ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 653, 5 November 1851, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Steam Communication with v via the Cape.—Extract from . 1 London, 17th June, received p er R, / A petition signed by many houses in 'th tralian trade will be presented to th ir 5 ‘ of Commons to-day or to-morrow # tbeyjMLause the recommenaj.? 11 .! carried into effec-ZJ-I» estatwn a line of screw sle.m e „S Cape. AVe are using every exertion the matter forward. We hear a tition will be presented in favour of the H route, but not by way of Torres Straits K directors of the Screw Steamship Co n 2 are deliberating about their sending their ship, the Harbinger, of 900 tons, Vto grf ney. She will be ready for sea by the mi of August. The Company have now on A, docks three ships of 1750 tons each, one of which will be ready by the end of the year the other two in six months afterward/'’ <S. M. Herald. ' " The Gold Rocks of California.- At the meeting of the Geographical Society on the sth May, a large number of most beak ful specimens of the ores of California were laid before the society for inspection, by General Walbridge and J. W. Wright. Esn. t I M . member of Congresa in that State, Afiera most interesting statement by the latter of these gentlemen, respecting the general condition of the State, and more particularly its immeme capabilitiesfor tbeproductionofgold, silver and quicksilver, Sir Roderick Murchison stated that Mr. Wright and General Walbridge hid certainly brought to this country the most in. structive, as well as the richest collection of gold ore from California which he had seen, and particularly tbanked the former gentleman for the clear manner in which he had explained how, from the higher parts of the auriferous zone, the boulders of quartz containing gold became smaller in size astheobserver descended towards the low country, aod finally passed into gravel and gold dust in ths lower tracts. Sir Roderick then gave a short sketch of what he believed to be the relations of the various rock masses composing the frame work of the Sierra Neveds, as. pointed out that the central and culminating ridge of granite was devoid of all ore. The chief and original matrix of the gold being unquestionably the quartz rock, which is in juxtaposition to the granite, and which rises higher on the sides of the chain than any of the slaty rocks with which it is associated, there could, he said, be no sort of doubt tbit the immensely rich and vast accumulation!of coarse drift which were piled up like gigantic mole hills on the slopes below the quartz, had all been derived by ancient convulsions and great former debacles from the aurifetsw

veins in that rock. Whilst be admiiied iu«i the wealth of these vast heaps of ancient rubbish did, though the hacking down and trituration of the mountain side, afford a very copious supply of gold, which it would prob* ably take many years to exhaust, he still Retained his opinions, as expressed atvMiw* public meetings in the last two years, that the idea now becoming prevalent in America, lW the mining in the solid rock would be fc®more profitable than digging in the would prove fallacious, and that on this the gold veins of California would prove to similar to those of other countries,, in *> elD t> richer towards the surface than when foil#* 8 down to great depth. The tbanki of, meeting having been passed to the An> eric * gentlemen for their politeness in having P c mitted these, so valuable articles, to be ex ited before the society, the President fiojo® ed the meeting to the 12th May 1 , 8 F ' R. Stracber, E.1.C.5., would read apF “On the country around the sources o Indus and Sutlej Rivers." —