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itas from San Jose know where their charms can be appreciated, and stage-loads of them arrive in season to partake of the festivities. The late Superintendent undertook to place an embargo upon this branch of commerce, but did not succeed. Enterprising females would come in spite of rules and regulations. Drinking and gambling might to some extent be arrested, but there was no stopping the love of man for woman. The Superintendent was Quixotic; the Señoritas laughed in their sleeves at him; and the grand institution of bailé and fandango flourished as usual.

are not many of them. The Cornish miners | are flush, and, like sailors, spend their money are a steady, industrious race; illiterate, though on the fair sex with a prodigal hand. Señornaturally intelligent; frugal in their habits, and reliable when their avarice is not too strongly tempted. Physically they are strong and heavy -good for endurance. They work hard and save their money. Many of them are well off. The Italians, Chilenos, French, and Irish develop respectively their characteristic traits of passion and impulse, recklessness and lack of common sense. The Germans have common sense enough, and are industrious, but are deficient in boldness and enterprise. They make good machinists, surveyors, draftsmen, etc., but are not the best practical miners. The Sonoranians and native Californians are generally expert miners. As prospectors they are unsurpassed. They possess great natural sagacity; know every indication by instinct; are willing to run any amount of risk, and seem imbued by an adventurous spirit which fits them peculiarly for the business of mining. Irregularity is their besetting fault. They can do any kind of work which affords variety and requires little method. Under a rigid supervision they are accounted among the most useful men in the employ of the Company.

Most of the labor is paid for by contract. The ores are excavated and assorted by contract; and it is only in exceptional cases that regular wages are paid. Steady, industrious men usually average from two to three dollars a day.

On pay-day the Town on the Hill presents a lively and picturesque scene. The Spaniards

All the miners meet harmoniously on this joyous day. The storehouses are crowded. Women and children fill the highways and byways. New dresses, tinware, crockery, and tinsel of all kinds flash in the sunbeams, and the petty cares of life are forgotten in the general rejoicing.

This is the grand harvest-time for sharpers and speculators. Few of the native population have a dollar left by night; but they have a good time while their money lasts, which is all they require to make them work for more. Under the restrictions introduced by the present Chief Manager the morals of this interesting community have of late undergone a most beneficent change.

Few places on the Pacific Coast possess greater attractions of scenery and climate than the neighborhood of New Almaden. Protected by an elevated range of mountains from the chill

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ing winds of the ocean, it lies embosomed among | out from every prominent point, reveal in endthe rolling hills that slope into the broad and less variety the wonders and beauties of the outbeautiful valley of Santa Clara. Glimpses er world. Standing on an eminence near the through the rugged gorges, and vistas opening principal mines, seventeen hundred feet above

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RANCH OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER.

the level of the sea and twelve hundred above the Reduction Works, the enraptured visitor beholds, lying outspread beyond the foot-hills, the magnificent valleys that encircle the bay of San Francisco. Bright flashing waters, through which busy commerce plows her way, shimmer in the distance; and the eye never tires of the rich carpeting of green and yellow, variegated with dark strips of woodland, blooming orchards, and masses of wild-flowers, by which the valleys are covered. Fifteen years ago scarcely a habitation was to be seen within this vast range of arable land. It slumbered in its primitive beauty, undisturbed by the early settlers, who were content to enjoy, without labor, the good things that Providence gave them. Innumerable herds of cattle roamed in their native freedom over is teeming pastures. The deer and the antelope found little cause to fear the presence of man; and every thicket and ravine formed a secure hiding-place for wild animals of a more formidable kind, whose instincts led them to prey upon the fattened herds of the ranchero. The change since 1849, when I first visited this region, is almost incredible. Farms and orchards and vineyards, with their fences and palings and gleaming white cottages, now give the interest of human life and progress to the scene; and the mind is filled with visions of happy homes, graced by all the refinements of civilization; peace and plenty in the present, and no limit to the prosperity that may be enjoyed by generations to come. Out in the broad stretch of valley that sweeps around the head of the bay lies the Pueblo of San Jose, its colleges and churches and numerous public edifices glimmering through the foliage of surrounding groves; and still farther on, bounded in the rear by a

range of rugged mountains, may be seen the Mission of San Jose, with its flourishing orchards; and dotting the valley of the same name, at intervals along the bay, the pleasant villages of Centreville, Alvarado, San Landro, and most of that splendid tract of country stretching to the north far beyond the Encenal of Alameda, but gradually vanishing in the dim haze of the distance. On the western side of the bay, which is scarcely inferior in picturesque beauty, the mountains slope into the valley of Santa Clara; and the grand old mission of that name, with its extensive college and gardens, its surrounding villas and groves of native oak, looms up over the general mass of bloom and verdure like some fine old patriarch of civilization, preaching peace and happiness to the world around him. Through this verdant region runs the iron artery that connects San Francisco with San Jose; and four times a day may be seen, flying on its way after the steaming locomotive, the long train of cars that bears to and fro its burden of human freight. The shady groves of Meulo Park, the villages of Redwood City, San Matteo, and other places of popular resort, are passed in its course. On a clear day the prominent points of San Francisco are visible, with a portion of the shipping that lies at anchor in the harbor. To the right lies Goat Island, and beyond, toward the Golden Gate, the fortifications and island of Alcatraz. Mountain after mountain rolls off in the warm haze that covers the valleys of Napa and Sonoma. Surely the indulgent reader will pardon one who loves California, not wisely, perhaps, but too well, for boldly asserting that the world can not afford many other scenes of such surpassing beauty. Whether in Continental Europe, Iceland, Palestine, or South America, I have rarely, in all my travels, enjoyed so fine a view; and never any thing to surpass this in variety of outline, richness of coloring, and exquisite softness of the atmospheric tints. No wonder we who dwell in such a favored land are proud of our country. Yet there are people, of vitiated taste, who land upon our shores, direct from New York, and dare to violate the general sentiment by expressing disappointment! see nothing but grim deserts in our mountains, no beauty in our valleys, no merit in our bay. Such men would complain of the bracing zeph

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yrs of San Francisco, and speak disparagingly of the sanded pavements of Oakland!

The people of California, as they settle down into permanent homes and accumulate the means of enjoyment, begin to devote more attention to recreation than they did in former years. A visit to the mines of New Almaden is now one of the most popular excursions of the day. The facilities for making the trip, the beauty of the scenery, salubrity of the climate, and interest attached to the mines, render it an agreeable and beneficial way of passing a few days. Wedding parties find it peculiarly attractive-for the reason, I suppose, that the bridal couple are disposed to enjoy what romance there may be in the last stages of love's fitful fever. I have seen young people in this condition stand upon the mountain-tops of Almaden and discourse Byron, Moore, and Mr. M. F. Tupper to each other till I knew the disease had overturned the throne of reason, and that the next thing would be a series of labial caresses which no man ought to witness with open eyes.

Among the various mines and tunnels situated within the limits of the mineral range now owned by the Quicksilver Company are the following:

The Almaden mine, from which the largest amount of ore has been obtained, is situated near the summit of a hill, and is distant about a mile and a half from the Reduction Works. In this occurs the great Ardilla "labor" - the largest deposit of cinnabar ore ever found in California, and probably the largest in the world. Owing to the difficulty of blasting the hard rock at a great depth from the surface, explorations have been re

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cently made which have resulted in the discov ery of large bodies of ore in the soft ground on the slopes of the hill. A new and extensive tunnel now taps some of the richest veins ever found in this mine, and its products have largely increased.

The Cora-Blanca, a thousand yards easterly from the Almaden, has recently been discover ed and prospected, and the results are highly encouraging.

The Road Tunnel and the San Juan are

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FRANCISCO VELASQUEZ CHAMBER.

producing extremely rich ores; and the Buena Vista, which is 2820 feet in length, has been extensively worked with very fine results. The San Francisco, another tunnel, has developed immense quantities of ore; and the Velasquez is regarded as one of the most promising in the Company's possessions. I saw my. self, in a single "labor" of the Velasquez, masses of pure cinnabar that would weigh several tons each. One of them was valued at not less than eight thousand dollars. The tunnel so named opens by sidedrifts into various adjacent chambers, and is 2890 feet in length.

The America, or Bull Run, commenced in 1863, has developed immense cinnabar deposits, which alone would constitute a vast and inexhaustible mine. In this the vein is regular and well-defined, the ores rich, and the general indications most promising; but the great abundance of rich metal in other mines easier of access has caused the America to be but little worked.

In addition to these there are in the Arroya de los Capitancillos, which runs northwesterly from the elevated point upon which the America is situated, a series of valuable mines worked by the old company, comprising many rich veins, among which may be named the Providencia, the Enriqueta, the San Antonio, and La Purissima. Furnaces and reduction works were established many years ago near the centre of these mines; but owing to the development of new leads in closer proximity to the principal hacienda, they have not been used to any extent during the past few years; and the mines are now only partially worked with a view of keeping them in good condition. The Enriqueta alone has produced about a million three hundred thousand pounds of quicksilver, and is considered one of the most valuable mines on the great cinnabar range.

It will thus be seen that there is no probability, and scarcely a possibility of any deficiency of ores. The policy seems to be, as in other kinds of mining, to work only where the ores can be most conveniently and abundantly obtained, proximity to the reduction works being an important consideration.

To the unlearned visitor nothing can be more bewildering than the apparent irregularity of these vast cinnabar deposits. Far down in the bowels of the earth he sees around him an endless complication of shafts, tunnels, drifts, and gloomy caverns, ramifying through the depths of the subterranean world without any appearance of system or method. His intelligent cicerone may tell him that here the vein appears; there it is worked out; in this "hilo" an immense amount of rich ore was found; in that

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"labor" the vein was unusually productive. Now he is on the "fourth level," and presently on the "sixth;" now he travels north, and soon, without any apparent change, finds himself going east, west, or south-all of which he professes to understand with great clearness, but which must sooner or later deprive him of all confidence in his own powers of perception. Careful observation, however, will show him in due time that there is a wonderful system in this apparent irregularity. The principal vein runs in a northwesterly and southeasterly direction, and has a length, already tested, of about five miles. It varies from fifteen to two hundred yards in width, and is subdivided into innumerable smaller veins, embracing within its outer boundaries trap, serpentine, lime, quartz, and other rocks. The deposits of cinnabar are found in these veins and chambers, running parallel with or across the principal vein; their direction being generally north and south, but varying under surrounding circumstances. By carefully observing the character and pitch of the walls, the dips, spurs, and angles of the smaller veins which ramify from the larger, and following out the minute indications furnished by each individual "hilo" or metal-bearing deposit, the intelligent miner is enabled to continue his explorations with an almost absolute certainty of success. Professor Don Antonio del Castillo, of the Mexican College of Mines, in a learned essay which was submitted to the courts, says that in following a vein, if it varies more than 45° from the general direction, there is reason to believe it is an offshoot, which will probably

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