The wonders of the world

by John Loraine Abbott

The mountains of Spain were, according to ancient writers, very rich in gold and silver; and accordingly Gibbon calls that kingdom, “the Peru and Mexico of the old world.” He adds, that “the discovery of the rich western continent of the Phenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labor in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America.” The Phenicians were acquainted only with the sea-coasts of Spain; but avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with gold, silver and copper. A mine near Carthagena, is said to have yielded daily twenty-five thousand drams of silver, or over thirteen hundred thousand dollars a year. The provinces of Asturia, Gallicia and Lusitania, yielded twenty thousand pounds’ weight of gold annually: but rich as these mines are, the modern Spaniards have chosen rather to import the precious metals from America, than to seek them at home.

Portugal is in many parts mountainous; and these mountains contain, beside others, rich ores of silver. But the Portuguese, like the Spaniards, having been supplied with metals from South America, and particularly with an abundance of gold and silver from Brazil, have not worked the mines in their own country. Gems of all kinds, as turkoises and hyacinths, are also found in these mountains, together with beautifully variegated marbles, and many curious fossils.

But the richest and most productive gold mines of Europe, at the present time, are probably those of Russia. It had long been known that gold was to be found in the Russian dominions; but in 1829, Baron Humboldt, with two scientific associates, at the request of the emperor of Russia, made a mineralogical tour to the Ural and Altai mountains. In this journey, they not only discovered new localities of gold and silver, but from the geological features of the country suggested that, at certain localities, diamonds would also probably be found, which accordingly happened. And as the result of the report they made to the Russian government, mining operations were commenced on a large scale in these mountains, which have now become one of the most prolific gold regions in the world. The increase of these sources of gold, in extent and amount, has been such, that from the value of about ten thousand dollars in 1836, the amount received in 1843, was some eighteen millions of dollars; and the supply has since increased annually, until at present, 1855, it amounts to about twenty million dollars a year. Most of this large amount of gold is gathered from washing the sand and loose earth, and not from deep mines; and as it is every year becoming greater and greater, it must add immensely to the wealth and resources of the Russian empire.

But by far the greatest gold-field in the world, has been opened by the discoveries of the last few years in California. At the close of the late war with Mexico, the United States acquired, by conquest and purchase, a tract of country of some five hundred thousand square miles in extent, known as the Mexican territory of upper California. And from the western portion of this region, Congress, in 1850, created and admitted into the American confederacy, the thirty-first state, under the name of California. It is almost superfluous to say, that California is one of the most important mineral regions in the world, particularly in its deposits of gold. Vague notions of the existence of this gold, had from time to time been spread abroad; but it was not till 1848, that an accident discovered the marvelous fact of its abundance. In that year, a Mr. Sutter, a native of Switzerland, was settled near the mouth of the American fork of the Sacramento river, at the head of navigation, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. Here he had founded New Helvetia, and obtained a grant of thirty miles round. He had sent some men to the upper part of the American fork, to clear out a mill-race. The soil was washed down in the process, and some shining scales laid bare. These proved to be gold, and on investigation, not only the valley of this stream, but the beds of all the other streams running into the Sacramento, were found to have a soil full of gold, in minute scales and in bits, from a grain to many ounces in weight. New “placers,” as the “washings,” or “dry diggings” are called, have constantly been discovered, and people have rushed to these hills from all quarters, with pans, tubs, pickaxes, shovels, hoes, filtering-machines, and energetic sinews, till they have extracted, by digging, washing, &c., millions on millions of dollars’ worth of the yellow treasure. Gold is now found over an extent of many hundred miles, and also on the Gila, and throughout the great central plateau, north and north-east of it.

In a favorable locality, the lucky finder of a placer will sift out hundreds of dollars’ worth in a day. Persons with not a shirt to their backs, and scarcely a whole garment upon them, are seen with bags of gold in their hands. Prices of everything went up at once to an enormous rate: laborer’s wages became eight or ten dollars a day; cooks at the diggings, ten dollars a day; clerks, fifteen hundred dollars to six thousand dollars per annum, &c., &c. As all the productive industry of the country is now turned to gold-digging, and as such vast numbers of consumers are flocking in from all parts, prices continue to range high for every article of necessity, although such large quantities of goods have been sent.

GOLD WASHING IN CALIFORNIA.

The gold first discovered was evidently not in its original place, but had been washed down from higher regions; and when all that is thus spread through the sands of California shall have been exhausted, if it ever shall be, there are large bodies of auriferous quartz, which (with greater labor and expense) will doubtless afford large supplies of gold for generations to come. The amount of capital invested in quartz-mining, according to the state census of 1852, was about six millions, and in placer and other mining operations, about four millions of dollars; and the sum total of these amounts has been greatly increased since that date. Up to the close of 1851, there had been deposited in the United States mint, $98,407,990 of California gold; and the deposits of 1852 amounted to $46,528,076, making a total of $145,000,000. But all this falls far short of the real amount produced; as probably quite as much more has been sent to Europe in the shape of dust or bullion, not to mention the unreported sums which have been privately taken out of the state. An official estimate states the production of American gold in 1853, at $109,156,748; and of this sum nearly the whole is from the mines of California. And this vast amount is steadily on the increase, in about the proportion of the increase of the mining population, so that California not only is, but is likely to continue to be the great gold-field of the world.

Before leaving California, it may not be amiss to add, that the country abounds in mines of almost every kind, as well as gold. Quicksilver, plaster, lead, iron, silver, copper, asphaltum and marble, are found in Butte, and also in Marion county; rich silver mines and coal, in San Louis Obispo; copious salt springs, in Shasta; bituminous springs, in many places along the coast; hot sulphur springs, in Santa Barbara; warm soda springs, near Benicia; and platina is said to be widely distributed in almost every section where gold has been found. Silver has been discovered in several mines in the southern district; copper is widely distributed in other sections beside those above-mentioned; chromium occurs in large quantities in the serpentine rocks; and diamonds are reported to have been recently found in several localities.