Trask, John B.; Report on the Geology of the Coast Mountains; Embracing their Agricultural Resources and Mineral Productions. Also Portions of the Middle and Northern Mining Districts. California Senate Doc. #14, 1855. Octavo, pp. 95.
This rare work on California is complete and in a modern archival folder. The binding is tight and clean. There are short archival repairs to the outer corners and margins of a few pages. Light toning to one signature. Over all in very good condition.
Trask (1824-1879) was the first State Geologist of California, devoting the majority of his career to the study of the stratigraphy and economic geology of that state and also studying the ore deposits of the southwestern United States. Following the end of his work with the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey he became the first state geologist of California and one of the founders of the California Academy of Sciences which was the first natural history society formed west of the Mississippi. His study on the Coast Range is a very rare report and one of the earliest to describe the geology and stratigraphy of the Coast Ranges and Sacramento Valley. Of importance to the historian of mining in California is the section in which he describes the mining industry. He includes descriptions of the placer mining operations, the auriferous gravel operations, silver mining, and also describes the individual mines.