script, the duplicated matter was eliminated. In other cases, where there was no duplication, there was still room for condensation, by leaving out the less important matter, in order to reduce the volume of the report. In editing this manuscript I have endeavored to retain only what will be of use to the practical miners of this State, so as to confine the report within reasonable dimensions, as suggested by the Governor in his message to the Legislature.

Several of the special articles prepared for this report can well be omitted altogether, since they do not relate directly to the mining interests of California, though they may be of scientific value. These, so far as I am able to judge, have been carefully prepared, and are doubtless valuable for publication through other channels. I do not recommend their omission because they may be unworthy of publication, but simply because, in my opinion, they are out of place in the report of the State Mineralogist, as not being of practical utility to the mining public. Among these are the following:

"Catalogue of California Fossils. Part II, Bibliography and References; Part III, Additions to the Tertiary and Quaternary Fossils; Part IV, Remarks on Fossils collected in Orange County by Dr. S. Bowers; Part V, Descriptions and Figures of New Cretaceous and Cret. B (or Eocene) Fossils of California, with Notes and Figures of Tertiary Species." By J. G. Cooper. This is partly a continuation of an article in the Mining Bureau report of 1888, and was omitted from the report of 1890, though prepared for that. There are 116 pages of manuscript. There are also six full-page plates, figuring sixty-seven species of Cretaceous and Tertiary fossil shells.

"Aboriginal Pipes of California," by Dr. Lorenzo Yates. Of this manuscript there are 35 pages, with five plates containing fifty-two engravings. This article is mainly interesting to the student of American history and ethnology. It gives the forms, uses, and history of the tobacco pipe among the native American races. It refers to and describes the pipes made by the aborigines of South and Central California; and there are many quotations from other authors describing the pipes of other Indian tribes. The ceremonial uses of pipes are also described; as also the methods of manufacture.

"Aboriginal Shell Money of California," by Lorenzo G. Yates. In this manuscript there are 57 pages and seven full-page plates, with seventy-nine cuts in all. The paper covers a description of the ancient media of exchange among the sea-coast tribes; different kinds of shells used; scientific names of shells used by the aborigines of this State; also beads; quotations from reports of Bureau of Ethnology; wampum, etc. All three of these papers would be better adapted for publication by an academy of sciences or an ethnological society.

"Santa Rosa Island," by C. D. Voy; 48 pages of manuscript and five full-page plates. There is nothing in this which relates to mines or minerals. It refers to the discovery of the island, shape, climate, contour, points, anchorage (no harbor), volcanic material, bluffs and ridges, sand drifts, mountains, fossils, mammoth remains, topography, ethnology, zoology, and flora.

"San Miguel Island," by C. D. Voy; 34 pages and eleven full-page plates. There is nothing in this chapter about minerals or mines. It gives a history of discovery, geographical location and dimensions, harbors, shape of island, soil, shells, volcanic material, Quaternary fossils,

Pliocene fossils, surface of island, bluffs, ethnology of aboriginal population, shell heaps or kitchen middens, ancient stone implements, stone disks, zoology, flora, etc.

Both of these papers of Mr. Voy show research and would be useful for a geographical or ethnological society.

The lithographs for these papers mentioned have been made and printed.

An article by the late Henry De Groot on "Hydraulic Mining" covers 90 pages of manuscript and has numerous engravings. It covers practically the same ground as the article by John Hays Hammond on the "Auriferous Gravels of California," published in the report of the State Mineralogist for 1889.

One of the chapters written by Mr. Fairbanks, entitled "Notes on the Geology of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey Counties," covering 54 pages of type-written manuscript, I have omitted. The work done there was purely scientific in its nature, and no attempt had been made to connect it with the mining resources of the region. As the field would have to be again visited, in order to bring out the economic and industrial relations of the geology, the present State Mineralogist retains this manuscript and Mr. Fairbanks was put in the same field to complete his investigations.

An article to which your attention is directed is the excellent one by Mr. A. H. Ricketts, entitled "A Dissertation upon the Origin, Development, and Establishment of American Mining Law." This covers 110 type-written foolscap pages. It is a first-class article, and of practical use to miners everywhere. It does not, however, relate exclusively to California, but from the nature of the subject, is of application all over the United States. Should the appropriation for public printing warrant, this article should be published.

As to the condensation of the work of the Assistants in the Field, more or less has been done on most of the chapters. Much of the information gathered had already appeared in the reports of the Bureau. From the two chapters on Nevada and Sierra Counties, 311 pages of manuscript were taken out.

In Sierra County some of the same field had been covered by Mr. Preston and Mr. Wiltsee. In some other instances the Assistants had gone over the same ground; that is, two had visited the same region at different times and some of the work was duplicated, each having worked independently.

To give you an idea of the rest of the condensation, it may be stated that from Mr. Fairbanks' chapter on "Geology and Mineralogy of Shasta County," ,"24 pages were eliminated from the 90 pages, a reduction of about 5,600 words. From his chapter on "Geology and Mineralogy of Tehama, Lake, Colusa, and Napa Counties," from 73 pages 19 were taken out, a reduction of about 1,900 words. From his chapter on "Geology and Mineralogy of San Diego and Orange Counties," 13 pages were taken from 108. As previously stated, his chapter on Los Angeles, Ventura, etc., amounting to 56 pages, has been entirely left out, that more complete work may be done upon it. All this manuscript of Mr. Fairbanks was type-written and had been carefully prepared.

Mr. Watts did work in twenty-six counties, and from the total of 100,000 words 73,440 words were left, a reduction of about 26,560 words. In the work in three counties by Mr. Storms, the manuscript was

reduced from 40,000 words to 26,000, a reduction of 14,000 words. Two thousand words were also taken from his manuscript, in the article on "Mine Timbering."

The manuscript of Mr. Preston was correspondingly condensed. It is proper to state that Messrs. Fairbanks, Watts, Storms, and Preston all cheerfully rendered me assistance with their respective manuscripts in the work of condensation. Messrs. Wiltsee and Hobson were out of the State.

There are several minor chapters which may be omitted without great detriment. These are the North Fork District of Fresno County, the chapter on San Benito County, and that on Salton Lake.

It is to be regretted that in the case of some of the articles which are recommended to be omitted, the engravings belonging to them have all been made, but these were finished when the report was originally transmitted and there was no thought of cutting down its proportions. It may be stated that the manuscript shows no signs of having been edited, aside from the mere paging of the leaves and arranging in order. A large amount of material had been left in which had already appeared in the last report or those of previous years. Where two assistants had worked in the same county at different times no attempt had been made to compare their reports and erase one of the duplicated portions. In some instances engravings had been made of the same thing to go in separate chapters written by different Assistants, and these engravings are ready for use. The Assistants, performing their individual work under general instructions, had written out their observations without knowing the details of the reports of others in the same field.

It is apparent that most of the manuscript had been recopied in the office from the original reports handed in by the authors. Part of this copying was evidently done by persons entirely unfamiliar with mining affairs, and the result was there were many absurd errors. These mistakes could not have been made by the original writers, for many were ridiculous in the extreme. This was not the case in all the copying, but in parts of it; there had been no revision after this copying.

No instructions had been given, apparently, for the Field Assistants to be concise in their reports. On the contrary, in many instances the work had been elaborated with the evident intention of making a very voluminous report. The system of tabulating the details of operation of individual mines immediately after each description, leads in every instance to useless repetition.

Sending two men to the same county or district and then not comparing the results of their work or their reports, leads to confusion and expense, for which the Assistants are not to be blamed. There has been little if any system in this regard, judging by the results as shown by this manuscript.

The original manuscript handed to me for revision consisted of 2,307 pages, largely type-written. The paging now reaches 1,144, from which must be deducted about 300 pages for erasures in the paged manuscript. None of the entirely erased pages are left in. This will make the report comprise about 844 pages of manuscript.

In this I have not included the article on "Mining Law," by Mr. Ricketts, which is 110 pages of foolscap, type-written. If the Board decides to publish this, then there will be 954 pages of manuscript.

The article on "Mine Timbering," by W. H. Storms, with nineteen

engravings, is a good one, carefully prepared. It deals, however, largely with Nevada and Dakota methods, adapted to more extensive operations than are general in this State, where there are few, if any, large chambers requiring the class of timbering mainly considered in this article. If considered too extended for this report, this article might be separately published at another time as a bulletin of the Mining Bureau, for the benefit of those who are interested in the subject.

The report as now submitted to you is almost exclusively confined to mining in the counties of California. Of course many of the engravings and lithographs which have been made will be useless. The engravings prepared for this report have been made at a great expense. There are now printed, ready for use, 10,000 copies of each of the maps and lithographs, yet comparatively few of them will be made use of by the State.

Very respectfully,

CHARLES G. YALE.