Volume 17 (1868) (428 pages)

370, The Mining and Scientific Press. What May Happen in Africa. Simultaneously with the announcement that Livingstone is approaching the Zanzihar Ceast, we have another, that immense and very ricb gold fields have beeu discovered in South Africa. Grand expectations are predicted on the explorations of the great traveller, which have just been hrought to a close, and from the development of the auriferous region ahout to commence. A mining fever has broke out, as it did in California and in Australia, and already a swelling tide of emigration has set toward the inviting placers. So far the movement has been atteuded by all the manifestations which so peculiarly distinguished the migrations to the Pacific slope and to the ocean isle. Transportation from Cape Town to the diggings, by every means of conveyance, is eagerly sought, and is procurable ouly at the most exorbitaut charges. This has led to the formation of acompany to furnish a regular intercommunication for passengers at reasonable rates. Thus does the frontier of civilization in Africa, which heretofore has clung to the coasts, threaten to extend more than a thousand miles into the interior from the southern extremity, and three or four hundred miles west of the eastern shore. A vast foreign population suddenly transferred to the central wilds of the great contineut which has heen almost a sealed hook for so many ages, with all the accessories, pursuits, hahits and ambitions of civilized life, caunot but leave a permanent impress upon the conntry, and to lead to the most wonderful realizations. Thousands and thousands of European and American inhabitants cannot be brought togetber without causing utilitarian development on a cyclopean scale. A village of bush arbors adjaceut to a gold gulch would not long remain without undergoing the changes of a transformation scene, ending in an array of pretentious buildings, and a community subjected to some sort of municipal government. Let mining prove a remunerative operation, and the growth would he steady and rapid. Newspapers would become indispensable, and the demand would soon be abundautly supplied. Just imagine the fact of regular journalistic advices from the interior of Africa! As the country filled up with gold hunters and other adventurers, and as the auriferous prodnet found its way into the world’s markets, lines of steamers from several important ports would connect witb the coast of Africa. Any considerable continuauce of such a state of things could not fail to plant the germs of enduring government amid the wilds of the mining region. Being the outgrowth of fortuitous cireumstances, and snrrounded by allthe elements of democratic equality, the natural tendency would he to the formation of a republican organism. Monarchical institutions could scarcely arise ont of a community of interests so suddenly created, causing so speedy a necessity for a scheme of polity. It is almost needless to promise that adventurous explorations would soon hegin to diverge in many directionsfrom the center of population, resulting in a multitude of valuable and curious discoveries, leadiug to a topographical description of distant regions, and adding much information to our scaut knowledge of interior Africa. Who can tell what revealments might not be made, or what new influences might not be set at work upon the world’s progress ? Tbe central wilds of that vast continent are as little known to civilized man as was tbe Mississippi Valley when our forefathers were fighting for civil and political liberty. Since then every acre of the valley’s soil bas become a familiar spot, andit promises, at no far distant day, to be tbe seat of commercial empire, and the center of population in North America. The obscurity aud solitude which now envelop tbe iuterior of Africa, are not, therefore, to be estimated as very serious ohstacles in its spcedy development, should not other conditions interveue, The gold discoveries of California were the efficient instruments of building up that territory to tbe stature of a full growu State witbin two years. Pour a steady stream of immigration into tbe mining regions of interior Africa, and similar manifestations might reasonahly he expected. Such a contingency affords groundwork for many curious speculations ahout the resulting influences upon migration, upon commeree, upon gold value, aud upon the fugue status of Africa itself.—Chicago Repubican, Werte Gunpowpenris made of the following ingredients, wbich are pulverized separately and then mixed with a spatula or by sifting many times: Chlorate of potash, 48 parts, yellow prussiate of potash (dry) 28 parts, sugar (dry) 23 parts, THe Desrre oF Invention.—Wben the grandfather of our queen ascended the throne in 1760, there were no steam engines as we now understand tbe term. Even Adam Smith, who wrote so profoundly and so prophetically upon the wealth of nations, did not live to see a pnddling furnace or a rolling mill, nor did Dvr. Darwiu survive tosee a power loom, nor did Pitt or Fox, although both died less than a full lifetime ago, ever hold a steam-printed sheet in their hands. It is not yet fity years siuce the deatb of Watt, yet he saw but the dawn of steam navigation, and Sir Humphrey Davy passed away before there were such things as railways, the self-acting spinning mule, or the hot hlast. To Telford’s latest days there was neither ocean steam navigation, electric telegraphs, nor photography; and it is too recently for any reference to living memory, that we have had the india-rubher manufacture, the discovery of anzesthetics, screw propulsion, wrought iron hridges, ivon ship-building, the coal oi! manufacture, suhmarine telegraphs, the Bessemer process, steam cultivation, and a host of inventionsand discoveries of less, yet remarkable importance. But the stimulus of invention is just now wanting; there is a languor of practical inqniry, and we appear, indeed, to have but few subjects for practical discussion. Whoever would set going ideas of practical promise now wonld render a great service tous all. We have well nigb worked out the questions whicb so occupied the profession but a few yearsago. ‘There is little said now about high pressure steam, high piston speed, surface condensation, superheating; about sizes, forms, or proportions of ships, about locomotives or railway construction, ahout ordnance and armor, steam plowing or gas making, about hridges, fouudations, waterworks and pumping machinery, and a dozen other topics upon which, so lately, there was so much differeuce of opinion. There are subjects left for discussion, but we hear little of them. Of these are steam-worked tramways, the disposal of sewage, the use of liquid fuel, hydraulic propulsion, artificial stone, etc., to say uothing of aérial locomotion. More power to the elbow of every one who has uudertaken to adnance these ideas; more nous to those who will undertake to give us uew ones. We are all stagnating as we are, and only a new iuventiou, or a new idea of practical applicability, will givo us fresh life. WHIcH SHALL BE THE GREsTEST.—Besides minerals, there are three or four productive interests in this State, for each of which some oue, in imitation of a wellkuown phrase, makes a claim to be ‘‘king.” Wheat, in fact, is the ouly interest that oe could make such a boast with any show of trutb. The others, as yet, are only aspirants for the honor. The people of Napa, Sonoma and Los Angeles, claim that the grape shall be king. Prevost, of Sau José, Messrs. Haynie & Hoag, of Sacramento, and Muller, of Nevada, claim that silk will take precedence of every other interest. If Flint, Bixby & Co. were asked, they would point to tbe green-hill pastures and to a flock of well-bred sbeep, only exceeded in uumbers by two others in the world, and arene that wool would some day be kiug. The fact is there will he no king. Wheat, wine, silk, wool, gold, silver, and even other mineral and vegetable productions, will divide the houor amoug tbem. Some one interest will possihly take precedence over any other siugle interest, aud assume a more important position in our export returns, hut which it shall be who can tell? And what it may he is not important. No interest is ever likely to spring up in this State that will override auy other two or three interests; certainly none can ever rise that will override in importauce and exceed in amount the sum of all other exports when added togetber in one grand total. Neither wheat, wine, wool, silk, or precious metals willever be king. Tbere will be a commonwealth of commerce aud home production, in which, though the individual elements may differ in consideration, none will assume to rule all others. Tbe export trade will uever be governed by a product that will style itself king, hut will be ruled by the many after the manner of our own Repuhlic.— Bulletin. Brrrtsu Mineraus Raisep in 1867.—We extract the following figures from tbe ‘<Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom for 1867 ”—by Robert Hunt, F.R.8.: Tons, Value, COD. cre eessccecnnscensscens 104,500,480 £26,125 145 Iron Ore «+ 10,022,053 3,210,098 . Tin Ore 13,649 694,7% Copper Ore 158,544 699,693 Lead Ore. 93,432, 1,153,066 Zinc Ore. 13,489 Patent Office People. The father-in-law of your Senator, Henderson, Nr. Elisha Foot, seerus to be handliug the Patent Office with ability. It is the current belief in Washington that this department of the Government is not without corruption, but the agents and lawyers whose offices lie in the environs, and who are at the mercy of its examiners, are chary to speak, much of their bwead and butter being bound wp in the good will of the directory. A partial awarding of patents, in the interest of money instead of merit, involves unjust millions of dollars, besides discouraging inventors and making tbem doubt the righteonsness of tbe Government. Witb a corrupt Patent Office, iufinite law suits arise, and yetit is probable that money is freely used within the precincts of that buildiug, the clainis of inventors who are willing to pay heing considered in many gross cases beyond those of the needy. So is tbeir preference amoug the patent agents—those who solicit patents—some heing understood to have the ears of the office at their disposal, others failing to secure patents which are afterwards williugly granted to cotemporaries. Mrs. Foot, the wife of the Commissioner, is an inventor, whose patents have been profitahle. She has invented a skate without straps, and several other things. Thaddeus Hyatt, once incarcerated in the District jail for a complicity which he affected to have with John Brown’s raid, is now a successful inventor, his patent for glass light in pavements nettiug him a very large income. About 50,000 patents have been issued iu the United States in thirty years, the receipts for which in fees have been nearly two millions and a half of dollars, while the British Government has granted only about 40,000 patents in 250 years. This shows the extraordinary activity of the American mind in mechanics, and the Patent Office building, which has cost the Government uo monoy, is the best monument to American sbrewdness and suggestiveness in the world. Amongst nearly a hundred thousand models stored iu the galleries of that splendid institution, oue may wonder in hopeless hewilderment, feeling that every model, however small, is the work of some patient year, lifetime. and often of many lifetimes—so that the entire contribution, if achieved by oue mind, would have extended far into a human conception of an eternity of labor. The best patent lawyers in the United States are Judge Curtis and Mr. Whiting, of Boston, Messrs. Gafford and Meller, of New York, George Harding, of Philacdelphia, and Mr. Latrobe, of Baltimore. The practico of these will average $30,000 a ear. The Patent Office buildiug is generally adjudged to he the most imposing of all the national edifices at the Capital. To my miud the Postoftice is a better adaptation. The former was the work of the present architect of the Capital, Edward Clark, and its three porticoes cost $75,000 apiece. The four grand galleries, or model rooms, are unlike and maguificent. It is related here tbat inventors wbo spend many years among these models commonly go crazy. Some day, at leisure, I will relate to you some striking contemporary incidents of miuds out of gear. Within the Patent Office building are also maintained the Bureaus of Public Lands, Pensions, Indian Affairs and the Census. The Agricultural department has now its separate building on the hights uear the Smitbsonian.— JFashington Cor. Missouri Democrat. v Morte Evipence Tovucuixe Puiiocrne Man my Caurrornta.—The Amador Ledger of Noy. 28th contains the following, which is cnmulative evidence of the genuineness of the Pliocene skull of Calaveras County, known to fame as the fossil Joe. Bowers : Two or three years »go, John Dane, while running an open cnt for mining purposes, throngh Grass Valley Ranch, in Amador County, unearthed the skcleton of a muastodon of bnge proportious, hut most of the bones crumbled to dust aftcr a short exposure to the atmospbere. The remaius were found lying in a strata of auriferons gravel, with ahont fourteen feet of allnvial soil over them; huttbe most remarkable feature in tbis discovery, was that of several stone mortars and pestles, unmistakahly the work of human hauds, found in the same strata, aud in close proximity to the remains of the mastodon, evidently proving tbat a race of humau beings inhabited the monnotaius of California, coéxistent with the mastodon. Mr. Dane has several of these stone 734 mortars and pestles, together with some of the griuders of the huge auimal, now in bis 41,349 . possessiou, Gotp Qvuanrz-CrusHine in Mextco.— It has heen lately ascertained that few countries contain greater and miore extensive gold fields and veins than the southern portion of this Republic. Several Americans from California bave been inspecting the States of Michocan and Guerrero, and the great advantages to be found there are superior to California or Anstralia. Rivers crossing those States in all directions (by whicb water-power can be replaced for that of steam) are found in numbers; impenetrahle forests on the hills, and agricultural produce of every class, and close at hand. As a general rule, 300 ponnds of barley or Indian corn are sold for 8s. at the mineral districts. A common laborer is paid is. 6d. a day, and askilled miner of the country 2s. aud 2s. 6d. The same can be applied to another neighboring country—Nicaragna. And although the first. English company for that country did not take fnll advantage of these circumstances, having sent persons to take charge of their property not sutticiently experienced in gold quartzernshing, not liaving been suificiently cantions as to taking average samples, gave these as haviug 20 ozs. to 25 ozs. of golil per ton, instead of 1 oz. to 124 0z., whichis a good paying average on large quantities. This is shown by the monthly returns from the Port Phillip and Clnnes of Australia, as also the Anglo-Brazilian companies, that pay, on an average, very high percentages, on ore that seldom yields ahove 3402. of gold per ton. I imagine that, if these companies pay handsome? dividends on 4 oz. per ton, with steam-power and high wages, Mexican gold mining companies, with much greater advantages, and an average of 2 ozs. per ton, canuot but promise a great future for such undertakings.— London Mining Journal. GrEoLoey or VANCOUVER IstAnp.-——In the December number of the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, we find the following abstract of acommunication from Hilary Banerman, tothe Geological Society of London: “The author described, first, the metamorphic rocks which are everywhere seen in theueighhorhood of Esquimalt and Vietoria, principally dark green saudstones aud shales, passing insensibly into serpentiue, chlorite-schist, mica-slate, aud gneiss. At some places unfossiliferons crystalline limestones are associated withthem. Dykes of greenstoue, syenite, porphyries and trap rocks frequently peuetrate the methamorphie rocks, To the westward of Esquimalt black cherty limestones and red porphyry occur. To the north at Nanaimo, rocks with Cretaceous fossils appear, also at Cornoux Island, twenty-one miles northwest of Nanaimo. The fossils oceur in nodules, and cousist of fisb scales, Nautilus, Ammonites, Baculites, Inoceramus, Astaste (?) and Terebratula. Lignitiferous deposits (sandstones, grits, conglomerates and micaceous flagstones) succeed the Cretaceous rocks, and are extensively developed over a great extent of country, forming the mass of the islands in the Gulf of Georgia as far south as Saturna Island. Northward, they occur at Fort Rupert. Two seams of coal, averagiug six to eight feet each in thickness, oecur in these beds, and are extensively worked for the supply of the steamers navigating hetween Victoria aud the Frazer river. The coal is a soft hlack lignite, interspersed with small lenticular bands of crystalline coal. Retinite is commou in more eartby portions. Shales, with plant-remains, are interstratified with tbe lignite. At Bellingham Bay on the maiulaod similar coal-bearing sandstones have heen observed by the American geologists. A pleistocene houlder clay is widely distributed over the southern part of Vancouvers’s Island, and the opposite coasts of the mainland and grooved aloug the shore; and so also is the rock surface beneath the drift, which at Esquimalt Harbor is about 20 feet thick, while it is mucli more at the Barracks, and more than 190 fect thick between Alhert Head and Esquimalt. Tue Mieran Weatta or Russta.— Large and most important discoveries of coul have been made in Russia. The mines of one district alone are, according to tbe St. Petersburg journal Golos, capable of supplying annually £00,000 tons for 150 to 200 years. Since 1864 there have been snrveyed in the valley of the Don forty-four heds, the aggregate quantity of which is estimated at 1,234,946,375,000 pouuds, or more thau 18,000,000,000 tons. ‘The Golos asserts thatthe miueral wealth of Russia far exceeds‘that of Eugland, aud at the same rate of production would last for two centuries alter the Englisb mines were exhausted.

370, The Mining and Scientific Press. What May Happen in Africa. Simultaneously with the announcement that Livingstone is approaching the Zanzihar Ceast, we have another, that immense and very ricb gold fields have beeu discovered in South Africa. Grand expectations are predicted on the explorations of the great traveller, which have just been hrought to a close, and from the development of the auriferous region ahout to commence. A mining fever has broke out, as it did in California and in Australia, and already a swelling tide of emigration has set toward the inviting placers. So far the movement has been atteuded by all the manifestations which so peculiarly distinguished the migrations to the Pacific slope and to the ocean isle. Transportation from Cape Town to the diggings, by every means of conveyance, is eagerly sought, and is procurable ouly at the most exorbitaut charges. This has led to the formation of acompany to furnish a regular intercommunication for passengers at reasonable rates. Thus does the frontier of civilization in Africa, which heretofore has clung to the coasts, threaten to extend more than a thousand miles into the interior from the southern extremity, and three or four hundred miles west of the eastern shore. A vast foreign population suddenly transferred to the central wilds of the great contineut which has heen almost a sealed hook for so many ages, with all the accessories, pursuits, hahits and ambitions of civilized life, caunot but leave a permanent impress upon the conntry, and to lead to the most wonderful realizations. Thousands and thousands of European and American inhabitants cannot be brought togetber without causing utilitarian development on a cyclopean scale. A village of bush arbors adjaceut to a gold gulch would not long remain without undergoing the changes of a transformation scene, ending in an array of pretentious buildings, and a community subjected to some sort of municipal government. Let mining prove a remunerative operation, and the growth would he steady and rapid. Newspapers would become indispensable, and the demand would soon be abundautly supplied. Just imagine the fact of regular journalistic advices from the interior of Africa! As the country filled up with gold hunters and other adventurers, and as the auriferous prodnet found its way into the world’s markets, lines of steamers from several important ports would connect witb the coast of Africa. Any considerable continuauce of such a state of things could not fail to plant the germs of enduring government amid the wilds of the mining region. Being the outgrowth of fortuitous cireumstances, and snrrounded by allthe elements of democratic equality, the natural tendency would he to the formation of a republican organism. Monarchical institutions could scarcely arise ont of a community of interests so suddenly created, causing so speedy a necessity for a scheme of polity. It is almost needless to promise that adventurous explorations would soon hegin to diverge in many directionsfrom the center of population, resulting in a multitude of valuable and curious discoveries, leadiug to a topographical description of distant regions, and adding much information to our scaut knowledge of interior Africa. Who can tell what revealments might not be made, or what new influences might not be set at work upon the world’s progress ? Tbe central wilds of that vast continent are as little known to civilized man as was tbe Mississippi Valley when our forefathers were fighting for civil and political liberty. Since then every acre of the valley’s soil bas become a familiar spot, andit promises, at no far distant day, to be tbe seat of commercial empire, and the center of population in North America. The obscurity aud solitude which now envelop tbe iuterior of Africa, are not, therefore, to be estimated as very serious ohstacles in its spcedy development, should not other conditions interveue, The gold discoveries of California were the efficient instruments of building up that territory to tbe stature of a full growu State witbin two years. Pour a steady stream of immigration into tbe mining regions of interior Africa, and similar manifestations might reasonahly he expected. Such a contingency affords groundwork for many curious speculations ahout the resulting influences upon migration, upon commeree, upon gold value, aud upon the fugue status of Africa itself.—Chicago Repubican, Werte Gunpowpenris made of the following ingredients, wbich are pulverized separately and then mixed with a spatula or by sifting many times: Chlorate of potash, 48 parts, yellow prussiate of potash (dry) 28 parts, sugar (dry) 23 parts, THe Desrre oF Invention.—Wben the grandfather of our queen ascended the throne in 1760, there were no steam engines as we now understand tbe term. Even Adam Smith, who wrote so profoundly and so prophetically upon the wealth of nations, did not live to see a pnddling furnace or a rolling mill, nor did Dvr. Darwiu survive tosee a power loom, nor did Pitt or Fox, although both died less than a full lifetime ago, ever hold a steam-printed sheet in their hands. It is not yet fity years siuce the deatb of Watt, yet he saw but the dawn of steam navigation, and Sir Humphrey Davy passed away before there were such things as railways, the self-acting spinning mule, or the hot hlast. To Telford’s latest days there was neither ocean steam navigation, electric telegraphs, nor photography; and it is too recently for any reference to living memory, that we have had the india-rubher manufacture, the discovery of anzesthetics, screw propulsion, wrought iron hridges, ivon ship-building, the coal oi! manufacture, suhmarine telegraphs, the Bessemer process, steam cultivation, and a host of inventionsand discoveries of less, yet remarkable importance. But the stimulus of invention is just now wanting; there is a languor of practical inqniry, and we appear, indeed, to have but few subjects for practical discussion. Whoever would set going ideas of practical promise now wonld render a great service tous all. We have well nigb worked out the questions whicb so occupied the profession but a few yearsago. ‘There is little said now about high pressure steam, high piston speed, surface condensation, superheating; about sizes, forms, or proportions of ships, about locomotives or railway construction, ahout ordnance and armor, steam plowing or gas making, about hridges, fouudations, waterworks and pumping machinery, and a dozen other topics upon which, so lately, there was so much differeuce of opinion. There are subjects left for discussion, but we hear little of them. Of these are steam-worked tramways, the disposal of sewage, the use of liquid fuel, hydraulic propulsion, artificial stone, etc., to say uothing of aérial locomotion. More power to the elbow of every one who has uudertaken to adnance these ideas; more nous to those who will undertake to give us uew ones. We are all stagnating as we are, and only a new iuventiou, or a new idea of practical applicability, will givo us fresh life. WHIcH SHALL BE THE GREsTEST.—Besides minerals, there are three or four productive interests in this State, for each of which some oue, in imitation of a wellkuown phrase, makes a claim to be ‘‘king.” Wheat, in fact, is the ouly interest that oe could make such a boast with any show of trutb. The others, as yet, are only aspirants for the honor. The people of Napa, Sonoma and Los Angeles, claim that the grape shall be king. Prevost, of Sau José, Messrs. Haynie & Hoag, of Sacramento, and Muller, of Nevada, claim that silk will take precedence of every other interest. If Flint, Bixby & Co. were asked, they would point to tbe green-hill pastures and to a flock of well-bred sbeep, only exceeded in uumbers by two others in the world, and arene that wool would some day be kiug. The fact is there will he no king. Wheat, wine, silk, wool, gold, silver, and even other mineral and vegetable productions, will divide the houor amoug tbem. Some one interest will possihly take precedence over any other siugle interest, aud assume a more important position in our export returns, hut which it shall be who can tell? And what it may he is not important. No interest is ever likely to spring up in this State that will override auy other two or three interests; certainly none can ever rise that will override in importauce and exceed in amount the sum of all other exports when added togetber in one grand total. Neither wheat, wine, wool, silk, or precious metals willever be king. Tbere will be a commonwealth of commerce aud home production, in which, though the individual elements may differ in consideration, none will assume to rule all others. Tbe export trade will uever be governed by a product that will style itself king, hut will be ruled by the many after the manner of our own Repuhlic.— Bulletin. Brrrtsu Mineraus Raisep in 1867.—We extract the following figures from tbe ‘<Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom for 1867 ”—by Robert Hunt, F.R.8.: Tons, Value, COD.. cre eessccecnnscensscens 104,500,480 £26,125 145 Iron Ore «+ 10,022,053 3,210,098 . Tin Ore 13,649 694,7% Copper Ore 158,544 699,693 Lead Ore. 93,432, 1,153,066 Zinc Ore. 13,489 Patent Office People. The father-in-law of your Senator, Henderson, Nr. Elisha Foot, seerus to be handliug the Patent Office with ability. It is the current belief in Washington that this department of the Government is not without corruption, but the agents and lawyers whose offices lie in the environs, and who are at the mercy of its examiners, are chary

to speak, much of their bwead and butter being bound wp in the good will of the directory. A partial awarding of patents, in the interest of money instead of merit, involves unjust millions of dollars, besides discouraging inventors and making tbem doubt the righteonsness of tbe Government. Witb a corrupt Patent Office, iufinite law suits arise, and yetit is probable that money is freely used within the precincts of that buildiug, the clainis of inventors who are willing to pay heing considered in many gross cases beyond those of the needy. So is tbeir preference amoug the patent agents—those who solicit patents—some heing understood to have the ears of the office at their disposal, others failing to secure patents which are afterwards williugly granted to cotemporaries. Mrs. Foot, the wife of the Commissioner, is an inventor, whose patents have been profitahle. She has invented a skate without straps, and several other things. Thaddeus Hyatt, once incarcerated in the District jail for a complicity which he affected to have with John Brown’s raid, is now a successful inventor, his patent for glass light in pavements nettiug him a very large income. About 50,000 patents have been issued iu the United States in thirty years, the receipts for which in fees have been nearly two millions and a half of dollars, while the British Government has granted only about 40,000 patents in 250 years. This shows the extraordinary activity of the American mind in mechanics, and the Patent Office building, which has cost the Government uo monoy, is the best monument to American sbrewdness and suggestiveness in the world. Amongst nearly a hundred thousand models stored iu the galleries of that splendid institution, oue may wonder in hopeless hewilderment, feeling that every model, however small, is the work of some patient year, lifetime. and often of many lifetimes—so that the entire contribution, if achieved by oue mind, would have extended far into a human conception of an eternity of labor. The best patent lawyers in the United States are Judge Curtis and Mr. Whiting, of Boston, Messrs. Gafford and Meller, of New York, George Harding, of Philacdelphia, and Mr. Latrobe, of Baltimore. The practico of these will average $30,000 a ear. The Patent Office buildiug is generally adjudged to he the most imposing of all the national edifices at the Capital. To my miud the Postoftice is a better adaptation. The former was the work of the present architect of the Capital, Edward Clark, and its three porticoes cost $75,000 apiece. The four grand galleries, or model rooms, are unlike and maguificent. It is related here tbat inventors wbo spend many years among these models commonly go crazy. Some day, at leisure, I will relate to you some striking contemporary incidents of miuds out of gear. Within the Patent Office building are also maintained the Bureaus of Public Lands, Pensions, Indian Affairs and the Census. The Agricultural department has now its separate building on the hights uear the Smitbsonian.— JFashington Cor. Missouri Democrat. v Morte Evipence Tovucuixe Puiiocrne Man my Caurrornta.—The Amador Ledger of Noy. 28th contains the following, which is cnmulative evidence of the genuineness of the Pliocene skull of Calaveras County, known to fame as the fossil Joe. Bowers : Two or three years »go, John Dane, while running an open cnt for mining purposes, throngh Grass Valley Ranch, in Amador County, unearthed the skcleton of a muastodon of bnge proportious, hut most of the bones crumbled to dust aftcr a short exposure to the atmospbere. The remaius were found lying in a strata of auriferons gravel, with ahont fourteen feet of allnvial soil over them; huttbe most remarkable feature in tbis discovery, was that of several stone mortars and pestles, unmistakahly the work of human hauds, found in the same strata, aud in close proximity to the remains of the mastodon, evidently proving tbat a race of humau beings inhabited the monnotaius of California, coéxistent with the mastodon. Mr. Dane has several of these stone 734 mortars and pestles, together with some of the griuders of the huge auimal, now in bis 41,349 . possessiou, Gotp Qvuanrz-CrusHine in Mextco.— It has heen lately ascertained that few countries contain greater and miore extensive gold fields and veins than the southern portion of this Republic. Several Americans from California bave been inspecting the States of Michocan and Guerrero, and the great advantages to be found there are superior to California or Anstralia. Rivers crossing those States in all directions (by whicb water-power can be replaced for that of steam) are found in numbers; impenetrahle forests on the hills, and agricultural produce of every class, and close at hand. As a general rule, 300 ponnds of barley or Indian corn are sold for 8s. at the mineral districts. A common laborer is paid is. 6d. a day, and askilled miner of the country 2s. aud 2s. 6d. The same can be applied to another neighboring country—Nicaragna. And although the first. English company for that country did not take fnll advantage of these circumstances, having sent persons to take charge of their property not sutticiently experienced in gold quartzernshing, not liaving been suificiently cantions as to taking average samples, gave these as haviug 20 ozs. to 25 ozs. of golil per ton, instead of 1 oz. to 124 0z., whichis a good paying average on large quantities. This is shown by the monthly returns from the Port Phillip and Clnnes of Australia, as also the Anglo-Brazilian companies, that pay, on an average, very high percentages, on ore that seldom yields ahove 3402. of gold per ton. I imagine that, if these companies pay handsome? dividends on 4 oz. per ton, with steam-power and high wages, Mexican gold mining companies, with much greater advantages, and an average of 2 ozs. per ton, canuot but promise a great future for such undertakings.— London Mining Journal. GrEoLoey or VANCOUVER IstAnp.-——In the December number of the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, we find the following abstract of acommunication from Hilary Banerman, tothe Geological Society of London: “The author described, first, the metamorphic rocks which are everywhere seen in theueighhorhood of Esquimalt and Vietoria, principally dark green saudstones aud shales, passing insensibly into serpentiue, chlorite-schist, mica-slate, aud gneiss. At some places unfossiliferons crystalline limestones are associated withthem. Dykes of greenstoue, syenite, porphyries and trap rocks frequently peuetrate the methamorphie rocks, To the westward of Esquimalt black cherty limestones and red porphyry occur. To the north at Nanaimo, rocks with Cretaceous fossils appear, also at Cornoux Island, twenty-one miles northwest of Nanaimo. The fossils oceur in nodules, and cousist of fisb scales, Nautilus, Ammonites, Baculites, Inoceramus, Astaste (?) and Terebratula. Lignitiferous deposits (sandstones, grits, conglomerates and micaceous flagstones) succeed the Cretaceous rocks, and are extensively developed over a great extent of country, forming the mass of the islands in the Gulf of Georgia as far south as Saturna Island. Northward, they occur at Fort Rupert. Two seams of coal, averagiug six to eight feet each in thickness, oecur in these beds, and are extensively worked for the supply of the steamers navigating hetween Victoria aud the Frazer river. The coal is a soft hlack lignite, interspersed with small lenticular bands of crystalline coal. Retinite is commou in more eartby portions. Shales, with plant-remains, are interstratified with tbe lignite. At Bellingham Bay on the maiulaod similar coal-bearing sandstones have heen observed by the American geologists. A pleistocene houlder clay is widely distributed over the southern part of Vancouvers’s Island, and the opposite coasts of the mainland and grooved aloug the shore; and so also is the rock surface beneath the drift, which at Esquimalt Harbor is about 20 feet thick, while it is mucli more at the Barracks, and more than 190 fect thick between Alhert Head and Esquimalt. Tue Mieran Weatta or Russta.— Large and most important discoveries of coul have been made in Russia. The mines of one district alone are, according to tbe St. Petersburg journal Golos, capable of supplying annually £00,000 tons for 150 to 200 years. Since 1864 there have been snrveyed in the valley of the Don forty-four heds, the aggregate quantity of which is estimated at 1,234,946,375,000 pouuds, or more thau 18,000,000,000 tons. ‘The Golos asserts thatthe miueral wealth of Russia far exceeds‘that of Eugland, aud at the same rate of production would last for two centuries alter the Englisb mines were exhausted.