Treasurer's office in this city, Dec. 4, when the following Board of Directors was elected: Horatio Bigelow, Esq., was re-elected Secretary and Treasurer. The Huron mine has been operated but a short time, and for the amount of work performed presents a most remarkable appearance, being exceedingly rich in all its parts. The agent writes that "the workings at the Huron thus far promise as well as do the Isle Royale on the same lode. The occurrence of copper in these two lodes (the Isle Royale and Portage) is unlike any thing yet known in the history of mining. The lode is of good width, with a general distribution of copper in strings, as well as disseminated through the rock, and small irregular shaped masses are frequently met with." The Huron promises well, and although less than $1 per share has been paid in private, sales have lately been made at seven dollars, which speaks strongly for the mine in these times. The Phonix mine has been steadily improving throughout the past season, and now gives excellent evidence of success. The vein is growing richer and widens as the work is extended on it. Notwithstanding these favorable indications the stock is very much depressed, and cannot be sold at $4, including the $1 per share assessment paid in Nov. 17, and the total assessments now amount to $8 per share on 10,000 shares. The work at the mine is being pushed forward with vigor, and we look for good results from the Phonix another season. The Ridge has been doing well the past year, and makes a better "show" now than at any time since the mine was opened. The stock is not much known here, and it is doubtful if a decent price could be obtained for it in such a market as now prevails. The Star mine is steadily gaining, and for the extent of its development presents a highly favorable appearance. The stock is well held and seldom comes into the market, which is very fortunate for its current value. Norwich is in poor demand at $4, owing to the financial difficulties of the Company, but the mine presents a good appearance, and has sent forward considerable copper. Winthrop is dull of sale at $1, though it is richly worth much more, from the present appearance of the mine. It is known that this Company have the celebrated "Hill Vein" of the Copper Falls, which will be made to tell so soon as money becomes moderately abundant, that the work of opening up the mine may be carried on with increased energy. Algomah makes a very good show, and having the "Toltec Vein" it is a sure thing, with a proper expenditure of money, and untiring perseverance, without which it is of little use to attempt bringing any mine to a point of profit. Most of the Companies included in the following table, and not specially mentioned above, are valued at $1 to $0 per share, so far as the present selling price of the shares is concerned, but several of the mines are looking well, and some of the concerns undoubtedly have a valuable property, which will be revealed at a future time. It is but little use now to extol their va such demonstrations of probable success. rious merits on paper, as there is little satisfaction to the practical mind in Nominal Shares. Par. Paid in BOSTON MINING SHARE LIST. Fluctuations for November, 1854, in thirty-one different Mining Stocks, sold at the Boston Stock and Exchange Board, showing their Highest and Lowest Points, and the Date, with the Market Value at the close of the Month, Gain or Loss for the Month, and number of Shares sold in each. MINING STOCKS, BOSTON. Toltec Webster...... W. Castleton, Slate.. * Assessment paid. These are fully paid stock, not assessable without a vote of the shareholders. One dollar per share was paid into the Adventure Nov. 6, making the true amount of assessments $8 50, according to A recent statement of the Co., and we have altered the table accordingly. 81 per share was paid into the Isle Royale Nov. 15, Phoenix, $1, Nov. 17, and National, $1, Nov. 6, all of which are included above. 1 24 5 10 45 167 15 60 4 20 '4 23 120 No sale. No sale. 250 1,113 21 200 140 No sale. No sale. No sale. No sale. 1 No sale. No sale. No sale. No sale. 50 1116 No sale. No sale. 150 41 No sale. No sale. No sale. States, Philadelphia, for the seven months of 1854: JOURNAL OF GOLD MINING OPERATIONS. The following table will show the coinage at the Mint of the United The whole number of pieces coined in 1854, was 1,404,450, against 3,518,808 the corresponding months of 1853. Of the pieces coined this year, 54,643 were gold, 1,243,000 silver, and 101,816 copper. The gold bullion deposited in July, was: Annexed is a comparative statement of the deposits of gold dust for the first nine months in 1852, 1853, and 1854: The following summary of the work of the Branch Mint for the past six months, has been freely furnished by Dr. Birdsall : Months. Coinage. $49,478 379,509 460,820 528,000 1,052,200 600,000 $3,070,007 Value of Bars. $462,928 04 777,290 41 437,629 02 457,775 10 1,042,511 95 455,518 65 $3,633,653 17 The amount of work done during the month of September, as will be seen, is short of the month of August. This was owing to a short supply of acids, caused by a breakage at the acid factory, over which the Superintendent had no control. CALIFORNIA PROSPECTS. A correspondent of the London Journal thus speaks of the prospects of deep mining in that State. There appears to be a belief by some, and a misgiving in others, that deep working will prove that auriferous quartz is only superficial. My ideas are respectfully opposed to those of some gentlemen to whom I do not intend personally to refer; but I will treat the matter merely as one of opinion, regarding which every one may state his pro or con. If it is a matter of opinion, the question can never be settled until deep shafts have been completed. However, an approximation can be ascertained at present by consulting the concurrent unconnected testimony of such as have inspected the deepest workings. I do not speak of Australian lodes; I have not been in that country. Much unbiased evidence could be adduced by persons now in England who have been engaged in examining mineral properties in California, and in different parts of it, showing that the lodes are not, as a rule, unproductive in ratio to depth. In some instances the lodes get richer below; in others, poorer. In others, again, a rich deposit at surface has induced unthinking speculators to plant expensive machinery before making a sufficient prospect; and the lode on being gone into has proved of a bad character, and has ruined the adventurers-the precautionary preliminaries being postponed, which would have ascertained not merely the character of one lode, but the whole mineral contents of the property; and then, with reckless haste, inefficiently completed, driving in a wrong direction, for the sake of arriving by the shortest cut at the lode which could be seen cropping out, when, by driving a longer cross-course at right angles with the lode, other valuable lodes might have been found. The lodes which do not crop out are, I will show hereafter, likely to prove the best. Deep mining, in the English sense, is not yet necessary; and it will b many years before a 200 fm. shaft exists in California. The results are, on the average, not discouraging at 10 or 12 fins. from the outcrop perpendicularly. As stated above, the ores varying from poor to rich, as well as from rich to poor, 2 cwts. of ore cannot be taken out of any mine, each cwt. being exactly similar. This is not advanced as a new truth, but it has been so long known to be true of all mines, that people seem to have forgotten it. No lode well defined at surface has, as far as I could ascertain, given indications either of "giving out" or of being dislocated by fault; in fact, the lodes appear to be remarkably regular both in direction and dimensions-in direction collectively, and in dimensions separately. However, there may be many unexplored exceptions to both the former and the latter, which are, however, general rules. THE MILLS OF GRASS VALLEY. We are indebted to the Grass Valley Telegraph for the following interesting details respecting the Quartz Mills in that region. It is introduced as follows: In treating of the subject matter, denoted by the above, we have to plead to our readers some excuse, which cannot perhaps be expressed by any other word so fully as ignorance. We regard the quartz mining of California as its greatest interest. It is to Nevada County what the manufacturing interest is to inland towns in our own New England. That this will in its proper time be fully known, we have not the least doubt, and for this reason we give the following solicited account of the several mills. We should have been pleased to publish the history of all, but we have only received what we now lay before our readers. Manhattan Company.-We have received the following letter, which we publish in full, as it is from a gentleman better capable of judging than ourselves: We, that is to say, myself and some friends, have been in your interesting village for some weeks, enjoying ourselves very much. We have visited the diggings all around, and seen most of the quartz mills. Wherever we went we were well received, and kindly treated by the miners and managers of mills. In our loiterings we dropped in at the Manhattan reduction work, and, as it is different from all the others, works admirably, and is on a good principle, I shall endeavor to describe it. The grinding part consists of a circular trough of cast iron, twelve feet in diameter; it is in segments, the bottom 12 inches wide, and chilled, the sides 15 inches high. In this trough roll 9 wheels 4 feet diameter, 7 inches wide on face, which is also chilled. These wheels weigh one ton each, make 25 revolutions per minute, and are pressed down by a heavy circular ring with a force amounting to a weight of 12 tons; which force is produced by cylindrical india rubber springs. The whole moves easily and with but little noise. The large pieces of unburned quartz rock subjected to the rollers are immediately crushed and ground up. A constant stream of water runs into the trough, and the finely ground quartz flows from it into ripple boxes very neatly constructed. The ripples are filled with mercury, in which all coarse gold is caught; then the slime passes into a revolving cylindrical fine wire sieve, where all chips and dirt are taken out on one side, and continues its course through another series of ripple boxes, and finally runs through a large kind of Hungarian amalgamating mill, but so perfectly is the gold taken up from the pulverized rock, that, for one dollar's worth produced in the amalgamator, 16 ounces have been taken from the ripple boxes. About 30 tons of hard rock can be reduced daily. The tailings are the finest I have seen from any mill in this district. The whole of the machinery for crushing and grinding, together with the amalgamating apparatus, is most compact and well inclosed. The engine, which gives motion to it all, is 40 horse power, and fully capable of doing double as much work. The establishment is conducted on a most prudent and economical plan, and the reducing and amalgamating of the ore does not exceed two dollars per ton. Helvetia and Lafayette Gold Mining Co.-The Helvetia and Lafayette Gold Mining Co. was formed, April, 1852. E. R. Baxter was elected President of the Company. The mining property consisted of Lafayette Hill, near the village of Grass Valley, comprising an area of twelve claims of eighty feet each, making 960 feet in length. The vein was originally discovered by a party of Frenchmen, and taken up and worked by them, until a few Americans bought out most of them. There was no particular indication on the surface of a quartz vein being there, and the ground had been travelled over almost daily for two years. A small piece of quartz was picked up on the surface, which was rich with gold, causing them to dig down for a vein, which they soon struck, as it was not far from the surface, and proved to be quite rich. The claims were duly taken and recorded, and work commenced on them, and several hundred tons of rock taken out, almost all showing gold. Six elevenths of the interest were sold to Messrs. Baxter & Hollis and Dr. Bacon for eighty thousand dollars. From the 11th of April to August 11th, 1852, there was taken out something over ninety-eight thousand dollars, and |