great quantities, shipped annually to Australia, South and Central America, the Atlantic States, Great Britain, China, and Japan, are obtained in these mines.

Salt.-There is a good supply of salt in California. In some of the southern counties of the State great deposits are found in the beds of ancient lakes which have been dried up for centuries. In Los Angeles, Alameda, and other counties, large quantities of salt are made by ditching and confining the salt water until solar evaporation carries off the water, leaving a crystal deposit upon the bottom. Alameda county alone produces more than ten thousand tons annually. Great quantities of salt are annually imported into the State from Carmen island and Europe. Immense beds of salt are found in Nevada and Utah, and mountains of excellent salt in Arizona, and Oregon has several valuable salt-springs.

Sulphur.-Sulphur of a superior quality is found in great abundance in California, the chief supply being obtained in Lake, Sonoma, and Colusa counties. It has been lately discovered in the counties of Klamath, Kern, Napa, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. The powder works in the State receive their supply in the State.

Tin. The only tin-mines yet discovered in the United States are in the southern part of California. The San Jacinto tin company have fifty-three distinct lodes in one small district in San Bernardino county. Many of these lodes are very rich in mineral; but, owing to the low price of tin (forty cents per pound) and the high price of labor, work has been suspended after the company having produced many tons of a superior article of tin. There are also tin-mines in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and other portions of

the southern part of the State. The first development of tin in the State was in 1868.

Marble and Granite.-Marble and granite of good quality is found in many parts of the State. The chief granite quarries are in Sacramento county, at the town of Folsom. Marble of good quality and different varieties is found in Plumas, El Dorado, Tuolumne, Butte, Salano, Amadore, and Placer counties. The greater part of the marble, however, used in the State is imported direct from Italy.

CAVES.-Among the natural wonders of California, the Alabaster cave of El Dorado stands prominent. This cave, which is the only one of note in the State, was discovered in April, 1860. The cave consists of a number of chambers or rooms, the main entrance to which is a tunnel-like aperture in the side of a mountain of white limestone. The interior of this cave is beautiful beyond description, and consists of a series of chambers of various sizes, shapes, and colors. The first chamber reached on entering is about twenty-five feet in length and seventeen feet in width, varying from five to twelve feet in height. Passing through this apartment, the Dungeon of Enchantment is reached—a chamber of one hundred and twenty feet in length and seventy feet in width, and from five to twenty feet in height. Here the luxuriant and exquisite decoration of nature strikes the vision of the beholder. Pendent from roof and walls are beautiful stalactites in every variety of form and shade of color, from bright coral to milk-white, most exquisitely wrought by the hand of nature into the most fantastic foliage and charming crystallizations, representing trees, plants, flowers, and

leaves, casting their shadows and brilliant contrasts of light and shade, which sparkle and glisten like stars in a clear sky or diamonds in fleecy robes of ermine. Passing from this apartment, the throne upon which is seated nature's grandest effort is reached. Here Grecian, Roman, and Italian art pales, and the royal pomp and tinsel of the Vatican fades into stiffness and disorder: no canopy so gorgeous, no pulpit so eloquent as the one from which comes the silent admonition of man's inferiority and Jehovah's omnipotence as proclaimed from the Crystal Chapel of this royal apartment, whose exquisite drapery, fleecy festoonings, and silver cords, looped from pillar and dome by the fingers of nature, when illuminated with artificial light, render Alabaster cave a most charming sight.

MINING LAWS.

By the civil law the primary title to all the precious metals was vested in the Crown. All gold, silver, and precious stones, if in the public domain, belonged to the sovereign, and it was long held that even the precious metals in the lands of individuals were subject to the royal will. In parts of Asia and Europe, all mines of precious metals are worked under the direction of the monarch, whether in public or private lands; in other parts, the government derives a revenue from all mines worked by demanding one-tenth of the product of the mine if worked by the owner, and if the mine is worked by other than the owner, he pays two-tenths-one to the owner and one to the king.

At this day the prevailing opinion is, that all mines of precious metals, wherever situated, are subject to the sovereign, that they are a part of the royal patrimony,

and necessary as a source of revenue in times of war. Laws enforcing this doctrine have been passed by many countries of Europe, including Germany, France, and Portugal. According to the laws of England, mines of gold and silver are termed royal mines; they are the exclusive property of the crown, and a grant of land from the king will not pass the title of these mines without specific words divesting the crown of title. And this doctrine of title to the precious metals is the law of the United States, although no claim has been made by the government of the United States to the precious metals in the lands of individuals, and in all the States and Territories where the precious metals exist the mines have been thrown open to every citizen, without restriction or price, to mine where he pleased. England, too, has adopted this wise policy in reference to Australia, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and other places.

Within the past few years much anxiety has been felt by persons settled upon the mineral lands in California and other parts of the United States because they could not obtain title to them. These lands were neither offered at public sale nor could they be preëmpted nor entered under the homestead laws of the country; and their occupants were but tenants at sufferance of the United States. In order to relax these oppressive laws and enable the miner to obtain a permanent and complete title to his mine, Congress enacted the following laws, which must stimulate new enterprise in the mineral regions of the whole country:

THE NATIONAL MINERAL LAND LAW.

[Approved July 26, 1866.]

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the mineral lands of the public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be

free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and subject also to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States.

SEC. 2. That whenever any person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local customs or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be lawful for said claimant or association of claimants to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to follow such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition.

SEC. 3. That upon the filing of the diagram as provided in the second section of this act, and posting the same in a conspicuous place on the claim, together with a notice of intention to apply for a patent, the Register of the Land Office shall publish a notice of the same in a newspaper published nearest to the location of said claim, and shall also post such notice in his office for the period of ninety days; and after the expiration of said period, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the duty of the SurveyorGeneral, upon application of the party, to survey the premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his approval, designating the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed; and upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, together with the cost of such survey, plat, and notice, and giving satisfactory evidence that said diagram and notice have been posted on the claim during said period of ninety days, the Register of the Land Office shall transmit to the General Land Office said plat, survey, and description, and a patent shall issue for the same thereupon. But