really appear less rash to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea, so much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth than the water. Hence it is that in this kind of mining, arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting the weight of the mountain above. In mining either by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar, or more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating vapors and smoke, to be broken to pieces with bruising machines shod with pieces of iron weighing one hundred and fifty pounds; which done, the fragments are carried out on the men's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them on to his neighbor in the dark, it being only those at the pit's mouth that ever see light. In cases where the bed of silex appears too thick to admit of being penetrated, the miner traces along the sides of it, and so turns. And yet, after all, the labor entailed by this silex is looked upon as comparatively easy, there being an earth—a kind of potter's clay mixed with gravel-gangadia’ by name, which is almost impossible to overcome. This earth has to be attacked with iron wedges and hammers, like those previously mentioned, and it is generally considered that there is nothing more stubborn in existence-except, indeed, the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things.

"When these operations are completed, beginning at the last, they cut away the wooden pillars at the point where they support the roof. The coming downfall gives warning, which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only, who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately removed from their labors, and at the same moment takes flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces, is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive; and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible, the victorious miners gaze upon this downfall of nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor,

indeed, were they by any means certain that there was any to be found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient, as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they will obtain what they so eagerly desire.

"Another labor, too, quite equal to this, and one which entails even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers from the more elevated mountain heights, a distance, in many instances, of one hundred miles, perhaps, for the purpose of washing the debris. The channels thus formed are called 'corrugi' from our word 'corrivatio,' I suppose; and even when these are once made they entail a thousand fresh labors. The fall, for instance, must be steep, that the water may be precipitated, so to say, rather than flow; and it is in this manner that it is brought from the most elevated points. Then, too, the valleys and crevasses have to be united by the aid of aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to be hewn away and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of wood, the persons hewing them hanging suspended all the time with ropes, so that to a spectator who views the operations from a distance, the workmen have all the appearance, not so much of wild beasts as of birds upon the wing. Hanging thus suspended in most instances, they take the levels, and trace with lines the course the water is to take; and thus, where there is no room, even for man to plant a footstep, are rivers traced out by the hand of man.

"The water, too, is considered in an unfit state for washing if the current of the river carries any mud along with it. The kind of earth that yields this mud is known as 'wrium,' and hence it is that in tracing out these channels, they carry the water over beds of silex or pebbles, and carefully avoid this wrium. When they have reached the head of the fall, at the very brow of the mountain, reservoirs are hollowed out a couple of hundred feet in length and breadth and some ten feet in depth. In the reservoirs there are generally five sluices left, about three feet square; so that the moment the reservoir is filled, the flood gates are struck away and the torrent bursts forth with such a degree of violence as to roll

onward any fragments of rock which may obstruct its passage.

"When they have reached the level ground, too, there is still another labor that awaits them. Trenches-known as 'agogoe' have to be dug for the passage of water; and these, at regular intervals, have a layer of ulex placed at the bottom.

"This ulex is a plant like rosemary in appearance, rough and prickly, and well adapted for arresting any pieces of gold that may be carried along. The sides, too, are closed in with planks, and are supported by arches when carried over steep and precipitous spots. The earth carried onward in the stream, arrives at the sea at last, and thus is the shattered mountain washed away-causes which have greatly tended to extend the shores of Spain by these encroachments upon the deep. It is also by the agency of canals of this description that the material, excavated at the cost of such immense labor by the process previously described, is washed and carried away, for otherwise the shafts would soon be choked up by it.

"The gold found by excavating with galleries does not require to be melted, but is pure gold at once. In these excavations, too, it is found in lumps, as also in the shafts which are sunk, sometimes exceeding ten pounds even. The names given these lumps are 'palagae,' and palacurnae,' while the gold found in small grains is known as 'baluce.' The ulex that is used for the above purpose is dried and burnt, after which the ashes of it are washed upon a bed of grassy turf, in order that the gold may be deposited thereupon."

The glimpse given us by this chapter makes all the keener our regret that the works of Theophrastus and Philo on metals and that of Strabo on machines and methods of parting metals, are unfortunately lost forever. Had the library at Alexandria not been burned, who shall say that we might not have found for our legal doctrine of the "extralateral right" in quartz mining some more ancient prototype than the earlier mining codes of Prussia or the customs of the lead mines of Derbyshire?

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

On the 4th day of May, 1846, Thomas O. Larkin, United States consul at Monterey in an official letter to James Buchanan, then secretary of state, wrote as follows: "There is no doubt but that gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California, and it is equally doubtful whether, under their present owners, they will be worked." On the 7th of July, 1846, sixty-four days later, Commodore Sloat raised the American flag at Monterey.

James W. Marshall made the discovery of gold in the race of the sawmill at Coloma in the latter part of January, 1848. Thereupon took place an incident of history which demonstrated that Jason and his companions were not the only Argonauts who ever made a voyage to unknown shores in search of the golden fleece. The first news of the discovery almost depopulated the towns and ranches of California and even affected the discipline of the small army of occupation. The first winter brought thousands of Oregonians, Mexicans, Kanakas and Chilenos. The extraordinary reports that reached the East were at first disbelieved, but when the private letters of army officers and men in authority were published an indescribable gold fever took possession of the nation east of the Alleghanies. All the energetic and daring, all the physically sound of all ages, seemed bent on reaching the new El Dorado. The old Gothic instinct of invasion seemed to survive and thrill in the fibre of our people, and the camps and gulches and mines of California witnessed a social and political phenomenon unique in the history of the world, the spirit and romance of which have been immortalized in the pages of Bret Harte. Before 1850 the population of California had risen from 15,000, as it was in 1847, to 100,ooo, and the average annual increase for six years thereafter was 50,000.

A COMMUNITY WITHOUT CIVIL LAW.

At the time of Marshall's discovery, the United States was still at war with Mexico, its sovereignty over the soil of Cali

fornia not yet recognized by the latter. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was not concluded till February 2nd, the ratified copies thereof not exchanged at Queretaro till May 30th, and the treaty not proclaimed till July 4th, 1848.

On the 12th of February, 1848, ten days after the signing of the treaty of peace, and about three weeks after the discovery of gold at Coloma, Colonel Mason did the pioneers a signal service by issuing as Governor the proclamation concerning the mines, which at the time was taken as finality and certainty as to the status of mining titles in their international aspect: "From and after this date, the Mexican laws and customs now prevailing in California, relative to the denouncement of mines, are hereby abolished." Although, as the law was fourteen years afterwards expounded by the United States Supreme Court (U. S. vs. Castellero, 2 Black, 18-371), the act was unnecessary as a precautionary measure, still the practical result of the timeliness of the proclamation was to prevent attempts to found private titles to the new discoveries of gold on any customs or laws of Mexico.

Meantime, and, in fact, until her admission into the Union as a State, California was governed by military authorities (Cross vs. Harrison, 16 How. U. S. 191). Except to provide for the delivering and taking of mails at certain points on the Coast, no federal act was passed with reference to California in any relation; in no act of Congress was California even mentioned after its annexation, until the Act of March 3rd, 1849, extending the revenue laws of the United States "over the territory and waters of upper California, and to create certain collection districts therein." Though in this act incidentally the new acquisition is called a "territory," no act of Congress was ever passed erecting a territorial form of government in California. The Act of March 3rd, 1849, not only did not extend the general laws of the United States over California, but did not even create a local tribunal for its enforcement, but provided that the District Court of Louisiana and the Supreme Court of Oregon should be courts of original jurisdiction to take cognizance of all violations of its