during the year at the institutions under my charge, exclusive of redeposits amounted to $50,519,886 gold; silver, $36,671,088. Of the gold $266,877 was of United States coin; $6,328,922 foreign coin; $11,217,309 foreign bullion; $1,899,577 jewelry, plate, &c., and $30,807,200 was of domestic production.

The custom-house returns report the export of $115,963 of domestic gold bullion, exclusive of $22,950,289 United States mint or assay office gold bars.

It might be proper to add to the deposits of domestic bullion this sum, $115,963, and the value of the gold, some $600,000, contained in the silver bullion exported, and also the amount of undeposited gold used in the arts and ornamentation, which, in the form of nuggets, native grains, &c., as stated in my last report, appears from responses to my inquiries to have been for that year over $700,000, and in the form of bars from private refineries at least $200,000, for the excess of the production of one refinery on the Pacific coast over its deposits at the mint and the export of its gold bars during that year was $130,000. These amounts added to the gold deposits would increase the production of domestic gold not less than $1,500,000. But of foreign gold bullion received at San Francisco from British Columbia and the northern States of Mexico, amounting to about $1,100,000, only $400,000 was deposited at the San Francisco mint as forein bullion, and the remainder, as shown by the statement of private refineries, was refined before its deposit at the mint, and was included in the returns from that institution of refined gold of domestic production.

Deducting this would still leave over $700,000 to add to the deposits of domestic bullion. To estimate, therefore, the gold production of the mines of the United States in 1884 at the amount reported as deposited from them at the mints and assay offices is not in excess, and is probably an underestimate, of the actual production.

Of the $36,671,088 total deposits, exclusive of redeposits, of silver bullion at the mints and assay offices during the year, $32,305,036 was silver of domestic production, $415,620 United States coin, $2,296,317 foreign bullion, $1,246,773 foreign coin, and $407,339 jewelry, plate, &c.

The total exports of silver bullion during the calendar year 1884, at all the ports of the United States, including $87,370 of foreign bullion, were $17,914,697. Of this $2,148,578 were reported to consist of United States mint or assay office bars, and about $700,000 was Hawaiian coin manufactured from domestic silver deposited at the San Francisco mint during the calendar year 1884, making the total export of silver bullion, other than such bars and coin, about $15,000,000.

The imports of silver bullion were reported at $3,256,938, and the deposits of foreign bullion at the mints and assay offices $2,296,317. This leaves $960,621, which was probably exported but not distinguished from domestic bullion in the custom returns of exports. Deducting this sum from the latter, the remainder, about $14,000,000, is the proba ble total net export of domestic bullion which had not been deposited at the mints and assay offices. This estimation must, however, be increased by the difference between the commercial price of the silver (the exporter's valuation) and the coining rate in standard dollars (the unit of statistical estimation), averaging for the year nearly 18 per cent. This would make the value of the undeposited exports of silver bullion about $16,400,000.

It is probable that not less than $100,000 worth of domestic silver

bullion was furnished by private refineries to jewelers and others for use in the arts and manufactures. Adding to the $32,305,036 domestic silver deposited at the mints $16,400,000 as the undeposited silver exported, and $100,000 consumed in the arts, would make the total silver production of the country during the year $48,800,000, or, at its commercial value, about $42,000,000.

This is some little less than Mr. Valentine's estimate of the silver production, $43,529,925, which is understood to be based upon the commercial value of the silver at the place of shipment, or at least for the large silver-producing States and Territories, such as Colorado, Utah; Arizona, Montana, and Nevada.

The contribution of the mines of each State and Territory, and of dif ferent localities, to the aggregate amount is less readily ascertained, especially where numerous small mines are worked, and refiners and smelters who receive their product keep no classified records, but in their reports arbitrarily apportion to the different counties or States and Territories the amount of bullion received.

After carefully comparing the returns and information obtained as to the yield of individual mines, the amount and value of bullion shipped at railroad stations and express offices in the mining regions, the reports from the mints and assay offices, from correspondents and from smelters and refiners and dealers in bullion, I estimate that the mines of each State and Territory added, during the calendar year 1884, to the world's stock of gold and silver at their coinage value as follows:

It may be instructive to compare this estimate with the estimates of production in previous years, and among the tables of general statistics will be found a statement of the amount of gold and silver yearly deposited at the mints and the official estimates (including those of my predecessor) of the annual production of the country; and also simila published estimates of other statisticians whose means of information entitle their opinions to consideration.

It will be seen that my estimates of the annual gold production since 1873, a period of eleven years, are comparatively but little in excess of the yearly deposits of domestic gold at the mints and assay offices; and adding to the latter the annual exports and consumption of undeposited domestic gold, the estimates are sustained in nearly every case.

DIVIDENDS.

Notwithstanding the reduced value of silver as well as lead and copper obtained from argentiferous ores, fifty-three incorporated companies working gold and silver mines are reported to have paid in two hundred and twenty seven dividends about $7,567,698, and exceeding the amount returned by them to stockholders in 1883.

The published lists of profitable mines exhibit, as usual, numerous changes, old corporations disappearing from the lists and new and recently developed mines taking their places. Of the famous and lucrative mines of the Comstock Lode and Tombstone district, but one in each-the Kentuck in the former and the Contention in the latter-have paid dividends.

The amounts disbursed to stockholders during the year as profits from the working of gold and silver mines located in the respective States and Territories have been as follows:

During the year 1884 some two hundred and seven assessments have been levied on one hundred and seventeen mines in California, Nevada, Utah, Alaska, and Arizona. Of the assessments levied it is estimated that over $4,000,000 have been paid. These assessments were distributed among the various States and Territories as follows:

The appropriation of gold and silver during the calendar year 1884 to industrial uses can probably be safely estimated at the amount stated in my last annual report, based upon reports received from nearly if not quite all of the principal manufacturers, namely, $14,500,000 of gold and $5,500,000 worth of silver, a total of $20,000,000. All of this, however, was not withdrawn from the existing stock of bullion and coin available for monetary uses, for those reports and the statements re

ceived from the mint at Philadelphia and the assay office at New York, show the use of $1,882,600 gold and $414,600 silver of old jewelry, plate, &c., which, deducted from the total consumption, would leave the amount of coin and new bullion consumed in the arts and manufactures about $12,500,000 gold and $5,000,000 silver. I estimated that $6,000,000 of gold and $4,500,000 of silver of the domestic production of the year were used in the arts. These sums will probably represent the consumption of domestic bullion for the calendar year, although on account of the depressed condition of many industries and lower rates of interest to invested capital, the amount demanded for ornamentation would be lessened. If the value of the gold and silver bars consumed for these purposes was greater than here estimated, such bullion must have been obtained elsewhere than from the mints and assay offices, and the estimate of the production must be to some extent increased. The amount and disposition of gold and silver on hand and received at the mints and assay offices during the year were as follows:

The product of the year and disposition may approximately be stated as follows:

The value of the United States mint and assay office bars and domestic bullion exported during the year appear, computed at their coining rate, to have been as follows:

The tables of specie imports and exports show that, notwithstanding the large net export of gold during the year, a portion of the gold production has been retained and placed in circulation. The export demand reduced the stock of gold bullion in the New York assay office nearly $23,000,000, yet lessened but slightly the amount of gold coin in the country. The subordinate effect of increased circulation upon prices, and the more potent influence of expanding or contracting credits were again during the year, as often before, manifested in the fall of prices, notwithstanding an increase of paper and metallic circulation.