One thing is certain, as may be at once seen by those who have examined the larger masses of gold brought from California, that the finer particles of gold have been run together, by a second operation of heat, sufficient only to fuse them and separate them from the quartz. The first was distillation, the second smelting, or rather simple fusion. It is possible that these great operations of nature have been repeated at different intervals, and different seams of quartz and gold, may be found in ascending the ravines; the lower, more completely scattered (but in finer particles) through the quartz, and the higher having afterwards undergone simple fusion. I think it premature to offer any conjecture as to the amount of gold which may be expected from California; but I cannot but think that it will be sufficient to produce a perceptible effect on its commercial value. According to Mr. PRESCOTT, the sudden influx of gold from Mexico and Peru reduced its value, as compared to commodities, about two-thirds in the course of twenty years. A new stimulus has been given to the pursuit of gold mining throughout the world, in consequence of the discoveries of our enterprising countrymen in California. The extraordinary increase of gold in the Bank of England may be an indication that its value is decreasing as compared to silver, and therefore less desirable for hoarding. It it certain that it is a less perfect standard of value than silver, the latter being also a scarce metal, compared to other metals, but a better representative than gold, of the labor and capital expended in its production, while gold has been repeatedly thrown into circulation in sudden and unlooked-for quantities, I would instance the amount of gold found in Calcutta on its capture by Clive—an amount, although imperfectly known, admitted to have been immense. We may expect that the gold mines of Siberia, of Brazil, of Mexico and Southern America, of the eastern and even western parts of Europe, Hungary, Transylvania, Silesia, of Spain, and even of Norway and Sweden, as well as of the Appalachian, in our southern States, will awaken new efforts of combined skill, labor, and capital. H. M. BRACKENRIDGE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE EARLY DISCOVERIES OF THE SPANIARDS IN NEW MEXICO.