CALIFORNIAN AND AMERICAN ITEMS.

New Zealander, Volume 12, Issue 1028, 23 February 1856, Page 2 (Supplement)

CALIFORNIAN AND AMERICAN ITEMS.

We are in receipt of some copies of the Alia California and San Francisco Herald of Oct. 21 to 27, from which we make some extracts—commencing with one not relating to gold, hut to coal:— - Discovery of Coal in Kamskatchka.—By the arrival of the U.S. steamer John, Hancock, we learn that thpy have discovered a vein of coal on the const of Kamskatchka. in lat. 60 dea-. 17 min.N, long. 165 deg. 51 min. E. The vein is about two feet thick and runs through a bed of soft clay, up a hill at an angle of 70 deg. ; they landed their crew and obtained about vfifty tons of it. which appears of good quality. They had some difficulty in obtaining it on account of the tides, which riat' and fall about twenty feet, and they were compelled to work tide work.

The Chicago papers state that within a few days of the Crimean Sebastopol being taken by the Allied foi-ces, the steamer " Sebastopol" had been wrecked, and that the Milwaultie papers say that the pilot, the second mate, second engineer, two passengers and a black, were drowned. The rest of the passengers and crew, 74 altogether, were saved.

A fire had taken place at Fort Smifh, Arkansas, destroying about fifty thousand dollars' worth of property. It broke out in an alley near Gibson Avenue, and spread to Garrison Avenue, destroying a whole block, including: the Post office and many of tbe best buildings in the place. The St. Charles Hotel was on fare three times but was finally saved. There is hardly any insurance on the property destroyed;

Respecting Nicaragua and the results of the Kinney Expedition, there are several interesting paragraphs. The Central American says-*-The whole country is in a deplorable-state, and an immediate settlement of this internal broil is tbe only means by which to bring about even a passable state of existence. There is no confidence among ihe peopl-. Merchants are doing nothing, and the men who should be producing something for home consumption or exportation, are wasting their: time in l ; the unprofitable profession of war. The consequence is, that everything requiring labour is scarce and very high, and there is but little money in circulation to pay for what there is. If the Government and its soldiers would follow the example of Farmer Kinney, and turn their attention to agriculture instead of war, Nicaraua would become one of the most flourishing and independent countries on the globe. We have seen a private letter and a passport from the Government to Governor H. L. Kinney, inviting birr, to come t° Granada ; but his in illtitarious business operations have as vet preveuted his leaving the immediate vicinity of his labours. The reports from the mineral regions are highly interesting. On gentleman writes to us from Chontales, that "one-half had not been told of that country." Another sends us, as an evidence of his explorations} a nice little lump of sold from Indian river,'weighing over six ounces. There is not the slightest doubt but the gold mines of this country will prove fully equal to those i f California.

From the same paper, however, *ye gain a more encouraging account of the position of affairs : —• The present position of the Kinney Union; says the " Central American,'' is such:as to enable it to ask no favours of those in the least unfriendly to its success. It is nOt'to nucfrmen that Col. Kinney looks for redress; or for the repayment of over a; half million of dollars expended during his detention in the* United Sta'es. The past and the present of the expedition have become facts—no longer discussed theories and agitated conceptions of what will or will not take place ; they have become part and parcel of the world's history. Asa basis on which to found our future hopes and expectations, we have; in the first place, quiet and peaceable possession of over thirty millions of acres of laud lying along the Mosquito coast, purchased of Messrs. Haley and Sheppard by Co). Kinney and oibers, and they are now willing to dispose of the land to actual settlers, on the most advantageous terms. The colony has been established without invasion of foreign territory, or occupying other people's lands, requiring a constant armed force tb retain possession. On Thursday last, says the editor of the "Central American, we visited Governor Kinney's plantation. It is situated about three quarters of a mile irom town on the opposite side of the Lagoon. We allude to the patch of ground selected by him for bis own amusement, arid as a'test of the adaptation of the soil to different kinds of grains and vegetables. The Governor arrived here on the 16tb of July ; it was some two or three weeks before Tie cleared away th'e thick undergrowth and planted the seed,—we brought ,a«ay a fine lot of roasting ears,, beans, &c. The material fruit trees-left standingare full of fruit, and thus in the short space of about two months the Governor is in the enjoyment of garden luxuries that would have required years to realise at the north. Three good crops of corn may be taken off the saine ground in one year. ;;•'■ We- have jtist been shown private despatches to Governor Kinney, to the effect that ?nine hundred men would leave on tbij first of October from.Alabama and Mississippi, well furnished with provisions, farming utensils, etc., for six months. This will prove a decided addition to the numbers corning in from other sources in everv steamer and vessel that arrives.

A correspondent of the "Grass Valley Telegraph"'thus writes with respect to "Quartz Mining and its I'rospects" :—•

Up to the present time, this district, and. indeed, the entire Suite of California, Ims been merely scratched, so far as regards its rich deposits of gold ; and a field for invt'stement is rarely presented. .Large and regular veins of gold-bearing quarts can.ba traced at the surface to almost any extent, in a beautiful stratum of grouud, composed of slate and granite, show-, ing plainly iii places the junction of the two, whic'i is usually considered a good indication. With such veins, and with the facilities at band lor wording tbem, I can advise, with a considerable degree of satisfaction, capitalists to turn their attention more or less to the prosecution of the same. The business of (juartz mining i? a matter of vital interest to this country and State, and if properly managed, by practical nien, and carried on by companies in a legitimate manner, it will be found an investement of thejiret order. As » prooif of ibis, it is only necessary to look at thosft working with little or no capital, who have to pay thei highest, price for,raising their ores, for hauling them to tbe mill, for stamping, etc, leaving also considerable gold behind them in their , sands,—likewise working to great disadvantage, from j the-waut of means to la/ open their fiens propearely;

niJ yet, with all these disadvantages, many, 1 know, are doing u good business. Many ofth»se same persons, had they been in a condition to have earned on tbeir , business in ,-i proper manner, would, ere tliis, no doubt. ; have realized'comfortable fortunes.

The same' paper gives an account of the constrtixjlion of '■■>-■ a h steam mihing-pump, by a 'Hi/tri Stein, for the .lowa Hill mines :-rr : The result of its performances, so far, have more i! than renltZ'd the ; expectations of its projectors. "We look upon it as the most' imp- : ortant improvement which has yet been, made, for a* cheap andl thorough deyelopement of a large proportion of tbo-eminea as yet.unopened injthe State. It will bring about a complete revolution in all mining operationsof any'"considerable depth, where the works are impeded by lirae quantities of water. We copy from 'tHe"ToVa' ;; ;HiirJVeW'aa-u'c'count''of ; ihe working of this machine—the only one yet in use-r-in that.place: "Since Wednesday last, Mr. Stein's appar'atushas' sunk a shaft four by eight feet on the lowa City Company's claim, to the depth of fifty feet. The cost to the company of sinking the shaft, curbing; etc., to the required depthtwo hundred feet-—will be less than three thousand dollars ; which when the'immense cost of prospecting bv a tunnel is considered—frequently fifteen and > twenty thousand dollars—must convince all of the great ad can-, tage and economy of this mode of prospecting hill diggings; The aparatus.is visited -daily by; hundreds of miners, and all speak in the highest praise of its operations. The boiler is of the same kind as that of a locomotive, and it, with the engine, occupies about the same space and has somewhat the:appearance of a railroad ■engine."

The paragraph gives a striking instance of tLe change in the price of property in Sacramento :

Iti the summer of 1849 tbe topography of K between Front and Seconds streets, was peculiarly unpromising, but no part of-it was more entirely-.unless, and discour-. aging to all buildlngprojects, than thai precise corner, which has beem, so recently sold for sixteen thousand dollars, to Mr. Tucker. It was a miserable s'ough, for some time, defying all pass-ability, except by a sort of causeWay, erected by a few philanthropic individuals, and no one could have been looked upon as a snne man, who bad expressed an idea, that 15x57 feet of such slough property would bring $16,000 in 1855.

Here are some more items from the various gold fields; the Placerville American says:—

Three veins of auriferous quartz are now being opened and prospected, previous to the erecting of machinery, within two hundred feet of each other, and all within tbree hundred .f'ee.t of our office.

" Gold cures a Wfjak stomach." So says the lucky ; finders of a single lump, taken from South Weber Creek, in this country, last week, and which brought them eight hundred and eleven dollar* and seventy-five cents. Undbubtly s'ich lumps are good to take. A company 61' three men only are now taking l from the head of Dutch Mary's Raviue, one of the forks of Immigrant Ravine, a short distance east of our city, one thousand dollars per week,;;.,, Qi'Aiirz [Mania. —The Mountain Democrat gives the following account of an excitement about Quartz Mining, which has lately broken out among the people in and around Placer-viHe.

" Every vein and border has been claimed and re* corded, and the search continues for more with unbated ardor. A few, a very few, who were victimized by speculating in quartz a lew years ago, stand aloof, and smile incredulously at the many flattering stories that are reported of different veins. They paid dearly for the whittle then, and are not disposed to venture deeply on an uncertainty. What has produced this excitement? The mills in our vacinity for the last six months have piid from twenty to thirty percent, a month. The great improvement in machinery, by which nearly every particle of gold is saved the cheapness of labor, and abundance of water, together with the success that has attended the mills above referred to combined, have created a reaction in favor of quartz. That come of the new discoveries will pay well we do not entertain a doubt, but that all will, we much question."

A pebble of gold and quartz,, weighing 43-J ounces, the Union says, was deposited in the, office of Wells, Fargo & Co., in Sacramento, on the l7tb inst. It was found.forty feet below tbe surface, on Wednesday la>t in (be Nevada Tunnel claim; at Cement HUI, El Dorado country, and isestimated to be worth upwards of $ 6000. Who would ol'ject to having his pathway through life paved, with such specimens 1 Cahson Valley • olO.—We learn from Cap; Moses Job, a resident of this city till the present season, and now of Cai son Valley, that the mining heretofore confined almostexclusively to Gold Canon, is now being extended over the'gold fields to the south of the Valley ; that the south fork of the Carson and its tributaries are goldeiv streams, of- streams flowing over "golden stands ;", that the miners of that section of gold country, having caught the spirit of progress, and- constructing mining ditches many Smiles in length, that would be a credit even to Californians; for remember, they are dwellers in the sweet vales of Utah, a land flowing with rai'k and butter, (if they'd only melt the butter) and where the laws allow a man to have, love, cherish and support as many wives as hepleases.—Plucervilledmerican.

The <<Alta California" of the 25th October gives the following account of a sanguinary duel between two parties who are said to be "highly respectable eitizans." An attempt had been made a few days before, but was interrupted by the Sheriff and Police. The dispute arose out of a protested bill having been pressed against the endorser It—

The duel took place yesterday, at San Mater, between H. B. Truett, Esq:, and Austin Smith, E-=q., (son of ExGoveinor SinuhjOt Virgini •,) tvyogenilemen extensively known in th s- city and Slate. About eighty friends and acquaintances of the parties accompanied them from this city to the ground, and. this number was increased by persons living in the and travellers, so that when the affair came off the number of wiroesses amounted to one hundred .and twenty. The arrangement was that the parties should use Colt's revolvers-—navy six shooters ; ilrit they should be separated teii paces, and that aftei the word was given each pai ty could shoot so rapildy as he pleased. In case either party was wounded he was ; to indicate the fact by dropping bis pistol. Before the parties took position, and crowd was requested to retire a distance of ? about sixty yards, to which request an immediate compliance was given. The ground selected for the odnfl'Ct was a spot about an eighth of a mile at the rear of'DePeyster's Hotel. When the word was given the parties commenced tiring rapidly, Mr. Tru>Ht discharged all his shots, and then, throwing the pistol from him in a hasty manner, turned partly around, facing Mr. Smith. It was then observed that Mrs Smith bad'drop,ped his pistol, and wan tottering as if about to fall. His seconds immediately went up to him and laid bun upon the ground. An examination ensued, and it was found thai Mr. Truett's ball had struck Mr. S.'s right leg, about eight inches'above the knee, and passing directly through. Mr. Smith fired all but one of bis shots—he fired once after he was wounded—and it is the impression of bystanders that Mr. Truett's fourth shot was the one that bit. Mr. Truett's person was uninjured. One ball, however, passed tborugh ,the seat of bis pantaloons, without touching the flesh. Mr. Smith was brought to town last night, and as no bones were broken a speedy recovery is predicted.