his bare back. These cases, however, occurred in wild districts, where the laws of the State are but imperfectly executed, and where summary measures can alone secure the miner in possession of his hard-earned property.
The Indians in the State are very troublesome, in spite of the strong regular force kept in vigilant service. The most recent disturbances have occurred in Trinity County, whither Gen. Hitchcock was compelled to despatch a company of United States troops. Prompt and vigorous measures being adopted, the savages were quieted. Other disturbances in that section of the country about the mouth of the Klamath, were terminated as promptly.
A late number of the Shasta Courier says, the Indians on Churn Creek, on the east side of the Sacramento river, have become very annoying to the whites. They have stolen a great many mules, and are constantly watching for opportunities to take human life. But recently, a man named Henry Welden, was pursued for several miles by a band of these Indians, and narrowly escaped with his life. In consequence of these outrages, a company of miners was formed for the purpose of driving the savages to a safer distance, or exterminating them. The company was equipped for efficient service in the mountains. The Indians fled before them, and could not be overtaken.
Several months previous the Indians on the Gila were incited to war by some reckless Mexicans. Several expeditions were sent against them from Fort Yumas, and recently the savages have been so far quieted, that the country is now considered safe for emigrants.
Among the new and most remarkable placers, are the gold bluffs, situated near the mouth of the Klamath river, about thirty miles north of Trinidad. The approach to them by land is over a plain of sand, into which the traveller sinks ankle-deep at every step. The bluffs stretch along some five or six miles, and present a perpendicular front to the ocean of from 100 to 400 feet in height. In ordinary weather the beach is from 20 to 50 feet in width, composed of a mixture of gray and black sand, the latter containing the gold in scales so fine that they cannot be separated by the ordinary process of washing; so that resort must be had to chemical means. The beach changes with every tide, and sometimes no black, auriferous sand is to be seen on the surface. By digging down, it is found mixed with gray sand, which largely predominates. The violence of the surf renders landing in boats impracticable. When the beach was discovered early in 1851, several tons of goods were landed from a steamer despatched thither, by means of lines from the vessel to the shore. The Pacific Mining Company have made good profits in working the bluffs and the sand of the beach.
Tunneling has been carried on quite extensively in the mining region. Some of the tunnels through solid rock are wonderful achievements. At Duggan's Flat, a party bored 150 feet in the solid rock before finding the gold.
Professor Forrest Shepherd, of New Haven, has made some remarkable discoveries of thermal action in California. In one place where there was nothing on the surface to attract attention, on digging down the heat increased so rapidly that at the depth of two feet he could not bear his hand in the earth, and the thermometer indicated a temperature of 130 degrees. At another place, after wandering for four days through dense thickets, he came upon a chasm a thousand feet deep, through which flowed a stream, the banks of which, on the 8th of February, were covered with vegetation. Following up the stream, the earth grew so hot as to burn the feet through the boots. There was no appearance of lava, and the rocks were being dissolved by a powerful catalytic action. From innumerable orifices steam was forced to the height of two hundred feet. The number of spouting geysers and boiling springs, on a half mile square, exceeded two hundred. The Professor, in the course of a lecture delivered at San Jose, said he did not doubt that silver, lead, and iron abounded in California.
The legislation of Congress in regard to California has sometimes been of a very unsatisfactory character. By an act passed in 1850, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to contract upon the most reasonable terms with the proprietors of some well-established assaying works then in successful operation in California, who should perform such duties in assaying and fixing the value of gold in grains and lumps, and in forming the same into bars, as should be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the assayer was to fix the stamp of the United States, indicating the degree of fineness and value, upon each bar or ingot. This was a measure of convenience, and the merchants of the California ports had then ample means of paying their custom house duties. In 1852, however, Congress passed an act, creating a branch mint of the United States in California: and to this act was appended a clause, repealing the act which authorized the office of Assayer, as soon as public notice was given of the creation of the branch mint. In consequence of this legislation, the Assayer's office was abolished, and yet there was no mint for coining in the golden land. Time was required for making the necessary appropriation of money, erecting buildings, and constructing machinery, all of which had not been considered. The clause of the former act which made the stamped ingots receivable for duties was repealed. The merchants of California had no means of paying their duties at the custom house, and great excitement and confusion ensued. Finally, an arrangement was made with the Collector of San Francisco, under which uncoined gold could be received in payment of duties, and then business went on as usual. Care is one of the first essentials of beneficial legislation. The circumstance that the people of California are so far from the seat of the federal government, requires a strict attention in legislators, to prevent evils which cannot be quickly remedied.
The people of California seem to be deeply interested in the construction of a great railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific. At San Diego, several meetings have been held, and reports adopted, advocating and exhibiting the advantages of a southern route for the proposed railroad. The route which the meetings favored is to start from the Gulf of Mexico or some of its tributaries, and passing through Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico to California, and strike the Pacific at San Diego. Its entire length would not exceed sixteen hundred miles, whilst it would have the advantages, as alleged by the report, of passing through a section in which universal summer prevails, and of affording opportunities for lateral roads connecting with the cities of Mexico, through which a large trade might be obtained. The subject has been brought to the consideration of Congress, and that body has prudently appropriated a large sum for a survey of the various routes proposed.