Appendix
I give extracts from a letter which was written by Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, president of Amherst College, as containing some valuable hints to the miner. The reader will be struck by the accuracy of the opinions so early expressed, and which correspond so exactly with the facts since developed. It will be considered that Dr. Hitchcock could not then have seen even the first official report from the Mint, as it was some time after the receipt of his letter that the author had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Patterson read that report in manuscript. The first deposit of gold was made at the Mint December 8th, and the letter is dated December 25th, 1848.
To the Rev. Daniel B. Woods.
Dear Sir,—I believe that in almost every case gold mines that are worked occur in loose soil, sand and gravel, where the gold is in grains, and has been washed out of the rocks. Such is the case in the Uralian Mountains and Siberia, where I believe that not one mine is worked in the solid rocks, although some veins are known. I should not, therefore, search for veins in the mountains, but try to find the best spots on the banks of rivers. Success must depend much, indeed, upon chance, though practice doubtless would afford some marks that would be of service. If you should find veins in the rocks, I doubt whether they would be profitable to work. I have a strong suspicion that gold will be found all along the western part of our Continent; perhaps through the whole of California and Oregon; for I suspect that this is the eastern side of a vast gold deposit in Asia, reaching as far west as the Uralian Mountains. If this opinion would increase the gold fever, I think you had better not mention it. It may not prove true.
I hope you will improve your health, if not your fortunes, by this voyage. Let your expectations of success in gold-digging be moderate, and then I think the jaunt will do you good. That God’s providence may be over you is the wish and prayer of
Yours respectfully and sincerely,
Edward Hitchcock.
Amherst, December 25th, 1848.
P.S.—Magnetic iron sand is an almost invariable attendant of good deposits of gold, and I should not be very sanguine of finding good deposits when this is wanting.
Letter from Geo. F. Dunning, Esq., Clerk in the Mint of the United States.
Mint of the United States, }
Philadelphia, June 18, 1851. }
Dear Sir,—In compliance with your request, I proceed to give you some information respecting the Mint establishment, and the terms upon which it receives bullion for coinage. You are doubtless correct in supposing that much misapprehension exists both as to the character of the establishment and the routine of its business. Within the limits of a letter, I can, of course, do little else than notice briefly a few prominent subjects.
A uniform and reliable currency being a national benefit, our government regards the support of the Mint establishment as properly a national expense. Any person may bring his bullion to the Mint, and have it converted into coin without charge. Many well-informed persons suppose that all the coinage of the Mint is for government account. On the contrary, the bullion is all deposited by individuals, and is coined for them. Government simply receives the bullion, ascertains its value, converts it all to a uniform standard, shapes it into coins, and puts a stamp upon it that shall give assurance of its value. From the coins thus made, each depositor is paid the exact value of his bullion.
The term bullion, as used at the Mint, includes all gold and silver, whether in the shape of bars, lumps, grains, plate, or foreign coins. All these varieties of bullion are received at the Mint for coinage, but no deposit is received of less value than one hundred dollars.
The weights used at the Mint are Troy weights, and they are always expressed in ounces and decimals of an ounce. Thus, 18 oz. 15 dwt. is written 18·15 oz.
The fineness of bullion is expressed in thousandths. The standard of our coins, as fixed by law, is 900 thousandths; that is, in 1000 ounces of coin, 900 ounces must be pure metal, and 100 alloy. The fineness of deposits is similarly expressed. Thus, 860 thousandths fine signifies that of a given weight (of gold, for instance) 860 thousandth parts are pure gold, and the remainder (140 thousandths) some other metal.
When bullion is left at the Mint for coinage, a receipt is given to the depositor, bearing the date and number of the deposit as entered in the weigh-book, and made payable to him or his order. In this receipt, of course, only the weight of the bullion before melting can be stated; its value depends upon its weight after melting, and its fineness, which is to be subsequently determined by assay.
Each deposit is separately assayed and reported upon by the assayer. Its value is then calculated, and a detailed memorandum prepared, exhibiting the number, date, depositor’s name, kind of bullion, weights before and after melting, fineness, silver parted (if the deposit is gold), value of the gold, value of silver parted, deductions, and net value payable to the depositor. This memorandum is given to the depositor with his coin. Deposits are assayed, calculated, and ready for payment generally within a week after they are made; and they are paid on the surrender of the original Mint receipt.
I have said that the Mint makes no charge for converting bullion into coin. This is strictly true; but, inasmuch as depositors will frequently find by their “memorandums” that certain deductions have been made by the Mint from the proceeds of their bullion, some farther explanations are required. A miller who should grind wheat and corn without taking toll, would be correctly said to grind without charge. And if a farmer should carry his wheat in the sheaf, or his corn in the ear, or corn and wheat mixed together in the same bag, he would hardly object to pay the miller for thrashing, shelling, or separating. If a depositor brings to the Mint bullion “fit for coinage,” that is, of standard fineness and properly alloyed, he will receive in return an equal weight of coins, without charge or deduction of any kind. If, however, his bullion requires refining, alloying, toughening, or separating, to make it “fit for coinage,” this preliminary expense, carefully determined by experience, is deducted from the proceeds of the deposit.
The discovery of the California mines has suddenly increased the deposits at the Mint from five or six millions of dollars annually to thirty or forty millions. The whole amount received at the Mint and branches, from December, 1848, to this date, is about sixty-six millions of dollars. Of this, about twenty-four millions belong to the present year.
The fineness of California gold ranges from about 825 to 950 thousandths. The bulk of them, however, are between 870 and 900, the average being about 884. At this fineness, if entirely free from dirt, an ounce of gold, with the silver contained (deducting Mint charges), is $18 34. There is usually present in California gold a portion of dirt, averaging five or six per cent. of the weight. Five per cent. of dirt would reduce the average value given above to $17 42.
The gold of California contains usually about eleven per cent. of silver. This silver is separated for the benefit of the depositor, when the amount contained in the deposit is sufficiently large to pay the expense of separating, and yield a surplus of at least five dollars. If the surplus is less than this, the depositor receives no benefit from it, the law requiring that it shall accrue to the Mint, and be used for paying ordinary expenses. It is therefore for the interest of depositors to make their deposits sufficiently large to secure the silver contained. At the average fineness of 884, this would require from 75 to 80 ounces.
For more complete information on this subject, your readers may be referred to a small work entitled “New Varieties of Coins and Bullion, &c., by J. R. Eckfeldt and W. E. Du Bois, Assayers of the Mint. 1850,” and to a pamphlet entitled “Guide to the Value of California Gold, by Geo. W. Edelman, U. S. Mint, 1850.”
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Geo. F. Dunning.
Rev. Daniel B. Woods, Philadelphia.
P.S.—The following rules for making calculations of weight and value may not be unacceptable to the readers of your book.
1. To convert Pounds Avoirdupois to Ounces Troy.—From the avoirdupois weight, expressed in pounds and decimals of a pound, subtract one eighth. Divide the sum thus obtained by ·06, and the quotient will be the Troy weight in ounces and decimals.
2. To convert Ounces Troy to Pounds Avoirdupois.—Multiply the Troy weight in ounces and decimals by ·06. To this product add its seventh, and you have the avoirdupois weight in pounds and decimals.
3. To find the Standard Weight of Gold or Silver, the gross weight and fineness being given.—Multiply the gross weight, in Troy ounces and decimals, by the fineness in thousandths, and divide the sum by 900. The quotient will be the standard weight in ounces and decimals.
4. To find the Value of Gold and Silver.—Gold. Multiply the standard weight, in Troy ounces and decimals, by 800, and divide the product by 43. The quotient is the value in dollars and cents.
Silver. To the standard weight, in Troy ounces and decimals, add its one eleventh part, and eight tenths of one eleventh. The sum will be the value in dollars and cents.
5. To convert the fineness expressed in Carats into Thousandths.—Multiply the carats by 41⅔. The product is the equivalent fineness in thousandths.
Since the completion of my work, I have received from Col. J. J. Abert, of Washington, the Report of P. T. Tyson, Esq., presented to the Senate of the United States by the Secretary of War.
Although it is too late to avail myself of the valuable information contained in this report from one who has made a thorough and scientific reconnoissance of the mineral and vegetable wealth, the climate and agriculture of California, I am induced to present a few extracts, which refer more immediately to the mines. It was a source of much gratification to find the views and statements I have given so fully corroborated by this report.
It will be noticed that the averages of the daily profits of the miners arrived at by Mr. Tyson, as the result of careful observation, differs but a trifle from the averages given in this volume. In his article upon the gold regions, he writes:
“Although a large amount of gold has been collected in California within the past eighteen or twenty months” (he writes at the close of 1849), “yet, considering the number of persons engaged in digging for it, the average amount to each is far less than is generally supposed. This conclusion is forced upon the mind irresistibly, when the results of the actual experience of a large number of the operators are taken into consideration.
“The newspapers frequently relate instances of the return of individuals with considerable sums of gold. Many of these are much overrated, and the far greater number obtained it by other means than digging with their own hands—one portion by honest trading; but much of the hard-earned treasure in the hands of returned individuals has been borne off in triumph, and brought home as the spoils of the conqueror, in contests where honor belongs to neither winner nor loser.
“Representations from and about California are to be received with many grains of allowance. The preternatural excitement which has been produced by divers causes, in some cases to promote individual benefit, has really impaired to a large extent the faculty of seeing things as they would otherwise have been viewed. And there is yet no prospect of an end to this state of things, because, as soon as the public mind begins to recover from the effects of previous causes of undue excitement, additional ones are presented in the shape of most exaggerated accounts of golden discoveries. Whether the public good will be promoted by this state of things may well be doubted. A reference to some of these causes it is proper to give.
“It is the interest of the numerous traders within the gold region to collect around them as many diggers as possible, and each is very naturally induced to regard favorably the diggings of his own vicinity, and takes means to spread accounts of its richness. Wonderful stories are circulated, in some instances, to increase the population at a particular spot; and when the diggers flock to it, they often find it no better than the one they left, and sometimes less productive. A very large proportion of those persons we saw in the gold region were in transitu; and, upon inquiry, we learned from them usually that the place they had left was unproductive, and they were bound for another which they had heard was producing very largely; and on the same day, perhaps, would be seen other parties prospecting, as they term it, or looking for better diggings than the poor ones they had left, and in many cases just from the reported good diggings the first party were going to. At some of these places you would hear of some one being very fortunate, and that they averaged per day a half ounce, one, two, or three ounces; but, like the tariff for postage, they never appear to get 1½, 2½, 3½, and so on. These accounts from particular spots sometimes find their way into California papers, and from them are copied and spread far and wide at home. Notwithstanding all this waste of time, and that nine out of ten who left their homes under erroneous expectations in reference to the facility with which the gold could be had, have been cruelly disappointed, yet the extent and number of the ravines containing gold is such that the large number of diggers have, in the aggregate, produced a considerable amount of this metal.
“It is impossible to ascertain the amount of labor there has been required, or, in other words, the average number who have worked at the diggings, and the number of days’ work of each. * * If we suppose only ten thousand to have worked steadily during three hundred days out of about six hundred since the digging began, and suppose each to have gained an average amount of $3 per day, the aggregate would amount to $9,000,000, being very much more than the whole amount exported in every way from California up to the first December last, to all countries, Oregon inclusive. As the cost of living fully equals $3 per day, it would appear that gold-digging is not as good as laboring at home, where the laborer can save something. * *
“Many of our citizens hastened to California during the past year in consequence of the numerous exaggerated, one-sided stories which were circulated in reference to the facility with which gold could be gathered. They had been told of various individuals who had collected large sums; a few had done so; but the experience of the many, who did not pay expenses by gold-digging alone, from the nature of the case, is far less likely to be known.
“As with lotteries, the few who draw large prizes become subjects of conversation; but nothing is heard of the many who draw blanks, or prizes too small to pay the cost of the tickets. * * *
“Divesting the newspaper accounts from California of certain expressions bordering rather too much upon the hyperbolic order, they amount to the fact that the outcrops of certain veins”—of gold-bearing quartz—“have been removed. Such expressions might have materially increased the fever but for the frequency of similar causes, which at length but slightly affect the body politic, because, like the body corporate in certain cases, it is becoming acclimated. Some of the expressions alluded to, and copied from California papers into our own, about ‘gold-bearing quartz said to be found in inexhaustible masses or quarries through the whole mountainous region which forms the western slope of the Sierra Nevada,’ and ‘these quartz mountain quarries, and divers others, are indicative of a state of aurimania. Accounts are also given of the yield of gold said to be averages of these great gold ‘quarries.’ That the specimens from which the gold was extracted contained the stated proportions is most likely, but that is a very different affair from the average rate of productions of a vein.”
THE END.