In making the comparison, it must be borne in mind, that freights from Dunkirk, Buffalo, and all the ports of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, are taken, at the same rates, to Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo and Detroit. It is stated, on high authority, that the forwarding merchants of New-York prefer to ship to Toledo at the same rates; whether, because that barbor furnishes more down freights, or is easier of access in all weathers, is not known. It is beyond doubt, that navigators prefer the harbor of Toledo to that of Sandusky, and that sailing vessels coming up the Lake can reach Toledo with all winds better than Detroit. Keeping in view the advantage which the canals to Cincinnati and Evansville give to Toledo over Detroit and Sandusky, in the immense quantity of down-lake freight which they furnish to vessels entering her port, it will be reasonable to expect a continuance of the preference now entertained by the navigating interest. If, however, we allow that Cleveland will have the advantage which her shorter down-lake navigation (shorter by 105 miles than Toledo) will give her, in Eastern exchanges, it will remain to be shown that her longer line of railroad from Cincinnati (longer by at least 50 miles) will not more than balance this advantage.

But we have shown that the cost of carrying by railroad, is five times as great as by lake, even on the short voyage through Lake Erie. The additional 50 miles of railroad would, therefore, be equivalent to 250 by water. The length of railroads from Cincinnati to the several Lake ports, is as follows:

On the best practical routes, they would be nearly as follows:

In the business of the Lakes above Lake Erie and in the Canada railroad traffic, Toledo will have the advantage in position and distance. This trade will increase much faster than that with the Old States.

That the contest for the carriage of freight between Cincinnati and Lake Erie, will result in favor of Toledo, a careful examination of all the bearings of the question seems to leave no room for doubt. The shortest and best railroad, aided by the canal, to the best harbor, must be decisive. But, if it could be shown, that Cleveland may divide the railroad freights of Cincinnati with Toledo, or even take the whole, there would remain with Toledo the canal freights of that great city, and the railroad freights of the cities west and northwest of Cincinnati, whose relative distance from the two lake ports would be more in favor of Toledo as their position approached Chicago, until, at that place, the boat route to Cleveland would pass through Toledo.

At the mouth of the Ohio, Toledo would meet a rival in Chicago. The difference in distance, in a straight line, is nearly one hundred miles. By the best route for a railroad to each, the difference would be about 110 miles. As most of the freights will take the river and canal routes, it is of no great importance to either city, which is preferred in the railroad business of Cairo with the Lakes. The passenger and express-freight traffic of Cairo may take the line through Toledo, Detroit and the north shore of Lake Erie, or by a more southerly route to Cleveland, and so by the South Shore Railroad.

It matters little to the lake cities, which has the greatest share of the passenger and express-freight traffic. Where commercial equivalents most do congregate for distribution, there will be the men to manage them.

As to Chicago, she is not only at present a large city; but her great future destiny is too plainly written on the map, to need any array of facts or reasons, to show that she will be among the greatest of our American cities. Her present rate of progress will give her position as the most populous city of the Lakes, certainly within five years, probably within three. After she shall have passed Buffalo, as she has passed all the other lake marts that had precedence once, her next race will be with her great rival on the Mississippi, St. Louis. In 1860, she will have overtaken and passed by Charleston, Providence, Washington, Rochester, Buffalo, and Louisville. She will then take position as number eight (8) among our great cities.

How long it will take Toledo to overtake in populousness, as she has overtaken and passed by, in Commerce, Sandusky, Detroit, Milwaukie and Cleveland, cannot, now, be safely predicted. That she will not only pass them, but also Oswego, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, we can perceive no reasonable ground to doubt.

Chicago and Toledo are the marts into which will be collected the varied productions of the Lake borders, the Eastern States, and Europe, to be transported by canal and railroad, to the distributing marts of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and of the Gulf of Mexico; and from which will be distributed the return products of the river valleys and the tropical merchandise collected in the Gulf ports, for the interior markets.

It is not intended to convey the impression, that no other Lake cities will participate in this Commerce in any degree. There is a portion of the Ohio River valley nearer to Cleveland than to any other Lake port, the intercourse of which with the Lakes is naturally drawn to this beautiful city. Many of the towns of the upper Mississippi will find more convenient shipping ports on Lake Michigan, than Chicago. Not only will Cleveland, Sandusky, Detroit, Milwaukie and other Lake ports, have the benefit of the chief trade of the country nearer to them than to the other Lake towns, but they will carry on with the South and West their own railroad traffic. Each has peculiar advantages of its own, sufficient to give it all the rapidity of growth which even its sanguine in-dwellers anticipate.

Nine years ago, in the 9th vol. of this Magazine, the opinion was expressed, that Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago, would, in forty-seven years, each be larger than Buffalo. Within one-third of that period, Chicago will have proved the accuracy of the calculation, by numbering more thousands than Buffalo. Beyond a doubt, Chicago will be at the head of our Lake cities before 1860. Up to this time, she has exceeded our calculations, while Toledo has fallen short; Cleveland has vindicated what was said in her favor, and will overtake Buffalo and be second on the Lake "string of pearls," before she is overtaken by Toledo; and in a period, not much, if any, exceeding half of the forty-seven years, allotted for that feat.

Toledo, though in amount of tonnage entering and leaving her port exceeding every city above Buffalo, Chicago perhaps excepted, has failed to exhibit that rapid growth, in population and indigenous industry, which, from the coming in of her canals, was anticipated. Appearances, now, indicate a growth much more rapid, and nothing seems likely to be in the way of a rapidly successful career in the pathway of her destiny. Her position for the concentration of railroads, is more favorable than that of any other Lake

city. Lake Erie so narrows to a point at its western extremity, that it scarcely offers an obstruction, to Toledo, of more than one point of the compass, while it cuts off Cleveland from some fifteen of the thirty-two points. She is placed where all the railroad traffic, between Canada and the chief cities of the lower Ohio and the Gulf of Mexico, must pass. This will become immense, on the completion of the railroad now progressing from Cincinnati to Detroit.

Although it has been proven that Toledo and Chicago are the two Lake ports most favorably placed for the concentration of the freight traffic of railroads, it has not been claimed that they will be pre-eminent as centers of passenger and express-goods traffic. And yet, it will be difficult to find a point on the map of our country, at which there will exist so inany claims for a concentration of such traffic, as at Toledo: and perhaps Toledo, alone, has in that respect the advantage of Chicago.

It is not a mere anticipation to fix on Toledo and Chicago as the two Lake ports. They are now, in amount of tonnage laden and discharged, at the head of the shipping ports, on the Lakes above Buffalo.

In contemplating the commercial advantages of a position, the difference between a mere transit trade and a Commerce which gathers and distributes commercial equivalents on all sides, is not always taken into account. Buffalo is a gathering and distributing port for the upper lakes in their Commerce with the East only, but a mere point of transit for productions sent down the canal. Chicago and Toledo are gathering and distributing centers for the country.. on every side, by water and by land; as well of the Commerce which effects exchanges between the New States and the Old, as of that which collects and distributes the peculiar productions of the cold regions of the Lakes and the hot climate of the Gulf borders. In the not distant future, the Commerce of these two cities, between the two climates and for the intermediate country, will become far more important than that which will be carried on between the Old States and the New, of the same climate.

The Lake States and Canadas are to become eminently commercial and manufacturing. They need, and will have, a good water way for large ves sels from the Lakes to the Atlantic coast and to Europe. By the Lake Champlain route, a way must be opened for ships between Montreal and New York. And between Montreal and the Lakes, the canals and locks must be enlarged for the passage of vessels, of at least one thousand tons; so that the Ocean shall be truly wedded to the Great Lakes, instead of being only affianced, as at present.

Before these works could be completed, if now entered upon, Canada West and the Lake States (including half of Pennsylvania, New-York, and Vermont) will number at least eleven millions of people, of whom nine millions will have a deep interest in opening such direct channels of Commerce with the ocean coasts. Congress has just made provision for a ship canal into Lake Superior. It now remains for Canada to enlarge the locks of the Welland Canal, and make a ship canal across from the St. Lawrence near Montreal, to the deep waters of the St. John's River on Lake Champlain; and for the State or City of New-York, to make a ship canal from Lake Champlain to the deep waters of the Hudson River.

The locks around the Falls of the St. Lawrence, from Lake Ontario to Montreal, are 28 in number, 200 feet long by 55 feet wide, overcoming an aggregate fall of 188 feet. The locks around the Falls of the Niagara

River, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, are 35 in number, 126 feet long by 26 feet wide, and overcome a fall of 329 feet.

From the St. Lawrence to the Hudson the lockage need not exceed one hundred and fifty feet, and the length of canals not over one hundred miles. Is this too great an undertaking for the city of New York?

J. W. S.

Ar t. VI.—GOLD MINING OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA.

GOLD is found in crystalline primitive rocks, transition rocks, trap rocks and alluvial grounds. It never predominates to such an extent as to constitute distinct veins by itself. It is either disseminated, and as it were impasted, in strong masses, or spread out in thin plates or grains on the surface, or lastly implanted in their cavities under the shape of filaments or crystallized twigs. The minerals composing the veins, are either quartz, calespar, or sulphate of baryta.

With the exception of iron, it may be safely asserted that the geological districts, within which gold occurs, embrace a larger aggregate area than that of any other metal. Yet the proportion of gold, to that of the substances from which it must be separated for the use of mankind, is so moderate, that the cost of eliminating it, must necessarily be such as to maintain a high commercial value in all future time.

The gold bearing veins of rock usually consist of quartz, a white vitreous stone, and one of the ingredients of granite. These, like all true veins, are generally inclined at a large angle to the plane of the horizon, and are often vertical or nearly so. In thickness they vary considerably; the same vein is sometimes contracted to the width of a few inches, whilst at other points it is expanded in thickness to many yards. They extend downwards to greater depths than the miner has ever reached.

By far the largest portion of gold hitherto has been procured from the deposits of diluvium and alluvium in the valleys and ravines which have been formed in those regions where metallic veins existed prior to the formation of such valleys and ravines.

Notwithstanding the apparently large quantity of gold hitherto procured in these deposits, from the most remote periods, we may safely assume that it bears an infinitely small proportion to what yet remains imprisoned within the rocks, at no greater distance from the surface than has already been reached by the industrious miner in other researches. The sinall amount of space occupied by the ravines and valleys of excavation in metalliferous regions, compared with that remaining below and between them, clearly proves the correctness of this opinion.

In our remarks upon gold mining in this article, we shall confine our attention strictly to that branch of the subject which has begun to attract attention already in California. We mean the method of obtaining the metal from the rock, or quartz mining as it is called.

The particulars which we shall present as facts, have been obtained from the most reliable sources, and the evidence of their correctness is most extensive and varied. We have, however, presented them as the best information within our reach.

The extent of the quartz region, in which gold exists, in California, has been estimated by one of the latest and most intelligent explorers, Professor Blake, as of vast extent. His words are these:

"There can be no doubt but that the quartz veins of California are capable of furnishing a supply of gold, which it will probably take centuries to exhaust; and the amount of which is far beyond the limits of calculation, at least with our present data. Scattered over a belt of land ten miles broad and running the whole length of the country, north and south, these veins are evidently the deposits of immense riches. Setting aside the extraordinary yields, where some hundreds of thousands of dollars have been obtained from holes of a few feet square, we still have hundreds of miles of veins from which ore can be obtained yielding from two to six cents to the pound, and from which a powerful machine can extract from one to two thousand dollars a day. When these veins are exhausted, there will remain many others which will be profitably worked when labor shall become cheaper. There can be no doubt but that quartz mining is destined to be the most permanent source of gold in this country; and it will not be many years before it will attract that attention, which as an investment of capital it evidently deserves."

Professor Spickur, another scientific explorer, who has extensively examined those regions, has published some account of them, from which we make the following extract :-

"The California gold-mining region proper, that is to say, where active operations are being carried on, extends at present from the Mariposa River on the south to the Klamath River, the boundary line of Oregon on the north, running in a south-east and north-west course a distance of nearly five hundred miles, and consists of the spurs and foot range of mountains of the Sierra Nevada."

The number of veins has never been estimated. In the locality of Carson Creek some of the richest has been found, and the yield of gold to individuals working with hand mortars only, has been large. This is within the Sonora District.

In Grass Valley as extensive mining operations have been carried on as in any other locality. The rock in this district is very uniform in its richness, and the yield has been very uniform and extremely profitable. The mills in this district have been invariably successful.

At Quartzburg and its vicinity, extending to the Mariposa in the south, the veins are unusually rich. The same is true of Bounville and its vicinity, in the north.

These are only a few of the numerous rich localities.

The title to real estate in California, especially mining tracts, is of such a kind as the circumstances alone have created, but its validity in consequence of a general Act of the State Legislature, is as good as in any State of the Union against all persons or powers, except the government of the United States. Nor could the United States, after having suffered their rights to remain dormant for such a length of time, now set up any claim to the mining lands, or attempt to enforce it, which would easily be acquiesced in.

The right to dig in any spot is called a claim; but by a regulation among the miners themselves, no person can set up an original claim to more than one hur dred feet in length of a quartz vein. If therefore any person discovers a quartz vein, and commences working it, the miners who hear of the discovery immediately come on the ground and stake out, each man for