Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 643
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344
GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA
EXTENT OF THE GOLD REGION IN CALIFORNIA
The gold region of California is between four & five miles long, and from forty to fifty miles broad, following the lines of the of the Sierra Nevada. Further discoveries may, and probably will, increase the area. It embraces within its limits those extensive ranges of hills which rise on the eastern border of the plain of the Sacramento & San Joaquin, & extending eastwardly from from[?] fifty to sixty miles they attain an elevation of about four thousand feet, and terminate at the base of the main ridge of the Sierra Nevada. - There are numerous springs which have their sources in the springs of the Sierra, & receive the water from its melting snows, & that which falls in rain during the wet season.
These streams form rivers, which have cut their channels through the ranges of fast [?] hills westwardly to the plain, & disembogue into the Sacramento and San Joaquin - These rivers are from ten to fifteen, & probably some of them twenty miles apart.
BORDER EXTENT TO THE PACIFIC
California has a border on the Pacific of ten degrees of latitude, and several important harbours along the Coast which have never been surveyed, nor is there a buoy, a beacon, a light house, or a fortification on the whole coast.
There are no docks for the repair of Vessels nearer than new York, a distance of some twenty thousand miles around Cape Horn.
VALUE OF GOLD DUST FROM CALIFORNIA
Gold dust is worth
eighteen dollars per ounce at the United States mint or
£4. 1 .0
Seventeen dollars .. .. .. .. .. in Chili or £3. 16. 6
Fourteen dollars .. .. .. .. .. China or £3. 3. 0
Three pounds twelve shillings. . Sydney £3. 12 .0
Three pounds seventeen &
ten pence.. .. London £3. 17.10
Sixteen dollars per ounce in California say £3. 12. 0
CURRENCY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 Mills one cent on [one] half penny sterling
10 Cents one Disme five pence .. .. 10..Disme one Dollar four shilling and six pence
10 Dollars one Eagle Five pounds five shillings