lowing statement, referring to California: "In the heart of the country rich veins of gold ore exist."
Both silver and gold were reported north of San Francisco bay in 1845: "Mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, sulphur, and quicksilver," writes an emigrant in 1846, "are being; found in all directions." And then he mentions as m operation two quicksilver mines, yielding thirty per cent of pure ore, one on the north and the other on the south side of San Francisco bay. " No less than seventy denouncements of mines have been made to the alcalde of San Jose within the last five months . . . The evidences now are that there is a vast field for mining operations about to open here."
Reporting to Commander Montgomery May 2, 1846, in answer to a request for information respecting mines in California, Thomas O. Larkin, United States consul at Monterey, makes the following statement: "At San Fernando, near San Pedro, by washing the sand in a plate, any person can obtain from one to five dollars per day of gold that brings seventeen dollars per ounce in Boston, The gold has been gathered for two or three years, though but few have the patience to look for it. There is no doubt in my mind but that gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California. But I am very certain that they will under their present owners continue as they are. The Indians have always said there were mines, but would not show their location, and the Californians do not choose to look for them." Elsewhere in his report he mentions the copper mines of Juan Bandini, ninety miles south of San Diego; coal on the rancho of Rafael Gonzalez, seventy miles south of Monterey, and at San Pablo; sulphur beds twenty-five miles north of Monterey, and also near Sonoma; silver mines about sixty miles north of Monterey; asphaltum in various places; quicksilver near San Jose and Sonoma; silver and lead twenty miles from Monterey;
