AUGUSTE REMOND-San Francisco. (No particulars kr Dr. SNELL-Sonora, Tuolumne county. A rich and v fossils and aboriginal relics from the auriferous gravel un and of minerals and ores from that region. This is the relics of the mastodon and the mammoth in California.

T. J. SPEAR-San Francisco; formerly at Georgetown, and sixty-two and three. A small miscellaneous collection ammonite, from the gold slates of the American river; va one of the evidences of the secondary age of the gold-bearing Dr. STOUT-San Francisco. A miscellaneous collecti European specimens, arranged in cases.

C. W. SMITH-Grass valley, Nevada county. An in arranged in cases, and containing some choice specimens Grass valley.

Dr. WHITE-Placerville, El Dorado county. A misc containing many interesting specimens from that region, and rals, by exchange.

W. R. WATERS-Sacramento. Miscellaneous collecti ores, arranged in case.

Notes on the geographical distribution and geology of the valuable minerals, on the Pacific slope of the Unit

If we attempt to delineate by colors upon a map the geog of the gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver localities of the tain a series of nearly parallel belts or zones, following th trend of the mountain chains and of the coast. So, also, if Gate and travel eastward across the country to the Rocky successively through zones or belts of country characterized different metals and minerals.

In the Coast mountains, for example, quicksilver is the c characteristic economical mineral. The localities of its ore mountains through the counties north and south of the Gold also petroleum, sulphur, and calcareous springs, nearly coi tribution. Passing from this grouping of minerals eastward of Mount Diablo, and crossing the great interior valley of C underlaid by lignite,) we rise upon the slope of the Sierra the copper-producing rocks. These form a well marked z traced almost uninterruptedly from Mariposa to Oregon, hills of the Sierra Nevada.

East of the copper belt, (and in the central counties, o known as "Bear mountains,") we find the great gold-bearing by lines of quartz ledges, following the mountains in their ge and southeasterly course. This gold belt is composite in veins traversing either slates, limestones, sandstones, or gra

Crossing the snow-covered crest of the Sierra, where in have been found, we leave the region of gold and enter th with gold, extending up and down the interior eastern slope of out California, into Arizona and Mexico on the south, and I

At the Reese River mountains, further east, towards Sal replaced by silver, associated with copper, antimony, and grouping is in its turn replaced by the gold-bearing sulph mountains. This is the general distribution of the precious doubtless, local exceptions.

It is evident that this distribution of the metals and mi been determined by the nature of the rocky strata, and b

metamorphism. It is worthy of note that the minerals of the coast ranges are chiefly the more volatile and soluble, such as cinnabar, sulphur, petroleum, and borax, distributed in rocks ranging from the tertiary to the cretaceous, inclusive.

The longitudinal extension of the gold bearing zone is yet undetermined. The metal has been traced through the whole length of California, through Oregon and Washington, into British Columbia, and beyond, along the Russian possessions, towards the Arctic sea. Southward, it is prolonged into Sonora and Mexico, and there is every reason to believe that its extension is coincident with the great mountain chain of North America in its course around the globe, into and through Asia.

After years of laborious search for fossils by which the age of the goldbearing rocks might be determined, I had the pleasure, carly in 1863, to obtain a specimen containing Ammonites from a locality on the American river, preserved in the cabinet of Mr. Spear. This fossil was of extreme importance, being indicative of the secondary age of the gold bearing slates, and was therefore photographed, and copies of it sent to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, for description. It was subsequently noticed in the proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, September, 1864. The same year, when at Bear valley, Mariposa county, upon the chief goldbearing rocks of California, I identified a group of secondary fossils from the slates contiguous to the Pine Tree vein, and noticed them at a meeting of the California Academy, October 3, 1864, announcing the jurassic or cretaceous age of these slates. The best characterized fossil was a Plagiostoma, (or Lima,) to which I provisionally attached the name Erringtoni.* The attention of the geological survey having been directed to this locality by my announcement and exhibition of the fossils in San Francisco and at the academy, Mr. Gabb, the palæontologist of the survey, visited the locality and obtained specimens. These fossils were of such interest and importance to science, and to the geological description of the State, that an extra plate was engraved for them and published in the appendix to the volume on the geology, recently issued.†

Fossils of the secondary age from Genesee valley, in the northern part of the State, were common in collections in 1864, and are described by the State Geological Survey, volume one, "Paleontology." It appears also, from the same source, that Mr. King, a gentleman connected with the survey, had obtained belemites from the Mariposa rocks in 1864, but no figures or description are given.

We may thus regard the secondary age of a part, at least, of the gold-bearing rocks of the Sierra Nevada as established, a result of no small importance practically, for it destroys the dogma, which has been very generally accepted, that the Silurian or Paleozoic rocks are the repositories of the gold of the globe. We may now look for gold in regions where before it was generally presumed to be absent, because the formations were not Silurian or Palæozoic.

The Silurian age of the gold rocks of California has not always been assumed. It has been repeatedly questioned. In the preface to the writer's "Report of a Geological Reconnoissance in California," it is stated that a considerable part of the gold-bearing slates of California are probably carboniferous. The absence of all evidence of Silurian fossils west of the Rocky mountains is also distinctly noted. (p. 276.) The opinion of the comparatively modern age of the gold

*In honor of Miss Errington, a lady residing on the estate, who drew my attention to some impressions on the slates which she had picked up on the English trail, which proved to be fossils.

+ I regret to observe that in this publication, as well as in Mr. Gabb's notice of the fossils, no mention is made of my previous announcement, and that my part in the discovery and publication of the secondary age of the Mariposa gold rocks is studiously and wholly ignored.

rocks has been steadily gaining strength and support for been the subject of discussion in the daily journals.

The prevalence of gold in the Coast mountains, in or in rocks of tertiary age, leads us to question whether it may n of this late period also. The fact, recently ascertained, that rally associated with cinnabar, makes it more than probabl been deposited in formations as recent even as the Miocene, for, according to the best evidence we now have, this is least, of the quicksilver-bearing rocks.

Such a result need not surprise us, although so far in op existing views of the geological association of gold. The g rocks has manifestly nothing to do with the deposition of go sary that the rocks should have a favorable mineral compos degree of metamorphism. On this general view, we may gold in rocks of any geological period, from the tertiary t Huronian rocks, inclusive.

The lithology of the chief gold-bearing zone or belt of ro interesting. The chief or "mother vein" extends through se occasional breaks or interruptions;. and throughout its cours tinguishing characters. It follows also the same geologic keeping between well-marked geological and geographical b description of the strata adjoining it at one place will ser view of them throughout. A cross-section in considerable the Mariposa estate in eighteen hundred and sixty-four. T the southern end of the "Great Vein," there known as the also includes several veins lying west of the line of the Pine most important is the "Princeton," noted for its richness an of gold. This group of veins follows a long valley between Bear Mountain on the west, and Mount Bullion on the east. formed of hard rocks; the rocks of the valley are argillaceou and sandstones. The stratification of these slates is remarkal tinct; their thin outcrops standing sharply out at intervals i ravines and on the hillsides, mark their trend, and show th vertical, or have a slight inclination northeast or easterly. tion of the outcrops and of the valley is northwest and south several local variations.

These slates are generally light colored or drab at the sur they are black, like roofing slate, and break up into rhomboid ularly well shown at the Princeton vein. There are numero sandy layers passing into sandstones-sometimes into coa pebbly beds, and beds of slaty conglomerate. The softer and nated portion of the group is generally found near the medial and is the point at which the Princeton vein cccurs. It is no series, at the northern end of the estate, that the jurassic foss

The following is an approximate geological section of t angles to the course of the rocks, and nearly over the Princ composite section, being made up of three distinct portions tions had extended, but all near together, so as to present a f quence of the formations. The whole embraces a distance of according to the scale of the small published map of the estate ern end is taken along Bear creek, the middle portion across t and the remainder on a line near Upper Agua Fria, northe ridge. The following is the sequence of formations from west

SECTION ACROSS THE MARIPOSAS.

1. Coarse, heavy conglomerates, metamorphosed-Bear mountains.
2. Compact crystalline slates; crystalline cleavage.

3. Conglomerate; slaty.

4. Argillaceous slates, regularly stratified; thick series.

5. Sandstone and sandy beds, (thin.)

6. Princeton gold vein; quartz three feet thick.

7. Argillaceous slates and quartz veins; the horizon of the jurassic fossils.
8. Magnesian rock and quartz veins.

9. Pine Tree, or "Mother Vein," or its extension.

10. Argillaceous slates.

11. Conglomerate; slaty.

12. Compact slates.

13. Greenstone, limited in extent; probably a metamorphosed sandstone. 14. Sandstones and sandy slates.

15. Serpentine and magnesian rocks-the northern extension of Buckeye ridge. 16. Compact slates, crystalline and much metamorphosed.

17. Conglomerates and sandstones, heavy and massive; the so-called "greenstone" of Mount Bullion range.

This is the general outline of the formations. Both of the bounding ranges of the valley are formed by the heavy metamorphic conglomerates, so much altered and changed as to be scarcely recognizable. They are generally supposed to be formed of greenstone, and in some places they do not give any evidence of their sedimentary origin; in others, the outlines of the pebbles and boulders are distinct. These boulders are remarkably large and heavy. From the general similarity of the rocks of these two ranges-Bear mountain on the west, and Bullion range on the east-together with the succession and character of the formations between, I am led to regard the whole series as a fold or plication, and the valley as either synclinal or anticlinal-probably the former.*

Bear mountain range is prolonged far to the north into Calaveras county, and there forms the separation between the valley of Copperopolis, traversed by the Reed or Union copper lode, and the gold quartz region of Angel's camp and Carson Hill. The whole belt of formations from Amador county, southeastward, through Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa counties, is an interesting field for a geologist to work up, to show not only the geographical extent of the rocks and the veins, but the structure or folding of the whole. The two lines of hard conglomerate forming the high ridges are distinct for nearly the whole distance. The serpentine rocks which accompany the gold formation are probably the result of local metamorphic action, for they often occur in lenticular or elipsoidal patches in the other rocks. So also the greenstone, in places, appears to be an altered portion of rocks, which at other points are distinctly sedimentary, and exhibit slaty stratification.

*The above section of the gold formation of the estate, and the substance of the observations upon it, were given in a report to F. L. Olmsted, esq., in eighteen hundred and sixtyfour. Inedited.

1

LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS IN OCCUPANCY OF MINERAL LANDS AND THE WORK 1. The crown right.-2. Permanent titles to the mineral lands

[Compiled from references in the New Almaden By the civil law all veins and mineral deposits of gold precious stones, belonged, if in public ground, to the sove of his patrimony; but if on private property, they belonged land, subject to the condition that if worked by the own render a tenth part of the produce to the prince, as a ri crown; and that, if worked by any other person by cons former was liable to the payment of two-tenths, one to th the owner of the property. Subsequently it became an e most kingdoms, and was declared by the particular laws a that all veins of the precious metals, and the produce of su in the Crown, and be held to be part of the patrimony of th prince. That this is the case with respect to the empire of torates, France, Portugal, Arragon, and Catalonia appear each of those countries, and from the authority of various a And the reason is, that the metals are applicable to the who ought not to be prejudiced by any impediments being of the discovering and working of their ores; besides w rank, not among those of an ordinary description, but amor the earth affords; and, therefore, instead of being appropri are proper to be set apart for the sovereign himself, whose enriched, he will be enabled to lighten the burdens of the set forth at length by the authors above referred to.

This question, as is observed by the great Cardinal de Lu any general or uniform determination, but is decided by the of each particular kingdom or principality; for upon the Roman empire the princes and states which declared them appropriated to themselves those tracts of ground in whi pensed her more valuable products with more than ordina reserved portions or rights were called rights of the Crown. of the valuable products are the metallic ores of the first gold, silver, and other metals proper for forming money, wh sovereigns to be provided with in order to support their wa sea or land, to provide for the public necessities, and to government of their dominions. And such is the course m book of Maccabees to have been pursued by the Romans mines of Spain, and such also is the plan adopted by of regard to those of the Indies, some of which they have reserved the remainder they have left to their subjects, charged wi a fifth, tenth, or twentieth part of the produce.

According to the law of England the only mines which and which are the exclusive property of the Crown, are m gold; and this property is so peculiarly a branch of the that it has been said that though the King grant lands in wh all mines in them, yet royal mines will not pass by a genera This prerogative is said to have originated in the King's order to supply him with materials. It may be observed,