and wood; the first they have purchased in the last years at two dollars a pound, the second at thirty-seven and a half cents for twenty-five pounds, and the third at a quarter of a dollar a mule-load. It is to be presumed that when the quicksilver of Northern California comes to compete with the quicksilver of Spain in the mineral districts of the interior of the republic, the price of this principal element for conducting the working of mines will fall greatly in all the nation, and that the Mineria will assume a grade of prosperity never yet seen in our country; and Lower California, by its proximity to the places of the production of mercury, will obtain it, without doubt, at a still lower price. The day-laborers, who work the mines of this territory, receive for their labor from seventy-five cents to one dollar; but there is not a fixed number, neither is their occupation constant.
It is not necessary to speak of the existence of companies for exploring mines in a country where there is such a scarcity of population, and where there is not an accumulation of capital sufficient in order that a part of it might be employed in the hazardous enterprises of mineral industry. The judges of first instance are the authorities that in Lower California take cognizance of all accounts concerning the affairs of mines (á la Mineria).
In the river which passes by Muleje and Gallinas, the inhabitants of those places collect the sands, from which they obtain small quantities of gold in dust. In another placer, which embraces an extension of seven leagues, they also extract some gold in dust in quantities as insignificant as those which result from the sands of the river mentioned.
Silver and gold are the only metals that have claimed the