now, although all contribute to the revenue, the total receipts, owing to the limited amount of taxable property in the Territory, are small, this is no more than a reasonable debt. Compared with that of neighboring Territories, containing a larger population and far better sources of revenue, it is insignificant, and will be complained of only by those si gular individuals who expect the wheels of government to move without cost.

Still I would advise that no expenditure of the territorial funds, however earnestly it may be asked, or necessary it may seem, be authorized by your honorable bodies without the most careful consideration; and if you can impress upon the counties the importance of economy in their affairs, it will be well to do so. In the matter of promptly and thoroughly collecting the revenue they should be urged to increased vigilance, not only for their own benefit but for that of the Territory at large.

Some seven thousand dollars of the gold bonds before referred to will become due in a little more than a year from this date, and although another legislature may meet before that time, it is not too early to make provision to insure their payment, and thus to sustain the territorial credit.

There is a balance of about five hundred dollars in the treasury from the special fund created by the sale of territorial mining claims, which I would suggest be assigned to the general fund; also, that all further receipts from such sales be so disposed of.

The Treasury Department having made the Territory an internal revenue district, and appointed an assessor and collector, we may soon expect to be called upon to contribute directly to the national revenue. I had hoped, in view of our comparatively small population, and the drawbacks with which we have to contend, that we should escape other than territorial taxation for the present. But it becomes us, as loyal citizens of the great republic, cheerfully to do our part, however humble it may be, towards cancelling the sacred debt incurred in preserving the national integrity.

The mines. If there is less excitement over our mining interests there is more confidence in their excellence, and a strengthened belief that their development will surprise the world. Ten quartz mills will have been erected in this county alone before the close of the present year. Those already in operation afford a gratifying evidence of the value of the gold ores, and as the lodes are sunk upon they show permanence and size. The appearance of sulphurets and refractory elements at a certain depth may involve the necessity of more elaborate machinery, but no obstacles will, I think, be sufficient to baffle the enterprise of our miners, who, depending more upon their own energies and capital than upon help from abroad, are determined to know no such word as fail.

The rare advantages of wood, water, and climate are more than sufficient to offset the costs of living and the heavy expense of transporting machinery here, and I believe, as I have often asserted, that there are few localities upon the Pacific coast where quartz mining may be so economically, agreeably, and profitably pursued.

Those of the silver mines below the Gila, and on the Colorado, that are judiciously worked, with scarcely an exception, show great wealth, and fully maintain the traditional reports of the metallic opulence of the country.

The considerable capital now devoted to the development of the copper lodes on the Colorado and Williams Fork is but an earnest of that which this important work will soon command. The uniform richness of the ore, the quantity of the same, and the facilities for its extraction and shipment combine to make the mines among the most desirable of the kind upon the continent.

Mining laws.-The act of Congress to legalize the occcupation of mineral lands, and to extend the rights of pre-emption thereto, adopted at the late session, preserves all that is best in the system created by miners themselves, and saves all vested rights under that system, while offering a permanent title to all

who desire it, at a merely nominal cost. It is a more equitable and practicable measure than the people of the mineral districts had supposed Congress would adopt; and credit for its liberal and acceptable provisions is largely due to the influence of the representatives from the Pacific coast, including our own intelligent delegate. While it is not without defects, as a basis of legislation it is highly promising, and must lead to stability and method, and so inspire increased confidence and zeal in quartz mining.

As, in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the act gives authority to the legislature of any State or Territory to provide rules for the location and working of mines to their complete development, it will be your duty to prepare such rules, either by amending the present mining law of the Territory so as to conform to the law of Congress, or by its repeal, and the substitution of an entirely new statute. Whatever your preference in this particular, I would suggest that care be taken to make the required rules as intelligible and comprehensive as possible, and that the recording and preservation of titles, both for the security of the miner and the capitalist, and to obviate future litigation, be entrusted only to the most responsible officers. It is also important that, excepting in districts where active hostility on the part of the Indians absolutely prevents, the actual occupation and improvement of claims be made a requisite to their possession, unless pre-empted under the congressional law. The lack of such a requirement hitherto has seriously retarded the development of our mineral resources and the general prosperity of the Territory, and proven discouraging to new comers, especially in the counties on the Colorado river, where hundreds of lodes, taken up in years past by parties now absent from the Territory, are unworked, and yet, under the existing law, no one has a right to lay claim to them, be he ever so able or anxious to open them.

Agriculture. The valleys of the Territory, more extensively cultivated this year than ever before, have produced an abundant harvest. The yield of corn, vegetables, and small grain is such as to prove that henceforth we need not look abroad for food; and I make no doubt that if assured that their crops will be bought and promptly paid for, and they are properly protected from Indian incursions, our ranchmen will, during the ensuing year, by the favor of Heaven, raise all the breadstuffs that may be required to subsist the military force in the Territory. Here in central Arizona, even in the mountain districts, where comparatively little was expected in the way of agricultural success, the pursuit of the husbandman is likely to be one of the most profitable. The heavy rains of the present season indicate that irrigation will seldom be necessary, aud the fertility of the soil is remarkable. It seems as though every thing planted attained the most luxuriant and complete growth in the shortest possible time. The grains, vegetables, and melous taken promiscuously from any of the ranches, and raised without fertilization of any kind, or other than the simplest care, would command a premium if placed in competition with the products of the richest and most expensive farms and gardens of the Atlantic States.

Land district.-By the seventh section of the act of Congress, approved July 22, 1854, the pre-emption privilege was extended to lands, whether settled upon before or after survey, within the region of country comprehended by the present Territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Hitherto pre-emption declarations, in virtue of this act and that of July 2, 1864, have been filed with the surveyor general, but Congress having made Arizona a land district, they will, so soon as the district is organized, be received here.

The congressional mining law provides that wherever, prior to the passage of the act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold

silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of preemption thereto, in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the homestead act of Congress, approved May 20, 1862. It further provides that upon the survey of the socalled mineral lands, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of such lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

This favorable action, and the establishment of a land office, whereby all delay in perfecting titles will be obviated, must encourage our people in the cultivation of lands in immediate proximity to the mines-a matter of the first importance to the prosperity of our mining interests.

SECTION 5.

1. Copper resources of the Pacific coast.-2. Various copper districts.-3. Geological formations in which copper is found, &c.-4. Reduction of ores, quantity, &c.

1. THE COPPER RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC COAST.

Introductory remarks.-The comparatively recent date when the importance of these resources first attracted any attention; the extent of territory over which they have been traced; the absence of any correctly compiled statistics connected with them in either the State or federal offices; the indisposition of influential parties to give any information, under the plea that it would expose the secrets of their business, and the efforts of others to make mines in which they are interested appear of greater or less value than well-known facts would war rant; the vague and unreliable nature of most of the articles which from time to time appear in the local papers on the subject, as well as many minor impediments, render it exceedingly difficult to convey a clear idea of the proportions and actual value of these resources in a hastily compiled report. Even were the fullest details of information available, many interesting facts must unavoidably be crowded out of such a report Sufficient may be presented here, however, to demonstrate the extent and value of the copper mines of the Pacific coast, and to prove that under a more judicious system of development they may be made much more profitable to their owners as well as to the federal government, and that an important means towards the accomplishment of this end will be attained by the collection and proper arrangement of statistical and general information on the subject.

The discovery of copper on the Pacific coast.-The existence of copper on the Pacific coast was well known for many years before California became a State in the great American republic. The ores of this metal are known to have been found in Mexico, at various points, in great abundance for centuries past. In the territory within the limits of this State they were found as far back as 1840, near the Solidad pass, about ninety miles north of Los Angeles.

The first officially recorded discovery of copper in California, since it has become a State, was made by Dr. J. B. Trask, who acted as State geologist from 1851 till 1854. During that time, in the course of his travels, he found copper in nearly every county in the State-the first discovery being made near a place then called Round Tent, in Nevada county.

As but little attention was paid to the report of these discoveries, and the notes and specimens of the ores collected by Doctor Trask were soon after lost or destroyed, they exercised but little influence.

In the summer of 1855 public attention was again called to the fact of the existence of copper in this State, by the discovery of a body of beautiful ore at Hope valley, Amador county, by an old prospector, known as Uncle Billy Rodgers. The ore from this place, being rich in garnets, attracted great attention. About the same time a party of prospectors in El Dorado county found a large body of green and blue carbonates on a side of a hill a few miles from Placerville, and, attracted by the brilliant colors of these minerals, collected several sacks full of them and sent them to San Francisco, where, by assay, they were found to contain 40 per cent. of copper, and worth about $140 per ton. These discoveries were mentioned in nearly all the papers published in the State at the time, but were soon forgotten in the more exciting search for gold which occupied almost everybody's attention, and the now great copper resources of the Pacific coast remained without an effort being made for their development till November, 1860, when Mr. Hiram Hughes, returning from a trip to Washoe, whither he had gone to search for silver, while prospecting for that metal among the foot-hills that margin the valley of San Joaquin, without being aware of the fact discovered the gossan or cap of a copper lode, on what is now known as Quail Hill, No. 1—an insignificant mound among the Gopher hills, in the southwestern portion of Calaveras county, about 35 miles southeast from Stockton, and six miles from Central ferry, on the Stanislaus river. This gossan, which presented much the appearance of a body of iron-rust held together by a frame-work of quartz, was found to be very rich in gold, and it was for this metal that Hughes worked his claim. Soon after, while making further explorations for "ironrust," he discovered the croppings of what is now known as the Napoleon mine, about three miles southwest of his first discovery. As there was less gold, and considerable of what was then, to him, an unknown mineral, in this place, he sent a lot of the ore to San Francisco, where it was pronounced 30 per cent. copper ore, and worth about $120 per ton. As soon as this fact became known there was a great excitement, and everybody began prospecting for " iron-rust," and as the indications of copper were to be found almost at every point among the Gopher hills, hundreds of claims were speedily marked out and recorded— the favorite direction being along the course of the lode on which the Napoleon was located, as this was easily traced for miles; the most important "extensions" on the original lode being the Josephine on the west, the Lotus, Magnolia, and Collier on the east. But as none of these mines, except the Napoleon, ever produced much marketable ore, work on all of them very soon ceased. Hughes and his partners, after partially developing the Napoleon mine, which contained 2,700 feet on the lode, in 1862 sold eleven-eighteenths of it to a company for $22,000. This company, in October, 1862, was incorporated under the title of the Napoleon Copper Mining Company, which, after taking out of the mine and shipping about 4,000 tons of good ore, sold the mine, in 1864, to Martin & Greenman, dealers in ores, of San Francisco, who at present own and work it.

Notwithstanding the great amount of prospecting that followed Hughes's discoveries, it was not till some time in June, 1861, that the lode on which the mines at Copperopolis are located was discovered, though it is only about six miles from the Napoleon, and the locators of the Union, Keystone, and other mines were all old residents and miners in the vicinity. W. R. Reed, Dr. Blatchly, and Mr. McCarty located 11,250 feet of the Copperopolis lode in July, 1861. This location embraced the ground now owned by the Union, Keystone, Empire, Calaveras, and Consolidated companies. Many interesting and instructive facts might be here introduced to exhibit the ignorance of the parties who first discovered these important mines as to the value of their property. The following will be sufficient to illustrate this curious fact:

J. W. Bean, esq., who built the first hotel at Copperopolis, had been mining for years among the Gopher hills and in the vicinity of Salt Spring valley;

and though such was the abundance and beauty of the specimens of copper ores all around him that he collected nearly a cart-load of them as curiosities to decorate his rude cabin, he afterwards threw them away as useless. In 1855 he had collected so many of these specimens that his partner would not have any more of them brought into the cabin.

Mr. Hughes, whose blindly-directed enterprise led to the discovery of the value of the copper resources of the Pacific coast, had also been mining for years among the Gopher hills; and although his observant attention had been attracted to the peculiarities of the rocks that form these hills, he had no idea of the stores of wealth that lay scattered so lavishly all around him till he had made a trip to Washoe during the excitement which followed the discovery of silver there. When in that Territory, being forcibly struck with the great resemblance between the rocks near the Comstock lode and those that he was so well acquainted with about the Gopher hills and Salt Spring valley, and not being successful over there, he returned to the old familiar field of his labors and commenced prospecting for silver, and did not know for many months after his return that he had acquired a fortune by discovering a copper mine. So with Mr. McCarty, one of the present owners of the great Union mine. He had lived in Salt Spring valley nearly ten years, mining and ranching by turns. As early as 1852 he had sunk a deep prospect-hole on the ground now belonging to the Keystone company, and threw away the rich copper ores as worthless, while seeking for gold, which he never found. So with Mr. Hardy, another of the original locators of the Union. This gentleman, a keen, intelligent man of business, who was for a long time the superintendent of that mine, and afterwards became senator for Calaveras county, resided for years within two miles of where Copperopolis now stands without having any idea of the immense wealth that lay stored up for him in the hard, sterile banks of the little creek that meandered past his homestead.

The limits of this report will not admit of any further digression on this very interesting history.

As soon as the magnitude and importance of the discovery made by Mr. Reed and his party became known, the rush of prospectors to the locality became tremendous, and in a few days claims were staked off extending for nearly twenty miles in all directions along the lode, or rather lodes, (for there are more than one of them,) across and parallel to them. Large sums of money were in many instances expended in the purchase and development of claims which were located miles away from all indications of any lode whatever.

One of the effects of this great excitement was the creation of the now thriving town of Copperopolis, the first house in which was built by Mr. Reed in September, 1861. In less than two years after it contained a population of nearly 2,000, which supported three schools, two churches, a weekly newspaper, four hotels, with stores and workshops of all kinds sufficient for an active, thrifty community. It now has three lines of stages running to and from it daily, and has a costly railroad in course of active construction to connect it with the navigable waters of the San Joaquin river, which, when completed, will more than double its wealth and population.

To give the names of all the claims that were located in and around Salt Spring valley during the first great excitement would serve no useful purpose, as most of them, after the expenditure of more or less labor, have either been abandoned altogether or are held till labor and transportation shall become cheaper or copper ores become more valuable. The most important mines in the valley at present-the only ones that are being developed are the Calaveras, Empire, Union, Keystone, Consolidated, and Kentucky, which range from south to north in the order in which they are here written, and the Inimitable, which is located on the east side of and parallel with the Union. The developments in this and other mines located parallel with the original claims